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This machaneh looks at the idea of Zionism, where it came from right up to Israel nowadays. Throughout machaneh they will enjoy different fun, yet educational peulot (activities) around this interesting theme.
Monday 30th July: Tiyul (Day 1)
After a late departure yesterday the bus was on its way and managed to make the ferry on time. The bus company apologises for the delay, and admit full responsibiltiy. They say it was simply down to human error of the driver reading the time wrong.
Nonetheless, spirits were high and all the chanichim were singing on the bus. They arrived in cappoqoin - the town where they will be around for the next 5 days dowing tiyul - at 10.00 this morning, bang on time.
When they got off the bus they were spolit into their kvutsot (groups) which they were all happy with. There are about 12 chanichim (participants) in each group wtih 3 or 4 leaders in each group.
For the next few days the chinachim will be on "tiyul" (literally meaning a hike). Here they are with their kvutsah walking from one campsite to the next, and camping out in tents with only their kvutsa. The days are usually filled with bumping into other kvutsot where they usually have"singing matches" between them as to who can sing the loudest. The groups are responsibile for buying their own food and cooking for themselves - a time that the chanichim absolutely love.
When they arrived at cappoquin they were provided for lunch, and off they went walking in their kvutsot to their own campsites.
I left them at 16.00, where all groups had managed to successfully put up their tents, and they were all playing get to know you games and writing kvutsah songs. All were extremely high spirited.
You will be glad to know the weather was beuatiful today with sunshine and was even quite warm too!
Tonight they are looking forward to spending their first night together as a kvutsah.
Tuesday 31st July: Tiyul (Day 2)
Today has been a fun day in Southern Ireland for the tiyul groups. Some groups decided to have a lie in, whilst others were up early to get walking early to get the most out of thier day.
They have had great weather today and we are enforcing sun tan lotion wearing by all - who would have thought it a couple of weeks ago!?!
All groups are bonding well and have great songs. One group today had a peulah (activity) on an ancient bridge which was fun, whilst another group woke a women up early by their loud singing. Thankfully she wanst annoyed but when ran into them later said to them "It was so lovely to hear singing in the village again".
Wednesday 1st July: Tiyul (Day 3)
Today has been a great day in Ireland. The weather has been superb, shining down. Last night a few groups had a bbq for dinner which was apparently delicious!
Today one group was given disposable cameras with fun tasks to do, and they all had great fun doing it with lots of funny stories! Another group were given 3 euros each, and they all went to buy a present for someone else in the group. They all had fun and wrote nice messages along with the presents.
Other than that, everyone is happy and having great fun!
Thursday 2nd July: Tiyul (Day 4)
Today was another fun day of tiyuling with again beatiful weather. The men in charge of the weather sure did scare us that it was going to be awful weather for camp, but thankfully it is holding out - lets hope it keeps it up till the end of camp.
Some groups had a great treat of a vegetarian pub lunch today (without the alcohol!), whilst others decided to have a bbq or even get pizza in for dinner.
During hte day lots of groups met up whilst walking, which inevitably led to groups arguing and siniging about who was the loudest (and therefore best!) group.
All in all, spirits are high, groups are bonding well, and they are having great fun.
Friday 3rd July: Tiyul and Mainsite (Day 5)
Today was the kids last day of tiyul. Whilst all sad, they were excited to be meeting up with everyone at main site.
The groups all got to mainsite at a staggerred stage, and were of course met by huge amounts of songs and ruach (literally meaning spirit - means lots of songs and chants), from the other groups (apart from the 1st group of course!).
The leaders say the noise these kids produce is incredible and everyone is singing so loudly they reckon their voices will be lost within the next 24 hours!
They all then had a huge games session with all 60 chanichim, and were split into their rooms - which they are all happy about.
And finally it was shower time for them all, which were greatfully received!
Next was dinner which was a huge amazing polish buffet made by one of the Israeli leaders who is a trainee chef.
They were then introduced to the leaders of the camp in an amusing way - i couldnt quite get the exact details, but was told it included fake mug shots.
They then had some hot chocolate and started heading to bed after a tiring tiyul.
Saturday 4th July: Mainsite (Day 6)
Today the chanichim had a bit of a special shabbat lie in, before getting up for a casual breakfast. This was followed by a shabbat peulah that looked at the parsha. This weeks parsha tells us about Moses telling the people to remember where they came from. As a result, the chanichim did different tasks which took them back into Jewish history to remember where they came from.
After lunch they had another shabbat peulah which looked at what shabbat meant to them. This was done in a whacky back to the future theme which involved a (pretty useless) yet beuatiful time machine. Here they ran all over the building going into the future looking at what shabbat could mean to them, and involvd lots of playdo sculpturing.
They then had shabbat chugim (activities) which included challah making, candle making, table cloth decorating and a few other choices.
This was followed by some relaxation time, and a lovely havdallah service to conclude shabbat.
Needless to say not many had a full nights sleep last night due to the excitement of being at main site and being around so many people, so people were more than happy to get to bed at the end of a great day.
Sunday 5th July: Mainsite (Day 7)
The first peulah of the day really got them moving with a Jewish wedding that got "ransacked" by "local villagers". Very soon the chanchim realised they were being subject to an anti-semitic attack, and had to go a hunt to meet different characters to find out what was happening back in time. This of course looked at the catalysts of Zionism, including anti-semitism, the holocaust and a few other key events. This session ended up in a mock drayfus trial which the chanichim found more than informative and entertaining.
Next was a peulah on Darfur. Obviously it is extremely difficult, to make topics such as these fun, however after a little bit of a hard yet extreme eye opener of a peulah, the chanichim were busy writing letters to their politicians, and realising that they had to look beyond just the Jewish community
Next the chanichim were looking at different streams of Zionist including Rev Kook, Herzl and Jabitinsky. This involved a huge interactive, room size israel map, and the chanichim becoming aquainted with their character. They then had a somewhat scrap heap of a challenge building a symbol to represent their character. For instance, for Herzl it was Parliament, and for Jabitinsky it was (What was described as) an absolutely awesomely huge tank.
I left them going into a tunnel peulah which was recreating the Warsaw ghetto and looking at the background of our movement - Dror and the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
After this they were having a great fish and chips meal, followed by a non alcoholic pub quiz.
Monday 6th July: Mainsite (Day 8)
This morning they woke up and had the usual WMBA (Wake up, Mifkad, Breakfast, Avodah). Mifkad is where all the chanichim stand in a chet (similar to the army) in their groups, and they all sing their songs in the morning. There is obviously internal competition as to who is the loudest... also a good way to wake them up! Avodah is hebrew for "work" and is meant for tidying up.
After this they went into their first peulah which was to show The Arab situation as a result of Zionism. This was done in the traditional way of chocolate Cadbury countries. They had to start by building their country with a flag, national anthem, etc, and then told there was a war on, at which point they all fled – showing how the Palestinians chose to flee from Palestine (they looked at the different reasons for the Palestinians leaving, and not just the reason of the War of Independence).
After this they had a peulah relating to War and Peace, and the difficulties of the peace process. This was done through the lion king, where different characters from the lion king were different factions (Hamas, Fatah, Israel, etc). They then had to all do team building exercises together whilst still acting like their character – showed the difficulties of all getting on together.
Next up was a Mr Men peulah explaining Israel’s relationships with surrounding Arab countries. Here each specially named Mr Men had to build their own village, which was interrupted by different challenges.
They then relaxed by having a fun peulah names Greased Lightening. Here they basically recreated the fair at the end of the film Grease, with lots of pie throwing, donought eating, etc.
Everyone had a very fun day.
Tuesday 7th July: Mainsite (Day 9)
After WUMBA, the first peulah looked at female figures (eg. Allice Miller the pilot, Hannah Senesh, etc). The characters had to go round and the chanichim had to do a task relating to their skills, and everytime doing something good, received an item of special related clothing. This finished in a fun fashion show showing all the different positive aspects.
This was followed by a purely fun UCC (Ultimate Catching Championship), which was very different, very energetic and very fun.
The next peulah was looking at Equality for Women, where boys and girls swapped basic clothes and played a GIANT room sized Game of Life, which showed the lack of equality still around.
Just before dinner they had a peulah showing the difficulties of women in religion. This started in a funny puppet show, however unfortunately the strings of the puppets broke. As a result, the chanichim made up their own show showing how the puppet show should continue in the fairest way.
The last activity of the night was a huge cludo themed murder mystery which everyone thoroughly enjoyed.
Wednesday 8th July: Mainsite (Day 10)
This morning started off looking at why we fought so hard for Israel, as opposed to any of the other countries we were offered. Each group became a country, and had to fight for the Olympic games to be held in that country, including making promotional adverts trying to sell why they thought it should be their country. Low in behold, Israel won!
They then went into their first ZK (Zman Kvutsa – Group Time), where they started to plan MYOD. MYOD is short for Make Your Own Day (or in hebrew, "who else"). This is where the chanichim get experience (with the help of the leaders) to plan their own day. They spend time in their groups planning what they are going to do for a session on that special day, and then run activities for all the other chanichim (participants) on the camp. Its a bit of hard work for the chanichim, but extremely rewarding, and they always love it as they get to do what they want on that day!
After lunch they learnt about kibbutzim through a huge cup game where they had to trade in their skills and equipment in order to build up their kibbutz.
After a lovely dinner of vegetarian spaghetti bolognaise they had short kibbud families. This is where they chanichim are split into two or three people, and each given a certain madrich. They are then given some chocolate, and they go off in there 3’s or 4’s to have a little bit of a snack, and more importantly for the madrichim to chat with the chanichim and check they are ok, having fun and no problems. They usually have kibbud families every day, and stay in the same kibbud families for the whole of machaneh.
The last peulah of the day was looking at the change of the kibbutz movement, where they chanichim had to look after their “flour babies”…
Everyone had a great day.
Thursday 9th July: Mainsite (Day 11)
This morning the camp had great fun on their day out! They woke up this morning and received their camp tshirts, which they all loved – navy blue!
After a short bus journey they arrived at Trabolgan activity centre where everyone enjoyed, in rotation, a go at Go Karting, Crazy Golf, Swimming and Orienteering. They all had absolutely great fun, and to top it off they had a great take away pizza lunch.
As if this wasn’t enough, they topped this off with a trip to the cinema to watch Evan Almighty . Coincidently enough, the film had a lovely tikun olam message of doing something good for others.
When they arrived back they went into kibbud families before having a dinner of fish, chips, peas and beans.
Tonight they are going to be watching the films of the adverts that they shot last night during their “Why Israel” peulah before having a camp fire.
Great day for all!
Friday 10th July: Mainsite (Day 12)
Today, after the usual WUMBA each group finished planning off thier MYOD session, which they are all really looking forward to running.
They then had a peulah by the madrichim on the different minority groups in Israel, where they met someone from each group from Druze, to Bedouine to Darfory. This took the place of an Operah Winfrey show looking at the possiblity of making aaliyah.
Next was a constructive water fight... when i say constructive i mean it was planned for as a bit of fun - which indeed it was! This was combined with a game of Capture the Flag.
Next was the peulah looking at the Right of Return, where everyone was given a passport and they had to get their pasport stamped with different tasks. At the end of the day, it was whetehr or not you were Jewish was the deciding factor.
After a lovely shabbat service and dinner, they all relaxed whilst making some Kishut for MYOD.
Saturday 11th July: Mainsite (Day 13)
Today was MYOD! MYOD is short for Make Your Own Day (or in hebrew, "who else"). This is where the chanichim get experience (with the help of the leaders) to plan their own day. They spend time in their groups planning what they are going to do for a session on that special day, and then run activities for all the other chanichim (participants) on the camp. Its a bit of hard work for the chanichim, but extremely rewarding, and they always love it as they get to do what they want on that day!
After a special shabbat lie in, the chanichim were up and running the day. They had a great American style breakfast with Muffins, scrambled eggs and lots more.
They then had a parsha peulah run by the chanichim, followed by a special Shabbat Treasure Hunt, which they all loved.
The next group ran an "importance of shabbat" peulah.
After a great dinner of fajitas they are going into Havdallah and an end of Shabbat Party.
Sunday 12th July: Mainsite (Day 14)
Today they started off by looking at the Story of Yitzchak Rabin by watching a video clip of the assassination. They then had to go off in groups and prepare their own political parties as if it was just after the assassination, and they had to run for the government of Israel.
Next was a peulah relating to the Religious Secular divide, which was followed by a huge tidy up, and a massive final mifkad with huge amounts of ruach.
Today was the last day at camp, and of course was a sad day for all! After a bit of cleaning up, they all said their teary goodbyes to their new friends!
Everyone has said they are definately coming back next year - wicked!
Click here to see photos of Rishonim - Set 1!
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