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University Daily Kansan
Friday, Dec. 4, 1964
World Trip Includes Guard Duty, Field Work
By Janet Chartier
Being accepted as a worthwhile human being, seeing beautiful sights, and meeting people of many philosophies and fields of interest were primary points of interest to Richard Seaver, Lawrence freshman, who spent last year all over the world.
Seaver's father, James Seaver, is head of the Western Civilization department here. He was establishing a western civilization program in Technion University in Haifa, Israel. Through the course of the year, however, Seaver saw his parents only a couple of times.
For six months Seaver lived in Israel where he worked at two kibbutz, agricultural communal farms, and on an archeological expedition.
"THIS IS the only way a Westerner can get any perspective into Eastern philosophy," Seaver said. "It is hard for a Westerner to conceive of what Eastern philosophy is without living in it."
He called it the greatest contrast in living in life he subjected himself to during the trip. "I was an outsider looking in, and I was nothing but that," he said.
"I tasted a little of the flavor of frontierism prevalent in America in the last century," he said. "It is still very prevalent in Israel today."
At the first kibbutz, he drove a bulldozer to take the rocks out of the fields. This is called falcha or dry farming. "The Arabs who used to own the land left the rocks in the fields." he said.
"IT WAS THE nicest of all the jobs," he said. "It was more strenuous but it wasn't boring." Every day a herd of gazelle would come up near the bulldozer.
While there, he lived in an Ulpan, a school for visitors. They worked half-days and learned Hebrew the other half.
There are about 1,000 workers in the kibbutz from many other countries such as Holland, Germany, South America, and France. The system is famous all over Europe.
The kibbutz was founded about
36 years ago. It was one of the earliest in Israel. Surrounded by other kibbutz, it is in the Beit Shan valley.
ABOUT EIGHT MILES to the north, Seaver said, is a fort called Bel Voir which was built in 1156 by Crusaders. Later in the century it was captured by Saladin, a famous Persian nobleman.
A little more to the north is the Sea of Galilee. To the south is Mount Gilboa. The valley is famous for its production of giflda fish.
"Under the valley is a shelf of brackish water." Seaver said. "They pump the brackish water to the surface and make small ponds of it." Carp is then raised and ground up into fish patties—gilda fish.
FROM THE KIBBUTZ he went with his family to Jerusalem and, the day after Christmas, to Jordan. "From first-hand experience I was much more impressed, maybe oppressed is a better word, by the disparity between Jordan and Israel." he said.
Seaver called old Jerusalem the most exotic city he had ever been in. "It had more flavor than any other city," he said. "Its history pervades everything."
HE ALSO WENT swimming in the Dead Sea near Wadi Khumrum, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Christmas Eve was spent in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. "It's quite an experience," he said.
At the second kibbutz, Magal, he stayed for two months. There he worked eight hours a day, six days a week in the zevel lool or chicken house. He also picked cabbages and herded sheep.
"This is the focal point of the defense mechanism," Seaver said. "It is the neck which divides the North from the South. It is right on the border of Jordan."
On several occasions Seaver di guard duty with a uzi or submachine gun. "A couple of months before I came there, a shepherd was shot to death on the border," he said.
BETWEEN his two jobs at the
kibbutzes, Seaver worked on an archeological expedition at Massada. Massada was first inhabited by Jonathan the High Priest in about 73 BC. Seaver said.
One of the expedition's most important goals was to verify which Jonathan the High Priest this was, because there were several at that time in history.
The director of the expedition on which Seaver worked was Egal Yadin, son of the archeologist who found the Dead Sea Scrolls. The army helped him and also issued a petition inviting people from all over the world to work.
The camp consisted of twenty tents-eight in each tent—and a place to store their finds. Food came in each day from Irad, a city forty miles away.
"WHILE I WAS there, there was no hot water," Seaver said. The girls took showers first and by the time they were finished the hot water was all gone. "By five o'clock the sun was set and it was cold."
"They were the most cosmopolitan people I've ever been with," he said. He mentioned Louis Lehmann, a Holland poet, and Norman Henderson, director of the hotel system for Pan American Airways.
The groups of eight excavated all day. Earthquakes in the past had covered up many things.
When Seaver left, they had found four more sections of the earliest Bible known to man and a number of coins not known to exist until that time.
AFTER HIS work at the Magal kibbutz, Seaver literally hitchhiked all over the world. During this time he stayed with several noted people including John Reeve, a protege of Sebastian Leech whom he called the most famous potter in the western hemisphere.
He also stayed in England with Robin Page who teaches art at Lester and Bradford and who now has an art exhibition there.
hiking from Swinesund to Oslo, Gronlie picked him up and invited him to stay at his cabin.
One experience he particularly remembers was with a man he met in Norway, Odd Gronlie. While hitch-
Gronlie and his fiance gave him the "royal tour." "Their hospitality was too becoming for human beings," Seaver said. "They showed me the day and the night and took me to their friends as one of their best friends."
THEY ALSO took him to Hune-foss for dinner with both their parents.
While in Finland the Terminis family picked him up and invited him to accompany them on their vacation to visit their grandmother. "It was another example of unadulterated hospitality," he said.
"it's unbelievable what these people have done for me," he added
They went to the center of Finland to a little cabin by a lake where the grandmother lived.
There they skied and fished and used the sauna, a Finnish bath.
WHEN IN STOCKHOLM, Seaver met the Ambassador to Sweden from Venezuela and stayed at his villa. While there he serenaded the ambassador's girl friend who was the daughter of the Italian ambassador.
Seaver wanted to visit a friend in Fulda, Germany, whom he thought was in West Berlin. But he did not find him there. He stayed with some professional photographers, artists, and actors.
With these men he went to Fulda to see his friend, a journalist, actor, and photographer.
SUNDAY NIGHT BUFFET
Make your choice from 4 meat entries, 8 tempting
salads, fluffy potatoes, steaming-hot vegetables, hot rolls and butter, and homemade desserts. Drink is included.
Enjoy a delicious meal
this Sunday night
at
THE LITTLE BANQUET
Plenty of Free Parking
711 West 23rd
FRIDAY FLICKS
SUA
"BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE"
Starring Jack Lemmon, Kim Novak and Ernie Kovacs
ADMISSION 35c
FRASER THEATER 7:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m.
COMING DEC. 11: "THE MOUSE THAT ROARED"