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July 4, 1972 Dear Aunt Grace,

Finally I have arrived at Kibbutz Hatzerim and what an experience I have had so far! Everything was rather boring until I reached Kennedy Airport. There my luggage was combed by security guards (and quite messed up!) and I was frisked by a woman guard. The flight was extremely smooth; we had two Kosher meals and a movie. At Lod airport near Tel Aviv the plane was accompanied by security trucks to the terminal - there were guards with suns on the roof of the main terminal and many inside keeping close watch on all the passengers. Evidently many of these security measures were just adopted after the recent shootings by the Japanese guerillas just inside the building. Anyway, the Kibbutz is located just a few miles west of Ber-Sheva, so we are on the northern edge of the desert instead of smack in the middle, as I had thought. The heat is unbearable anyway so it really doesn't matter. My day begins at 3:45am. I dress and report for coffee + bread at 4:15. at 4:30 we head for the fields, where we are presently picking pears. at 7:40 we go back for breakfast, at 8:30 back to the fields, and we work til lunch at 11:30. Then our time is our own until 4:30 when we have Hebrew lessons til 6:30, dinner, and an hour or two before we all fall into bed again. I say "we" because there are 23 Americans all living in cabins at one end of the Kibbutz. By the way , the Israelis cook the way you do -> they eat their big meal at noon and moderate ones for breakfast and dinner. So far I have shared my toilet cubicle with a toad, a dragonfly, several roaches, ants, and have been accompanied by a bat that lives in the palm tree by my door and several lizards who inhabit the cacti living the path to the bathroom. I still haven't figured out which ear my pet mosquito prefers to buzz around at night (the only reason he doesn't get away farther is because I have my sheet pulled up to my neck!) Despite these minor little draw-backs the place is really fairly modern. They have hot + cold water, cars, modern machines for the fields, excellent food, T.V., built in sprinkling system, electricity and so on. I may not be at the Hilton but I am getting healthy and am happy and learning so much. I will write soon. The address on the back is my correct mailing address. P.S. My pattern size is Misses 10. It sounds cute!

Love, Katlei