Exodus: A day in my life, Part VII

In the two hours between working in the kitchen and working with the goats I organize my music, so that the pub will be filled with good music later that night.
 
I organize my CDs, add a couple of songs to my mp3 player. I hope that the pub computer works. The computer has over 1,500 songs to choose from. The more options the better.
 
There is a large group of archeologists from the United States and Canada who are staying on the kibbutz. They are working at a site ten kilometers away. I made a CD specifically for them. They like rock and hip-hop. The supervisor of the archaeologists is a large man by the name of Bob. He will play songs for an hour at the pub. During lunch he told me this.
 
I check the Israeli news and world news on my computer. Not much has changed in the past couple hours since I last checked. As I glance over the headlines I don’t show interest. I remember when I was younger I used to pour over the news and take great interest into what I was reading, especially the Israeli news sites.

I cared more about what was happening in Israel than what was happening in the United States.  Now I am living in Israel and that seems to be good enough. It doesn’t matter what’s in the news. I am here. No need to donate to Israel by buying trees. Whenever I buy potato chips and a cola I am contributing to the Israeli economy.  Trickle down.   
 
I’m tired. I need to sleep. Soon I will be going back to work. I set the alarm clock on my cell-phone, lie down on my bed, and fall asleep.
 
Beep beep…beep beep…beep beep…beep beep
 
It’s 4:20. I get dressed in my light blue pants, the pants I wear for working with the goats, a stained t-shirt, boots, and a hat that also covers the neck. I grab an empty water bottle.  On the way to the goats I fill up my water bottle with cold drinking water outside the kitchen. I walk to the goat milking area and sit down on a white plastic chair.
 
In the distance I see Solomon. I will be working with him. 
 
Solomon moved to Israel from Los Angeles in 1991. While on Kibbutz Lotan he met an Israeli woman named Sigi, who now manages the kitchen, and they got married. 
 
I enjoy working with Solomon. He is patient and kind. If you make a mistake, he will correct you in an understanding way. I also enjoy speaking with him about American football, baseball, and rock music. Home sweet home.
 
It’s time to work. First I open a gate to take a group of goats from their pen to the waiting area, so that they can be milked. There are three male goats amongst the females, so while the females leave the pen, I forcibly prevent the males from leaving with clenched fists. All the females have left the pen and I shut the gate. My threatening fists were enough to keep the male goats away.
 
To get the goats moving I clap my hands. Some people whistle or yelp. The clapping works for me. The goats are compliant and when they enter the waiting area, I close another gate.
 
I now need to put food in the pen of the first goat group I took out. It is an afternoon milking so I feed them a page and a half of wheat. A page is a large, thin square I take from a bale of wheat. I load the wheat onto a wheelbarrow and bring it into the first goat pen.
 
By the time I get back to the milking area, Solomon has finished setting up milking machine. The milking platform has food for the goats to eat while they are being milked. I pull down on a lever, which opens the gate for the goats to enter the milking platform. The goats know what to do. They walk one behind the other and stick their necks in wooden slots, so that they can eat.
 
The milking platform is full. Twenty-one goats can get milked at a time. I go onto the milking platform, pull two metal handles, which secure the goats into place. Their necks are trapped.
 
Vroooooommhhhh!!! Solomon has turned on the milking machine. I will hear this vrooooommhhh for the duration of the milking. Rather than the noise being an irritant I find it quite soothing. White noise in a yellow dessert.
 
Solomon and I start by checking the goat milk by squeezing each teat. We start at the opposite ends of the milking platform and meet in the middle. White milk comes out and  everything is okay. Let the milking begin.
 
Extracting the milk is quite easy. There are two cylindrical vacuums that you place on each teat. There aren’t enough milking vacuums for each goat, so after putting the milking vacuums on the first goat, I skip two goats and then put on another milking vacuum. 
 
Each goat takes about three minutes to finish milking. When the goat has no more milk to give I move on to the next goat, until all the goats have been milked.
 
Today there are only two groups of goats to be milked. It takes about two hours to finish. 
 
The goat milk is poured into white plastic buckets. I take the buckets to the kitchen refrigerator, while Solomon cleans the milking machine.
 
My work for the day is over. It is 6:30pm. Time to take a shower and rest a bit. I set the alarm on my cell-phone for 7:30pm so that I can go to Friday evening Shabbat services.