Galil Blog
Hey Galil families, we began the day full of learning and fun this morning! We started out normally with hitkansut boker (morning flag raising), ivrit shimushit (daily hebrew learning skit), breakfast of Morningstar patties and eggs, and avodah (work). Then, as usual, the madatz (C.I.T.s) ran activities for the chanichimot (campers). The activities were pretty laid back and chill today, as we are still on the tail end of the heat wave, but the madatz found a way to have some fun under the sun with card games, reading, and music analysis.
To finish the morning, the madrichimot (counselors) ran peulot (activies) for the chanichimot. Today, I accompanied the bonimot (builders)—our rising high schoolers—to their peula, which was about the Three Levels of Oppression. I felt personally connected to this peula, as I helped write it, and it was stunning to see how engaged they were with the topic. I was taken aback by how insightful they were when considering the issue and how well they seemed to discern different aspects of the conversation.
After the long morning, we all gathered in the chadar ochel (dining room) for a creamy lunch of cheddar broccoli soup. With our stomaches full, the chanichimot went off to their chuggim (clubs/interest groups). Today, the improv chug took the liberty of inviting themselves to all of the other chuggim and putting on little skits for them, which they, of course, came up with on the fly. It was very cute to watch them improve with each new skit. Once chuggim were over, the bogrimot (graduates)—our oldest chanichimot—got their chef hats on and walked over to the chadar ochel and mitbach (kitchen) to make SNL (snack night late/dessert). With the help of our tzevet mitbach (kitchen staff), the bogrimot made some scrumptious brownies topped with chocolate chip cookies that all of machaneh enjoyed later in the night.
Finally, after a quick dip in the brecha (pool) and hitkansut erev (evening flag lowering), the bogrimot, now joined by the rest of machaneh, walked back to the chadar ochel for dinner. Taking a cookbook out of Israel’s kitchen, tzevet mitbach fed us delicious chicken shawarma for dinner. Having just come back from Workshop (Habonim Dror North America’s gap year in Israel), I was very pleased to have a reminder of my last year. The other Workshoppers and shlichim (messengers/Israeli’s working overseas) were left smiling as well.
Then, all of a sudden, all of the lights in the chadar ochel went out. Two madrichim came in and told everyone that Jeff—our beloved groundskeeper—had gone missing! They said that without Jeff, everything at machaneh was breaking down. After a quick chofesh (rest time), all of the chanichimot went to different stations to learn how to take care of machaneh. The chanichimot favorite had them trying to make waterways out of old PVC pipes and sponges to fix the “old, rusty, burst” ones. Machaneh quickly realized that we could not function without Jeff, so we decided to try one last thing to call his spirit back to us. As Jeff loves his Harley Davidson, the chanichimot made replica motorcycles out of cardboard and duct tape, and it worked! Jeff rolled onto the basketball court, revving his engine before sending everyone to bed.
Bye for now (but get excited for tomorrow’s blog post!), Amos