End October early November – and the
rains finally came!
The Succot booths on the kibbutz that had
sprang up overnight were dismantled and folded up until the next Succot
festival. This was followed by 61 mm. of rain that fell at Matzuva during the
last week with patches of green beginning to emerge on parched lawns after a
long and dry summer. Members of our
agricultural branch breathed a sigh of relief and people were genuinely happy
about these first rains.
Infrastructures: One of our newer members, Yishai Efroni, a serving officer
in the I.D.F., is a member of the kibbutz committee and is also in charge of
the communications portfolio. Ongoing
negotiations have been held with service providers including Internet, telephonia and TV. The contact person with the
infrastructures supervisor is member Roni Ben-Zion.
The Great Debate: Well the
issue regarding Stage C of the community village was resolved on Monday at the
latest General Meeting of Matzuva members.
An appeal was submitted claiming that the decision to delay the
marketing of Stage C was only taken by a majority of members attending the
previous general meeting and therefore people who were unable to attend had no
opportunity to take part in an issue with ramifications as to how Matzuva would
evolve in the future. The demand in the
appeal was that the vote should be by ballot allowing all members to be able to
exercise their democratic rights.
Although this was constitutionally correct the matter was returned to
the general meeting asking those attending to vote by a show of hands if the
issue should be finally decided by ballot.
After a long and lively discussion about how to proceed, the majority of
participants voted not to bring the issue to a ballot and to uphold the
original decision.
Time will tell whether this significant decision is the best option
for Matzuva of tomorrow or otherwise. I
think the jury will be out for a long time on this one.
Rentals of Apartments: Discussions
have already begun regarding rental terms for apartments belonging to
members. A committee will now be set-up
to prepare an up-to-date Terms of Rental Agreements document that will be
presented for discussion and ratification by members of Matzuva.
Olive Picking: As mentioned in my last update this year
the olive harvest from the numerous olive trees on the kibbutz were picked by
the teenagers of Matzuva with the proceeds being utilized for projects for the
youngsters. The back-up teams were parents who prepared tasty meals for the
teenagers during the harvest and those who physically ensured that the
harvesting would be a success. The end product was the produce now on sale to
members every Friday. The pure quality olive oil is sold in bottles of 1 liter
(costing
90 years old and still going strong: Ephim Nadav celebrated his 90th birthday over the
weekend and joins the select band of founder members of Matzuva attaining this
milestone. As teenagers during
the early years of Nazi Germany these then youngsters left that madness to
settle in
The Kibbutz Laundry: This landmark building opposite the bus stop
no longer exists as a laundry but is now being renovated by one of our new
members, Amir, a qualified chef and will be
transformed after renovations into a gourmet meals centre serving the
Meshushon: Extramural activities held at the Meshushon
provided activities for 36 Matzuva children from the 1st to 6th
grade. 26 of them are from the younger
age group and 10 of them from the older section.
Once a week activities are held in the evening for 3rd
to 6th grade kids including wide games that usual end up with a
sing-song around a camp fire. The children participate in field trips, survival
and challenge activities, learning to cooperate
with one another and a host of other group activities all taking place
after school hours.
Starting November activities will also take place on Mondays at the
Meshushon.
Most of the activities are run by older teenagers prior to their
army service
We would welcome your comments and try to provide clarifications
and answers to any of the points raised in the updates.
Just post your queries or comments on the MESSAGE BOARD and
we’ll try and respond wherever possible.
Keep posted.
Regards
Baruch