Working Hard or Hardly Working

I need to preface this post by explaining that in addition to our Garin (on Degania A) there is another Garin, composed of west coast people, that live on Degania B - a completely separate kibbutz. Now you know. Don't get confused when I mention them later.

I live on a kibbutz and part of that deal is that we have do work for the Kibbutz. This work also helps the Garin bond as a group and so on and so forth. While the garin on Degania B has to work in the banana fields (which is horrible, turns your hands black, and all of your clothes reek on banana), our garin has the extremely taxing job of cleaning the part of the Jordan river that is next to the kibbutz. While this does entail waking up at 5:30 in the morning to avoid working in the strong heat, it also means playing around in the water. Today for example, we took canoes and floated down the river and collected trash that evil tourists had left on the banks or in the water. After canoeing for a couple of hours we retired to the shore and made fresh pita for breakfast. The "work day" was topped off by a quick jump into the river using a rope tied to a tree. Tough life. Sucks to be on Degania B.