Topsy Turvy Bus Round Two

This morning at camp (machaneh) did not start out like the others. The Madatzim (counselors in training) planned a fake "Revo," which is a day that they run twice a summer. Revo is similar to Bozmon in that the Madatzim will be the ones running the camp for a period of time. They all arrived at our morning gathering (hitkansut boker) dressed in black and white. Then they proceeded to kick out the counselors (madrichim) to start their Oreo themed revolution. To the campers' (chanichim) dismay, the madrichim were waiting in the dining hall (chadar ochel) when they came down to breakfast, meaning that it was a fake special day.

Some chanichim getting onto the Topsy Turvy Bus.

Afterwards, the rest of the meal went on as usual, and led into chores (avodot).  Avoda and cabin cleaning time (nekayon tzrif), which came afterwards, went by quickly and led into age group discussions (peulot). Today during peulot, the Amelim (post-third and fourth graders) had time with their cabin-mates, or zmon tzrif. The Chotrim (post-fifth graders) practiced the Hebrew song that they will sing for the camp tomorrow evening. The Sayarim (post-sixth graders) went on low ropes today. The Tzophim (post-seventh graders) went to the art room (beit omanut) to do some art projects. One of the things that they did was paint a bench with their Workshop (Habonim Dror's 9 month Israel program) number on it, which is 70. The Bonim (post-eighth graders) headed over to the garden (gan) to speak with our gan specialist about how we interact with animals and how that relates to Judaism.

A few of the chanichim at the creek.

The Bogrim (post-ninth graders) stayed in their area (shetach) and spoke about how to give constructive feedback to one another. After that, sports began! All of the sports ran normally today, except for swimming. Instead of going in the pool today, this sport went down to hang out at the creek for a little while. After sports finished and everyone had some time to wash up, lunch began. Today we listened to music on the speakers in the chadar ochel, so there were many people dancing around in between bites. At the end of lunch, our head of education revealed to the chanichim that we had special visitors among us, which were the people from the Topsy Turvy Bus that we had come to machaneh last summer! The Topsy Turvy Bus is an environmentally friendly bus that a few people live on and travel in each summer, to teach kids in summer camps about being sustainable and environmentally conscience. The three older age groups (schavot) visited the bus first, while the younger schavot had their own separate conversations about the environment. The Topsy Turvy Bus people showed the chanichim around the inside of the bus, and talked about some of the sustainable appliances that they use every day. For example, they make ovens out of cardboard boxes, black paint, tin foil and saran wrap. They also have a blender that is attached to a bicycle, so in order to blend the food inside, one must ride the bike.

The Sayarim inside of the Topsy Turvy Bus.

 They ran a station with the chanichim where they all put in smoothie materials, and in the end the smoothie represents their teamwork. When it was time for the older and younger kids to switch, they did so, and the Topsy Turvy Bus people went through their routine again. These stations went on for the remainder of the afternoon, until it was time for hitkansut erev. Everybody has gathered at the flag pole (toren) to lower the flags and they will head down to dinner shortly. Tonight's evening activity (tochnit erev) is Gender Night, which we run once a summer as a tochnit. In the past, Gender Night has been helpful in teaching chanichim about accepting themselves and their peers for who they are, and I expect that it will mean the same thing tonight. Tomorrow is Shabbat, which will be a very fun day, so check back in for another post soon!