First Full Day of Camp!

Good morning everyone! Before I continue with today’s happenings, I think it’s important to talk about the Hebrew vocabulary that we use on the blog! You may have noticed some new words that we’re using this year, such as chanichol (camper, singular) or chanichimot (campers, plural) instead or chanich/a (camper, m/f, singular) or chanich-im/ot (campers, m/f, plural). Earlier this year, Habonim Dror North America movement members voted on using these new endings in order to be more gender inclusive when talking about individuals or groups in general. We’ve been phasing the new words into machaneh this summer, and everyone has been catching on really quickly!

The Rikud (Israeli Dancing) sport group

Anyways, this morning I woke up early to a beautiful sunny day in order to open up the Beit Omanut (arts and crafts building) for some early rising chanichimot before hitkansut boker (morning gathering/flag raising). Afterwards, machaneh (camp) gathered around for the daily Ivrit Shimushit (Useful Hebrew) skit to learn today’s word of derech (road), before heading to a hearty breakfast of waffles, fruit, and cereal.

Once everyone was finished eating, we divided up into different Avodah (work/chore) groups such as gan (gardening), mitbach/bishul (cooking, chopping vegetables), or medurah (gathering wood for Saturday’s bonfire). After Nikayon Tzrif (cleaning cabins), everyone split by age group for pish (Peulat Shichvah, age group activity). The Amelimot headed to the pool for instructional swim before playing Jeopardy to meet their madrichimot (counselors), the Chotrimot headed to the basketball court for some water games before having instructional swim, and the Sayarimot headed to the Mitbach (kitchen) for some fun with food. They’ll have instructional swim later on today, as the three younger schavot (age groups) all have instructional swim once a day. On the older side of machaneh, the Tzophimot headed to Dream Land (a circle of benches created by the Madatzimot 2014) to play improv games and talk about interpersonal relationships, while the Bonimot got to know their kvutza (age group) through Bingo, and the Bogrimot talked about how to be leaders at machaneh. They’ll have another age group activity after lunch!

The Amelimot (kids going into 4th and 5th grades) during instructional swim

Next, everyone divided up into their sports for the next two weeks (they’ll switch halfway through the session), from soccer to gaga to frisbee. I’m one of the madrichimot running dancing, where we’re switching off between rikud (Israeli dances) and projecting Just Dance videos on a screen for everyone to follow. There’s something for everyone! After washing up, everyone headed to lunch of burrito and salad bar.

Kickball!

After some free time and another age group activity, everyone divided up into their groups for Zman Meyuchad (Specialist’s Time). This time runs a little bit differently every year, but this session the chanichimot (campers) chose an area such as Beit Omanut (arts and crafts), Gan (gardening), Ivrit (Hebrew), Mitbach (cooking), or others where they’ll learn a project-based skillset in the coming weeks. Each shichva is also going to take a turn on the low ropes course.

Later, the chanichimot will have free swim, kibud (snack), chugim (clubs/special interest groups), and shira (singing time) before dinner. Tonight’s tochnit erev (evening activity) will be Meet the Madrichimot! See you tomorrow!

-Carli