Chapter 21, Yearly Trip

“Every year, from now on,” Said Hagit our teacher, “you will be having a trip to somewhere. At first it will be a short trip for a few hours but when you grow up it could be for a few days.

“Nice!” I said I love trips.

 “This year, I mean, next week,” continued Hagit, “Sunday, I want you to come to school without your books or notebooks. But bring some extra food and a water canteen. We will be going on a local trip by foot to Kfar Vitkin and also visit the ‘House of the First’. You should all have comfortable shoes and a hat. No flipflops, which are banned from school anyway.”

I was very excited; we never went on a trip. Well, except with our parents and the rest of our class on “Yom HaZikaron” our Memorial Day, to the memorial square in Netanya. This time we were going on a trip with our teacher and 2 chaperoning parents. No bus ride, this was going to be a long hike. Our school was at the edge of our neighborhood. Behind it was just sand dunes for a long distance. We started walking north of our school on the sand dunes. It was a warm day; we don’t have many rainy days in the month of May, so we all were wearing hats – most of us wore “Kova Tembel” loosely translated “stupid hat”. It was an Israeli symbol, a blue comfortable cotton hat. We each had a canteen with water and our lunch in our shoulder bags.“Keep in line,” said Hagit. “Rina! Don’t lag behind, we should all stay together.”

 “But look Hagit,” answered Rina Margarina. It’s a skull, like in the western movie I saw yesterday.”

Sure enough, it was a cow’s Skull. All dried up and white as a paper. We all looked at it in awe, yet some were afraid to come close.

“All right kids, time to keep going we have a long way in front of us and a lot to see,” Hagit reminded us.

About an hour after we left our school, we arrived to Kfar Vitkin.

 “This is my house, the one at the edge of the village, right in front of us.” Hagit was very proud to point up. “Look, right in the back here is the cowshed. We raise cows for milk. I want you to meet my husband, he will show you how we milk the cows and what we do with the milk.”

Hagit’s husband was very friendly (I think even more that his wife) he showed us how they milk the cows by hands and how they do it with a machine. We saw how they bring food to the cows and even how they clean up after them. I must tell you; the smell was not so pleasant. But after a while you kind of get used to it. He showed us how they keep the milk in a big tank and how they transfer it to big containers to ship them to the market. 

“Take your finger out of the cow’s nose!” Yelled Hagit at Shlomo Yarhi, “Go wash your hands, in there,” she pointed at the faucet next to the shed. “We will go in the house for cookies now so maybe you should all do the same.” Hagit served us cookies and cold “Mitz Petel” - raspberry juice, and we left to walk back toward our school.

    We had one more stop on the way back, “The House of the First” Beit HaRishonim. It was an old stone house on top of a small hill. It was empty and dilapidated. The floor was broken up with cracks and sand all over, the windows were shattered and outside of the house was a very old truck and some rusted plow.

“This house is called ‘the house of the first’ because many years ago a group of new immigrants decided to come to Israel and rebuild it. Said Hagit, “this group was of the first movement of pilgrims, about 20 young American Jews who bought the place from a Lebanese man and started to work the land. Unfortunately, almost all of them got very sick with Malaria from the mosquitos who were all over this new swampy land. Most of the young immigrants died, and only later when a next group arrived, they brought with them medication and the Eucalyptus plants. These trees required a lot of water and were a great way to dry the swamps. Soon after that people have spread around and built other houses. – including my house,” said Hagit proudly. Later, it became a school for the resistance who fought against the Arabs in the war of independence.”

 

By the time we got back to our school it was time to go home. I couldn’t wait to tell about the skull and the cows. And all of us couldn’t wait to see where we will go the following year.

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Hamburger / Slider

 

  The best hamburger I ever had was in Paris, France. I don’t like milk product and being Jewish we don’t mix cheese with meat. Also, I don’t like undercooked meat. Yet, I like to keep the burger juicy. So, how are we going to make the hamburger special? At least as the one I had in Paris.

Ingredients:

1 lb. Ground Beef

1 Chopped Onion 

2 Crushed Garlic Cloves 

1 tsp Crushed Ginger 

1 Egg

1 TBSP Chopped Parsley 

½ tsp Salt

2 TBSP Olive Oil

½ Cup Crushed Tomatoes

1 tsp Mustard

¼ Cup Oatmeal

¼ Cup Water

Preparation:

  Mix the oatmeal with the water and bring to boil. Shut the heat and let it sit until all the water is absorbed. Sauté the onion until soft, add the garlic and keep sautéing for one more minute. Add the Ginger and the parsley for another minute and let them all cool.

Mix all ingredients, let sit in the fridge for 1 hour. Make Balls, flatten and grill or fry to your liking. Serve in a bun with the trimmings you like.

 

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