With folk from far and wide across the globe attending Givat Haviva International Department seminars, staff some times meet up with extraordinarily interesting people. Although there is little time usually for chatting as seminars are rather intensive, every now and then that opportunity does arise and the learning process becomes a two-sided thing – and what could be better! One such recent seminar participant was Bhutan born Kalsang Jangsar, pictured above on the Amir Mountain range in Wadi Ara. Kalsang came for a holiday in Israel with friends from Switzerland, where he has lived since the age of eight. Born in 1964 to parents who fled the Chinese oppression in Tibet in l959, Kalsang's first 4 years were spent in the tiny kingdom of no more than 700,000 people who in the main lead a very traditional Tibetan Buddhist life style. A monarchy since 1907, Bhutan – a landlocked South Asian nation situated between India and Tibet - is sometimes referred to as The Last Shangri-La although until recent years was one of the most isolated nations in the world and shunned outsiders. When he was 4, Kalsang's parents decided to join the Tibetan community in exile in Dharamshala, India. By the time he was 8 years old he was an orphan, both parents having died in Dharamshala. "I was lucky enough to be chosen by a Swiss organization – together with 4 girls and 2 other boys – to be taken to the Kinderdorf Pestalozzi youth village in Switzerland where I stayed until I was 17," explained Kalsang, these days a desktop publisher in his adopted country. "The children at the village were from all over the world," he added, and after further explanation sounded very akin to the Youth Aliya educational villages in Israel. This was Kalsang's first visit to Israel, which he found surprisingly 'modern' in comparison to how he thought it would be. "My friends and I decided to come on holiday to Israel but we didn't exactly plan on entering a war zone," Kalsang explained to this writer whilst guiding a tour of Umm-el-Fahm in Wadi Ara, the Shaked settlement bloc in the northern part of the West Bank and the village of Barta'a, divided in two since the Green Line drawn in l949. Kalsang had been referring to the hostilities in the north of the country as the previous day he and his friends had visited Tiberias, which was almost deserted and traveled the Golan Heights as far as the UN base at Ein Zivan – during which they saw hardly anybody either! When Kalsang and his friends booked in to the Kibbutz Ginnegar guest rooms they befriended kibbutz member Haike Winter who originates from Germany and has been in charge of that kibbutz's volunteers for some years. Givat Haviva's tours are well known to Haike through the volunteer seminars organized by the International Department over the years. Wanting to see for themselves the security fence and visit Palestinian and Israeli Arab villages, the Swiss accepted the advice of Haike and booked one of the much in demand Givat Haviva 'Talk and Tour' sessions.
Photograph: Haike Winter and her Swiss guests on the outskirts of Umm-el-Fahm.
"This has been a marvelous opportunity to get to see first hand and hear about in a very spontaneous manner, who are the Israeli Arabs and who are the Palestinians – it wasn't at all clear before," said Kalsang, as he and his friends gazed over one of the sprawling outer neighborhoods of Umm-el-Fahm before crossing over the pre-1967 border in the area to visit Jewish settlements founded in l981. At the end of another rather hot day in July, Kalsang and his Swiss friends agreed they had learned and seen a great deal more than they imagined – but also realized there was a great deal more! "It is such a beautiful country – and such a shame there is so much conflict. Why can't people find a way to live peacefully together," asked one of the other Swiss folk. Kalsang sadly nodded his head in agreement - but his life's experience has taught him that that is no easy task.
