Visitors Day!

Shalom to all of the friends and family of Camp (machaneh) Galil! Many of you joined us here today for Visitors Day, and some of you might have just gotten home! We had so much fun with all of you for the few hours that you were here for, so thank you to all who came. Although many of you spent at least an hour or two here this afternoon, there are still a number of friends and family who couldn't make it, so I'll recap what happened:

The family of an Amelah meet her AmBo buddy.

At around noon today, all of the campers (chanichim) made their way down to the parking lot to wait for their families. At first, the cars staggered over the bridge into machaneh, however within the hour, there was a solid stream of cars entering camp grounds. The clump of chanichim thinned out as time went on and eventually, every chanich had their own picnic area set up somewhere around machaneh. For those of you who have never attended a Machaneh Galil visiting day, I will give you a bit of background information. On Visitors Day, the chanichim look forward to having a special lunch with their families and friends. Kids write letters home to parents ahead of time, asking for particular foods and drinks. So, although much of the excitement of Visitors Day is centered around seeing family, a good bit of excitement is just in anticipation for tasty food. Anyway, families were camped all around machaneh in lawn chairs and on blankets, having picnics while catching up. Because it was so excruciatingly hot today, there were virtually no families picnic-ing in direct sunlight, so all of the shaded parts of machaneh were packed. 

A happy tzevet member with his grandparents.

The heat couldn't stop us today, and we offered free swim beat it. When free swim ended, parents joined their kids for some ice breaker games, before we all met up at the flag pole (toren) to recreate our daily gatherings. We showed the parents some of our cheers and our morning traditions, before breaking off again to the picnic sites. At this point in the afternoon, everything was winding down and parents began to leave. On their way out, some parents bought Camp Galil shirts or ice cream cones for their kids, as well as some for themselves. By 4:30, most of the families had left machaneh and the chanichim were relaxing on their full stomachs. We ran electives (chugim) as usual after the parents left, but the rest of the afternoon was different. Instead of the usual afternoon activities, we had machaneh-wide free swim. Everybody had to come down to the pool, even if they didn't want to swim (although most of them were beyond excited to be in the pool and out of the sun). At the end of free swim, everyone was given some time to wash off before dinner. They went straight from their cabins (tzrifim) to dinner, without meeting at the toren again (because we met there with parents earlier!). 

The smiling family of a tsofeh.

At the end of dinner, the evening activity (tochnit erev) will be revealed to everyone, which will be exciting, because tonight is Zap! Zap is a machaneh-wide activity that we run once per summer, so it is something that kids look forward to. The purpose of the game is to get from one end of machaneh to the other without being seen by any staff (tzevet) members. If you are seen by a tzevet member, they will shine a light on you and say "zap, go back." At that point, you must go back to the last checkpoint that you reached, and try again. The kids dress in dark colors in the hopes that they won't be seen as easily, and once it gets dark, they set out on their mission. Even if you don't make it to the end (which I never did in my five years as a chanicha), Zap is fun and exciting for everyone. Since it has been such a long day, tomorrow morning there will be a 45 minute sleep in before the day begins. Tomorrow will be a special day at machaneh, so make sure to check back in to find out more!