An Overcast Can't Hide Our Smiles

Some chanichim getting painted for the tochnit erev.

I woke up this morning to a green head of hair, thanks to the evening activity (tochnit erev) last night. If you recall, the entire camp participated in an "Avatar: The Last Airbender" themed tochnit, which ended up consisting of each age group (shichva) being assigned to one of three elements- water, earth, or air. All of the counselors (madrichim) were a part of the fire nation, which is the evil nation in case you were unaware. Long story short, all of the madrichim ended up completely covered in green, blue, white, or red paint, and I was left with blonde-hair-dyed-green.
All of the kids had a blast during the paint battle, and afterwards we went down to the pool. The madrichim were "air bended" into the pool, and then everyone came in for a huge, machaneh-wide pool party!

A few AmBo buddies in the pool.

Anyway, this morning was fun, just like any other. We had oatmeal for breakfast, with brown sugar, fruits, granola and/or raisins. The most exciting part of the day though, I believe, wasn't until the age group discussions (peulot) began. One of the coolest things about being in Amelim (post-third or fourth grade)/ Bogrim (post-ninth grade) is having an "AmBo buddy."
AmBo buddies are pairs of chanichim, consisting of one Boger and one Amel, who frequently eat at meals, attend free swim together, or just generally talk to each other and hang out. Today, the Amelim and Bogrim were assigned their AmBo buddies! During their time for peulot, the Amelim came over to the Bogrim area (shetach), and were told who their Bogrim buddy was. After getting to know each other, the pairs took a trip down to the pool to swim. They had a lot of fun playing and finding out more about each other. At the same time, the other schavot were doing their own things. The Tzophim (post-seventh graders) were taking a mini hike, following the creek up into the woods to an open area behind the Madatz (counselor in training) shetach. The Sayarim (post-sixth graders) were back at the garden (gan) again, this time talking about inequality in the outside world as well as in their kvutsa (small, united community).

The end result of "paint Twister"

 The Chotrim (post-fifth graders) were talking about gender norms and how they can negatively or positively affect society. Lastly, the Bonim (post-eighth graders) were speaking about the Jewish perspective around the world. After all the fun during peulot, the chanichim went to sports. Even though the sun was covered by clouds, everyone still worked up a sweat and were happy to shower or go to free swim afterwards. A group of chanichim actually helped me reverse the greenish hair color with some red paint afterwards (what would I do without them). For lunch we had Chinese food, although with much less of a variety than you'd have at home. Our kitchen (mitbach) staff made us delicious egg rolls, lo mein, and asparagus. We had to cut the singing at lunchtime short because today is laundry day, and it was important to explain to everyone how laundry day will be run this year, for obvious reasons.

An Amel enjoying the pool.

 During rest time (menucha) after lunch, there were a large amount of kids playing sports outside, as usual. Electives (chugim) came after menucha, and many of the chugim were doing very fun things. Two of the chugim, Messy Fun and Blu combined today to play "paint Twister," and in the end everyone has paint on them. Another chug was relaxing in Dreamland, which is an area that the Madatzim created last year for their Madatz project. After chugim ended, the second round of peulot began. One of the more noticeable peulot was the one run for the Bonim. They played soap hockey in an arena set up by their madrichim. Those kids were all smiles and laughs when I came by to check it out. The chotrim also had a great peula, where they dressed up in funny costumes from our newly updated costume closet and put on skits for themselves. After peulot ended, everybody gathered at the flagpole (toren) for oranges!  Tonight our tochnit erev is movie night. I'm not sure what the movie will be, but I have a feeling it will be Disney themed. That's all for tonight, hope everyone has a happy Thursday!