The Smooth life working at Ayalim

The clock is ringing and it wakes me from my sleep. My eyes have barely opened as I look around and see people waking up. It is early morning, the stars are still out as the sky prepares itself to awaken, slowly opening up for dawn in the east.

"Good Morning." I hear from a sleeping bag near me. I nod my head in response. This has been my life for the last few days. This has been their life for the last few months. This has been life for the last 9 years in Ayalim.

We are gathering for breakfast, students from all around the country who have decided that their love for their country is expressed through doing, not just talking. The students themselves are joined by idealistic 18-19 year olds, volunteers in a gap year after their last year of high school who push back their army service and future plans in order to give a year of service to the communities of Israel. During the summer months, we all come together to forge the future of the Land.

After breakfast we start to work. Bricks, mortar, drills, electricity and water instillations, pipes - for some of us the language and those words were never part of our daily routine before we came here, but now are a part of our everyday vocabulary. We see people that love the country are taking it on it's next step forward, taking an active role and leaving the complaints and suffering we hear to change everyone's point of view. It's not just the scholarships that bring people here, or the commitment of community service to develop the periphery of the country, it is the declaration that the flag moving forward is the settlement of the Negev and the Galil. We hear the call to more than sitting in front of our TV's, more than living in house in Tel Aviv needing 5 people to get by month to month. Here you won't find the Tent City protests or the demands for someone to help us solve our problems. Here we don't have yells for Tzedek Hevrati (social justice) or affordable accomodation, because here the situation is different. Here people understand what Trumpledor, Jabotinsky, Shlomo Gur, Ben-Gurion, and others knew - there is nothing to complain about when life is hard, only action to take. You decide the reality you need to face, and you find yourself looking around at the strength of a group of young Jews, working in the desert heat with the sun in their faces, loading buckets of cement, building, and working. We are continuing the Zionist legacy we were raised with in way fitting for the 21st century.

What we give of ourselves is amazing, and it comes with the satisfaction that if you volunteer to help, things will be clear that the rewards are greater than any accomplishment from "Kochav Nolad" (Israeli Idol). There is no fifteen minutes of fame we strive for here. We search to give more than we receive, to understand that there is more than instant gratification that is so familiar in Western Culture. Because when you look at a wall you've built, or on a brick that you've lain, you know that in the end when the house is finished you were a part of that building and a part of that greater achievement. The knowledge that you are part of a movement that proves that Israel is still driven by people proving that the Zionist dream need not have any ethical or moral complications.

From a group of 2 men and one dog 9 years ago, Ayalim has grown to over 650 students, 70 Gap year participants, and too many dogs to count. Between studies, exams, and work, these people are committed to the goals they set out on here. At a time when tents are spread around the country with people saying they have no where to live and can't make ends meet month to month, no one asks the question of what the consequences are of a welfare state. There is a movement that does things differently. Who go beyond clicking "Like" on facebook to make a change. 

Many say that the protest in the last few months will be written in the history books as the biggest social protest in Israel, and children will learn in school about the Headquarters of Social Justice being in a pitched tent in the middle of the street. In the end I am reminded of the poem of Rachel, one of the first pioneers of Israel:

"Maybe this wasn't real. Maybe it was a dream. Maybe I never woke up with the Dawn to the garden to work hard and sweat."

Because in the end, at the bottom line, working hard, sweating, that is the way to make reality. This is how the country was built, and this will establish real accomplishments in Social Justice. The way to change things depends only on ourselves, and in this place the pleasure and satisfaction makes it a place where dreams truly come true.

- Boaz Zeira

Boaz is a first year student at the Kfar Adiel village in Ashalim. He has his own blog at http://www.tapuz.co.il/blog/net/userblog.aspx?foldername=loveIsael