First full day!

Hello again!

Today machaneh (camp) Galil experienced its first "regular" day. By this we mean that the day follows a particular set schedule. We also have a "special day" day every session that follows a particular theme and involves a pretty crazy fun schedule. However, just because today was a "regular" day, that doesn't mean that regular days aren't special. On the contrary, every day is always an extremely different day with new things for our chanichimot (campers) to experience! So let's get started!

Ivrit shimushit is so fun!

Today our chanichimot woke up fresh faced and bushy tailed for their first real day at machaneh at 8:00 this morning. Then we had hitkansut boker (flag raising ceremony) and ivrit shimushit (useful hebrew). Ivrit shimushit is always a machaneh favorite as it involves a funny skit that is designed to teach kids one word of Hebrew everyday. Today, the madrichimot (counselors) in charge of it pretended that there was a fork in one of their legs to teach the word mazleg which means fork.

After that we had a delicious breakfast of eggs made by our awesome tzevet mitbach (kitchen staff). Then, if that wasn't enough excitement already, the kids went to go do avodah (work) in groups that they decided on last night with their shickvot (age groups).  These avodot include things like taking out the trash, cleaning the bathrooms, and working on medurah (our Saturday night bonfire). Work doesn't end at the end of avodah though, so after they were done with today's avodah, our chanichimot went to nikayon tzrif (bunk cleaning time). We do avodah as a way of demonstrating our shared commitment to our collective community. Music was played while beds were made and floors were swept.

Sayarimot love the pool!

Kvustot (age groups) had peulot (acitivites) and asephot (meetings) about kupa (literally translates in to cash register). You may be thinking at this point "why is my child/friend/etc. having a discussion on cash registers?". This is because kupa at machaneh is about sharing something as a collective. Most commonly for younger chanichimot this is in terms of sharing candy and how they wish to approach that. For older chanichimot, however, this can extend to things like shower supplies and instruments. Again, each kvustah decides themselves what they wish for their kupa to look like. (As a reminder, though, we are asking parents to reduce the level of candy sent to machaneh this summer.) For tzevet (staff) kupa extends to us sharing part of our salaries together. The motto is "give what you can, take what you need." Pishs were also run for kvustah building! Also today, Amelimot and Sayarimot had instructional swim time!

Then it was zman sports (sports time). Last night the chanichimot ranked their choices for sports and today they learned what sports they were placed into. They had a ton of fun doing that and then, after some rachasta (clean up time) they went to lunch and enjoyed some yummy fries with stuffed shells. Then came chofesh (free time) and pish bet (2nd age group activity). Then the chanichimot had zman meyuhad (special time) which is run by the madamotim (specialists) like me! After that was schiya chofshit (free swim) and then kibud (snack time).  Then we got to do shira (song-learning) and hitkansut erev (flag lowering).

After that we had a delicious dinner of chicken (tofu for vegetarians) and latkes! Then, after some chofesh, the chanichimot have tochnit erev (evning activity) by individual age group.


Well, that's all for today! See you all tomorrow!

-Miriam