So, it's our first morning in America. I was so excited to introduce my kids to the culture I grew up in; the land my parents became naturalized citizens of in 1976. The land where mommy can read everything and everyone understands her tiniest nuances. Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, Walmart, Andies Mints, certain smells and sights and sounds that only exist here. Ah, breathe in relief. Kobi took the kids down to breakfast. They spoke too loudly, took too much food from the buffet, and spilled too many things onto the table and their clothing. How embarrassing when everyone around you is so cultured, and you feel like your kids just came out of the zoo.
We had been awake for 23 hours straight the day before. Though we had slept a long night's sleep, we still were veeeery happy to take a nap. The kids wanted to take their coloring pages and colors down to the lobby while kobi and I take a nap. Genuis! "Go children, go!" They come back shortly afterwards and said they couldn't be there anymore.
When Kobi and I went down to the lobby later with the kids, we got several stares and looks. We must be the parents of those wild, uncultured children. One woman cornered Kobi, "Are you the father of these children? I don't know where you come from but here in the US, we do not let our kids wander around like this without adult supervision' . As she started a long speech about how kids are kidnapped in the United States and that parents are responsible to supervise their children, I ducked my head full of shame and my heart full of confusion and took the kids to the dining hall.
'Is this the kind of parents we are? Are we no good? Are these people close-minded and uptight and don't understand the concepts of letting our kids roam and be free and explore? Do we not fit in here? Do i want my kids to be 'scared' and 'contained' all the time? Is this the America I had so waited for? Is this what traveling the US is all about? Is this what being a nomadic family is all about?
Those Americans. They are so shallow. They are so narrow-minded. They are so materialistic. They are so (fill in the blank). That really kept me safe our first few days here. They are like this; we are like this. That partition worked really well for me. Until, I met some friends who have stayed with me in my thoughts, and in my heart, for many weeks now.
Meet Louis from New Jersey. He's the owner of a company which teaches organizations leadership and effective management. He believes that his greatest success professionally is witnessing someone grow and expand. His family last year for Christmas donated money to an organization that helps people rebuild their lives. Lou and I talked at length about how as parents we want to help our kids and how sometimes it hurts to watch our kids 'learn in the negative'. We spoke of living your one life with as much meaning as you can and living in integrity. Arrogant, shallow American.
Meet David. He's a vet from California who specializes in horses. His kids are grown but when they were little, his wife and him had some crazy notions about what education should look like. They joined other like-minded parents and enrolled their kids in the Family School . They, like our group of 10 families who established the Einat HaGalil School in Kibbutz Amir, were determined to create a learning environment for kids which honored personal development, emotional and creative intelligence above the regurgitation of dry facts, connect with nature and their bodies, and learning from experimentation, creativity, and exploration. David and a group of his hiking friends have paid for a young Tibetian woman from a family of eleven siblings go through nursing school. Their monthly funding has changed her life, and the life of her entire impoverished family. Close-minded American.
Meet Denise and Jane from West Virginia. He's a retired accountant who builds wooden skipper boats; she sails by his side and makes delicious blue berry jam. They are now retired. They've been traveling since October 2010 in a tan-toned 1984 RV. Denise made up this motto for life: You are what you know; You know what you learn; You learn what you experience. He believes that one must constantly keep learning in order to grow. They both admire Mother Nature and are friends of entire communities who have compose, recycle and reuse everything, and try to leave as few ecological footprints on the Earth while they are alive. Such stupid Americans.
Meet Randy. He fixes up RV's in the Cruise America Whittenburg, Colorado office. He started off kind of shy, but very helpful and sweet. He smiled at the kids while they sang songs to him in Hebrew. Turns out he gave eight years of his life to the US navy. His quantrant were the very first to enter Iraq after 9/11. He spent four hours in Haifa on the way to Iraq and says it was beautiful. He says he lived though Iraq and now just wants to be the dad of his 11 year old and 8 year old sons. He spends his free time camping as far away from civilization as he can. He explained to us how to find the Lost Lake off of a hiking trail up in the mountains. Materialistic, selfish American.
See, those Americans. They really are so (fill in the blank). They are so different from us, so much less than we are. And, now, I can thank Louis, David, Denise, Jane, Randy, and countless others for showing me.
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| Navajo Indian and Dahnya |
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| Denise and Jane |
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| Visit in Colorado with dear friend Julie |
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| Dahnya and Randy in Denver, Colorado |
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| Orazi head of the Columbian soccer team in Glenwood Springs, CO |
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| Houston Zoo visit with our dear friends the Levines |
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