This week, my time at Mamsheet Camel Ranch is coming to a close. The last time I serve dinner to a tour group will be either tonight or tomorrow; I’ve probably led my last camel ride because of the pouring rain, and hopefully I will not be raking sand or picking up cigarette butts again for a while. Since my roommate left for the Year Course Poland trip, I won’t be watching another episode of Scrubs in our trailer during our free time. The last weekend has passed, so I won’t travel anymore through my second home, the Beer Sheva central bus station, to visit people who live in more populated places.

For the next and final three months of Year Course, I will live in a small apartment with a few other guys in Holon, a small city just south of Tel Aviv. While I am excited to spend a lot more time in the center of the country, walk to the Bat Yam beach every day and lead a life that more closely resembles a normal one than my current one, I am going to miss a lot about my desert.

I assume that whatever my volunteering placement is in Holon, it will require me to wake up early and catch a bus to work every day. I will miss the fact that here at Mamsheet, if I walk outside, I’m already at work, and the definition of “work” is very relaxed. If there are no groups coming for Bedouin hospitality or to ride the camels, there is no work. The downside to that is during our busiest time period, “Birthright season,” I would sometimes work up to 10 or 12 hours a day. Now that’s over, and the past few days my boss told me to come to work “whenever you feel like it.”

I will miss the peacefulness of the desert and only seeing sand for as far as I can see. I will miss the sunset. I will miss the camels, except Latifah. She bit me. I will miss my food and laundry being taken care of for me. I will miss the old Russian lady who cleans the bathrooms here. My Hebrew comprehension is still not at 100 percent, and her accent is really strong, but I have still enjoyed smiling, nodding my head and responding “ken” (yes) when she speaks to me.

I will miss the Bedouins I worked with, especially Nasser, who congratulated me by saying, “Good, very good!”

At the beginning of this trimester of Year Course, I had no idea what to expect. It has turned out to be a tough but fun learning experience, and I’m glad I did it.

I will never do anything like this again.

Ben Degani is from Dallas, Texas, and will be attending the University of Texas next year. He enjoys hanging out with friends, playing ultimate Frisbee and listening to music.