Galil Blog
Shalom Galil families!
Thank you for your patience as we navigated a power outage earlier this week. We’re back and you can expect regular blogs again! To catch you up, machaneh lost power on Tuesday evening due to severe weather. Despite the thunder and the blackout, the Bogrimot still managed to run an epic Olympics-themed Bozman, which you will hear about more when we upload their guest blog. On Wednesday, everyone went to the YMCA in Warminster to take showers before heading to see Inside Out 2 at a movie theater nearby. By the time we were back (and had eaten LOTS of popcorn), the power was back on! We weathered another thunderstorm in the evening but continued to enjoy our running water and electricity.
Yesterday, we woke up to nicer weather. After a yummy breakfast of turkey bacon and eggs, everyone did a shortened avodah before boarding the buses for Tikkun Olam. The Amelimot, Chatulimot, and Madatz headed to Cradles To Crayons in Philadelphia. After a quick lunch of sandwiches, apples, and chips, they split into two groups and helped with sorting clothing, toy, and school supply donations. They also got to sort the donations that we gathered from Galil families on Opening Day! Once they were done with sorting incoming donations, the chanichimot made cards with well wishes for the new school year to be put in backpacks and given to students in the Philadelphia area.
Meanwhile, the Chotrimot, Bonimot, and Bogrimot went to Our Closet‘s warehouse in Springfield, PA. There, they also ate lunch before helping to sort and organize clothing donations. After volunteering for a couple of hours, everyone boarded back onto the buses and headed back to machaneh. Our Closet is a program of Jewish Families and Children’s Services of Greater Philadelphia (JFCS).
Once everyone had settled back in, we had an extra long free swim followed by some shower time and an extended Hitkansut Erev. For dinner, we had a special catered meal. Then, for tochnit erev, machaneh turned into medical school. At “Dror University Hospital”, the chanichimot were given a checklist of “classes” to take. Then, they had 20 minutes to cram for their degree by going to a series of stations and doing tasks like filling prescriptions of candy, mixing juices to make a “cure”, identifying different bones on X-rays, learning niche medical terminology, and making “casts” out of paper maché. Tzevet members at the stations gave them each a grade for their “class”. While they rushed around to complete the tasks, two tzevet members also drove around in the golf cart which was decorated like an ambulance.
To end the tochnit erev, everyone gathered on the basketball court. Their degrees were conferred by the dean of the medical school, but then suddenly the madatz appeared dressed as zombies! Luckily, the chanichimot were able to feed them the cure they had worked on and save the day. We all sang Rad Hayom and said goodnight. After a long and exciting day, everyone headed back to their tzrifim for a well-deserved rest.
