Oliver Benjamin
presence, to which we were greeted with a typical Israeli welcome of,
“What? Can’t you see I’m busy? Sit down and wait for Anat. I don’t
have time for you.” The woman behind the counter was an
overweight, grey-haired lady in her late forties. She was dressed in a
T-shirt and shorts.
“Who’s Anat?” asked Yippee.
“Didn’t I tell you I was busy? Why do you bother me? Anat,
Anat—Anat is the volunteer leader, you answer to her. I don’t have
time to help you, I’m busy, busy, busy. Come with me.”
In what I was going to learn was typical Israeli fashion, the lady
at the administration building had made us feel guilty about
bothering her and then proceeded to show us to our rooms, got us all
of our supplies and informed us about the kibbutz, and all in all went
out of her way to be extremely helpful. Then when she left us, she
screamed, “Look at all the time you’ve taken from me, I can’t do
everything around here! Anat will help you from now on. I’m just a
secretary.” Then, she flew out the door and ambled back to the
administration building. Yippee gave out a little chuckle and said, “I
think I’m going to like it here. These people are fucking nuts.”
Later that evening we met most of the other volunteers. They
were mostly from the Germanic countries of Europe: Germany,
Denmark, Holland. They all generally seemed very friendly and
outgoing. I became engaged in a conversation with a tall Norwegian
girl named Ushi, and she informed me that the work was pretty easy,
the food was pretty good, and the girls were, well, pretty pretty as
well. Ushi was pretty stunning herself.
At Ramat Mechasel, it was standard that the first full day a volunteer
spent on the kibbutz would be work-free, and would consist of
touring the kibbutz and getting familiar with the life-style. We woke
up early and finally met the legendary Anat. Ushi suggested that I do
everything I could to get on her good side, as she could be pretty
heavy on people she didn’t like.
I tried to dazzle Anat with my charm, throwing in the fact that
my name used to be Ripstein until my Jewish ancestors on my
father’s side immigrated from Russia and changed it to Rippy.
“Hmph,” she said. She turned to Yippee. He said, “I saw Ben
Huron telly. And The Ten Commandments.Charlton Heston is my
favorite Jew.”
Anat stood with her hands on her hips and closed her eyes
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