A Rainy Monday at Camp

There’s a perpetual plan to jokingly build a dome at macheneh (camp). The idea is that the dome would encase our property, thus allowing us to control the weather. We laugh about having a Dome avodah (job group) who would build it all summer, and people suggest “Revo Dome” as a possible theme for the day that the Madatz (CITs) plan for camp. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet built the dome and our weather conditions aren’t up to us. Still, we don’t let precipitation affect our levels of fun!

The rain started before we woke up today and kept on going all day. Still, we have lots of indoor spaces that we host activities in, so macheneh can function successfully in any weather. Hitkansut (flag raising) started the day, this time in the moadon (rec hall). (The moadon is our largest multi-purpose building, and we use it for a ton of activities, as you’ll hear about today.) The kids enjoyed a special episode of Ivrit Shimushit (Useful Hebrew). In the show, Moshe sprained his ankle and the Jewish Godparents took him to the doctor over in North Dakota. The Hebrew word of the day was “dakot” and the English word of the day was “minutes”.  After Ivrit Shimushit, he headed to the chedar ochel (dining hall) to eat. Today was a special breakfast that we’ve never had before- egg bar! There were cheesy eggs, green eggs, vegetable eggs, eggs over easy, and eggs with broccoli and onion

The droplets continued to come down through avodah (work time) but we kept our heads up. We still swept the floors, washed the mirrors, and organized the art supplies. After avodah (work time) was nikayon (cleaning time). 

Because of the rain, sports ran a little differently today. We weren’t able to use the pool or sports field, so we got to try some new things. The kids could chose between yoga in the Mini-Mo (small rec hall), dance in the Moadon (large rec hall), Gaga in the gaga pit, or Ultimate Throwing Competition in the pavilion. The chanichim (campers) enjoyed trying new things and people even stayed dry!

Chugim (interest groups) ran as usual today. Some camper favorites include Wish Chug and The Underground. In Wish Chug, chanichim write down wishes at the beginning of the week, such as”I wish to have 20 ballons all to myself”, or “I wish to eat a peach while listening to Lady Gaga”.  Every day, the madrichim in charge will grant one of those wishes! The Underground does secret missions around macheneh (camp). I don’t even know what they do; it’s that secret!

For Tochnit Erev (evening activity), the tzevet (staff) carried out an original activity created at our sister camp, Habonim Dror Camp Moshava in Maryland. In the activity, we had to convince a group of robots that they couldn’t tear down the historic shtetl to build a tech center. The robots couldn’t read the Torah, and didn’t know anything about our history. We gathered in groups led by Torah characters, like Adam+Eve, and created skits explaining the stories. The kids performed the skits for the Robot Council and all of camp, and the robots decided to let the shtetl stay! Robots, Torah characters, and kids all celebrated by doing the Techno-Hora! It was a funny night full of real learning as well as hilarious skits and awesome robot suits.