Shalom, Kfirim Blog Readers!
It has been an exciting week here at the Machaneh! I left off last week right before Kerem Karnival, which was a fun filled Achla Yom for all of the chanichim (campers). There were many inflatable activities such as a water slide, a hungry hungry hippos game, and a seven element obstacle course. There was even a dunk tank which I had the pleasure of being dunked in about a dozen times! In addition to all of these fun attractions, Kerem-led stations with creative and engaging games for the chanichim. Some examples include eating a doughnut off a stick, blowing a candle out with a water gun, face painting, football throwing, noodle fencing, bowling, and more! We finished off the day with a nice and refreshing free swim in the Agam before going back to the bunks to shower and get ready for the barbecue dinner.
After dinner, our Peulot Erev were split up by tzrif (bunk). The banot (girls) had erev cookie decorating while the banim (boys) had erev manhunt. The banot were paired up with someone else in the bunk and they were given a theme they had to decorate their cookies with. Some themes included under the sea, transportation, snacks, and camp. Given the large amount of frosting and candy to decorate with, they were extremely creative and artistic with their decorations! Of course at the end, they all ate their deliciously crafted cookies. While the girls were decorating the boys were running around the field trying to find each other in the woods using their flashlights. The goal was to move around with your partner and hide in the woods safely and then return back to the home base without being caught. It was a great night for everyone!
Wednesday night we had Rikudiyah, our dancing festival that the chanichim spent hours preparing for. Kfirim performed one dance together and they rocked it!!
Thursday was another exciting day. We started off by celebrating Ben Shaer’s camp Bar Mitzvah in the egalitarian minyan which was followed by a delicious special breakfast (yes, there was ice cream and chocolate milk!) thanks to Ben’s parents. Thursday was also a camp-wide Yom Yisrael! We had special programming planned by the mishlachat, counselors from Israel. We closed the day off with a beautiful tekes (closing ceremony).
We had a wonderful and relaxing Shabbat, despite the rainy start. Sunday we had “Kululam” which was a song performance that the entire camp participated in and was recorded using a professional audio recording and multiple cameras from various angles- we can’t wait to see the video when it comes out!
After dinner on Sunday, we had an exciting turn of events. We collected the entire camp at the Kir Tipus (climbing wall) for a competition of two roshes to climb the wall and see who could get up faster. The entire camp was cheering on their names and when they got to the top they opened up a huge white banner to fall down the side that said M….IFKAD. Many of the chanichim thought the banner would say MACCABIAH because they were eagerly anticipating the breakout, but they were incorrect. We then brought the entire camp to the flagpole where they stood in a large circle around the newly built statue in camp. Jeff Weener explained why we had this new piece of art in camp, and right before he unveiled the statue, a police officer came in to tell us that we were being too loud and didn’t have a permit to build a statue. The roshes started jumping in explaining that the statue was for something called breakout. The tarp was then pulled off the statue and one of the roshes jumped out and screamed MACCABIAH!!! The papers with the team names Din (judgement) and Rachamim (mercy) went flying. Fireworks went off and everyone rushed over to Tzipori to watch. Then everyone went right into their plugah (team) meetings.
For Achla Yom on Monday we went on a hike and then went to the Squam Lake Natural Science Center. We hiked to the top of Rattlesnake mountain and were awarded with a beautiful view at the top. We ate lunch, and then walked down the mountain. We then drove to the outdoor zoo where the chanichim saw many animals including a bobcat, river otter, black bear, and owl. We closed off the night with a barbecue dinner and Peulot Erev with the bunk.
We are excited for the Maccabiah games to begin and to make the most of our last week together.
B’ahava,
Adina
