LeadEarth: The first 10 days

Sunday the 13^th began my 8 month adventure as a member of LeadEarth. LeadEarth is a program part of the Israeli NGO Adam Le’Adam leadership for Tikkum Olam. Adam Le’Adam translates to People to People in Hebrew, while Tikkum Olam as I interpreted as making the world a better place. The group includes myself, two other Americans one from Seattle (Jobie) and one actually born and raised in Maine until the age of 13 (Saul)! Marianne who is from Paraguay, but spent many years of her childhood living in Israel, and Maya who is from Israel.

But what am I actually doing for the next 8 months and why? I struggled to answer this question as “a program” was often not a sufficient answer. LeadEarth is a journey combined of personal growth, learning and volunteering. Over the next 8 months, myself and the four other participants will explore our strengths, weakness, dreams, and desires  while focusing on and expanding our leadership skills. I will learn to transfer my visions for the world into reality through learning more about myself, the world and project management. Combining self reflection, group support, discussions, workshops, meeting entrepreneurs, implementing projects and creating our own small projects will all be used to expand my knowledge to hopefully leave with the ability to design and implement a personal project of Tikkum Olam. LeadEarth has some structure, but much of the program is intentionally left open. Not that we don’t have lots of really exciting plans lined up, just that there is lots of room for flexibility based on where are interests and drive takes us.

For the first 10 days of the program we have been in Ani'am, located in the Golan Heights. The four other participants, our group facilitator and myself have been living on a small permaculture farm called Edanim. Edanim is run by Sophi, originally from the Soviet Union, she now has the dream of turning her farm, hopefully with our help, into an Eco-community center that teaches permaculture and sustainability to the local community, children, tourist and travelers. At first glance the farm could have the appearance of an over grown garden and old barn, but once you step inside the gate and begin to learn about permaculture its easy to see that Edanim is a sustainable safe haven. The building used to be a sheep barn, but has been turned into a living space/learning area/ workshop/mud house. Sophi’s resourcefulness amazes me on a daily basis. She closely follows the four ‘R’s’ of sustainability; Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Everything has a use, very little waste leaves Edanim, and very little supplies were bought to create the farm.

According to permaculture, everything should have at least three uses, and Sophi does her best to follow this practice. The garden is extremely diverse, including but not limited to; mint, lavender, sage, lemongrass (wonderful for fresh tea), bananas, avocados, oranges, pears, basil, eggplant, pumpkin, olives, lemons and pecans. The ground is covered with edible “weeds”, which taste great in stir fry salad or plain. The actual vegetable garden isn’t even functioning since Sophi decided not to plant it when the water price spontaneously went up 8 fold without notice and she was unsure how the winter rains would be.

While staying on the farm we have been helping with several small projects and hope to dig much deeper when we return and help turn Edanim into a well known eco center. We have also participated in some workshops surrounding composting, alternative energy, project management, the Golan Heights and wool. The five group members even organized our own chocolate making “workshop.” You can thank Maya for all the extremely delicious chocolate I plan on making as gifts once I return home J When it hasn’t being raining and cold (not complaining since 1-Israel needs the rain and 2-its going to be real hot for the next 8 months…) I have escaped on many great hikes exploring river valleys, waterfalls and the Israeli environment.

On Wednesday morning we leave for Jordon to spend the afternoon speaking with their Israeli consulate and flying out of Amman in the evening.  Thursday at 4:55am I will be in Mumbai India!!!!! Which is actually 1:25 am in Israel, Wednesday 6:25pm on Eastern time and 4:25pm Mountain Time.

The next three months in India will be a once in a life time experience. I hope to cherish and learn from everyday and every experience. We have a lot of really really exciting plans for India and I will try to share my experiences with you as often as possible. If I don’t update often lets hope it’s because I’m in building a compost system, putting together solar panels, organic farming or educating local school children about the environment and not stuck on the toilet. But please keep in touch and let me know how you are doing!