I came to Nachshon in 1984, part of a group of young people who were looking for a kibbutz to settle in. After initial contacts we were invited to stay for a weekend, and the meeting point was set on Friday afternoon, at the kibbutz swimming-pool. The first sight that greeted us as we arrived was that of three blonde Scandinavian goddesses, sun-bathing topless on the other side of the pool. And that - I'm shamed to admit - was all she wrote; I knew that this was the place I wanted to spend the rest of my life in.

When we came back to stay, a few months later, the only bare chests to be seen were very much native and (as is our Semite wont) very hairy; Not one topless Swedish babe in sight (though he denies this, to this day I suspect that this was all a cunning trap, set by my good friend Omer Sade, employing "imported" volunteers from neighboring kibbutz Harel...).

The volunteers themselves were very real - have been since 1967. They have been coming from all over the globe, of all ages, sexes, and colors. Where else in the world could you meet in one place : a 17 years old Brazilian heiress, a fifty years old ironman from Orkney down for the winter, a sex-crazed Italian amazon, an aspiring Hawaiian WWF star, South-African white refugees, a middle-aged divorced Danish mom come to look after her girl and maybe renew glories of days long past, a future head of the Russian Mafia, upper-class Oxbridge girls, American stoner metal sculptures... The list goes on and on - hundreds of people over the years, each with his/her story, mostly young people out of school and trying to squeeze some last bits of carefree fun before having to start dealing with REAL LIFE.

For the people coming here as volunteers this was the closest thing to Grown-up Summer Camp to be found anywhere in the world; for us, the Kibutzniks, this was a breath of fresh, worldly air, which was really appreciated in this small, sometime stifling society. And let's not forget the contribution to our depleted gene pool...

But as do all good things, this too is coming to an end. The volunteer thing was never about economics - and in the New Kibbutz everything has got to have an economic justification. And the people of the kibbutz are changed, too: where the young people of years gone by mainly wanted to cram as much fun as possible into their post-army years (see Work all day, party all night) , what they realy care about now is getting their U. degrees as fast as possible and setting up their own Internet start-up. Some kibbutzim no longer have a volunteer program, and kibbutz Nachshon might be next on the list.

For a look from the volunteers' point of view - go to the excellent Kibbutz Volunteer web site