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This machaneh looks at the Shoah (holocaust). Whilst an extremely difficult topic, it is always an extremely successful machaneh where the chanichim get infinite amounts of satisfaction out of learning about this topic that is so close to their hearts. Fun is also had all around! Throughout machaneh they will enjoy different fun, yet educational peulot (activities) around this interesting theme.
Tuesday 31st July: Tiyul (Day 1)
After a slightly 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.
Nonetheless, spirits were high and all the chanichim were singing on the bus. They arrived in Roosendaalt- 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.
Today some groups went go karitng and had a great time. Another group were on bikes and was fun for all. Other groups will be doing go karting and cycling in the next few days.
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.
Wednesday 1st August: Tiyul (Day 2)
Today has been another fab day in tiyul land with all groups successfully managing to navigate their way to the next tiyul / campsite.
One campsite owner was a bit unhappy at how loud one group was, but to us that is only a sign of how much fun they are having!
Today one group went go karting, and another group cycled - everyone will have a go of both.
Tonight a couple of groups had a bbq at their site which was apparently delicious. Other groups had birthday parties for the two brithdays on camp! They were all treated with some cake.
Everyone is having fun and happy, and the weather is shining down on them.
Thursday 2nd August: Tiyul (Day 3)
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. There is still the usual go karting and cycling rotation going on during hte days so as everybody gets a shot.
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.
Such fun, that last night one group got a bit carried away at their site, and everyone ended up jumping into the swimming pool fully clothed!
Friday 3rd August: Tiyul (Day 4)
Today was another great day of tiyuling with the usual go karting and bikes. Every group is really enjoying their time go karting / biking - one group even rode to belgium yesterday! (only about 30 minutes away).
They are now all enjoying their first shabbat on machaneh, most singing songs around a bonfire.
One group is even having a birthday party for the birthday girl!
All are sad its the last night of tiyul but looking forward to getting to main site tomorrow with everyone else.
Saturday 4th August: 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.
After dinner (jacket potatoes with a variety of fillings) it was time to meet the leaders with the intro peulah (activity) which took to the method of a guess who game.
After this they lit up the bonfire, sat around and had a huge shiron (song) session... which was great becuase a few of hte chanichim have bongos, and loads of guitars, and it was an amazing atmosphere for the first night - really setting the tone nicely.
The weather has been great and the leaders are all making sure everyone is heavily sun tan lotioned up and drinking plenty of water.
Sunday 5th August: Mainsite (Day 6)
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 in for breakfast which was followed by a peulah on Jewish Culture and Identity. Here the chanichim got their notepads and pens out and became journalists for the session interviewing some interesting, and somewhat funny characters.
After lunch they looked at Germany before the war, and the life of the Jewish community. This involved the chanichim moving from different interactive stations to another performing some fun tasks.
Next was 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 next peulah looked at the propaganda against the jewish people before the war. This saw the machaneh split into two groups, were they watched a short film and then had a school biology lesson – with a bit of a difference. The chanichim were shocked to hear what was going on, and had a great mock day at school.
Dinner was a yummy pasta bake, followed by the film The Wave which looks at conformity and how such a big army was able to be built up.
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.
Monday 6th August: Mainsite (Day 7)
This morning the group had their usual WUMBA before what was going to be an emotionally tough day, yet one of the most meaningful and hard hitting for them.
They started the day with an easy fun and funny balloon debate about the ghetteo. The balloon debate is taken from a hypothetical situation of 3 people in a hot air balloon over the sea, balloon is going down, they need to chuck one person out – who is it. Except this related to the ghetto, and the groups had great fun coming up with their arguments.
Then they had some kvutsa (group) time where they looked at the necessity of Dugma Ishit (leading by example), beforing having lunch outside in the nice weather. They even managed in a great game of Ultimate Frizbee before it started to rain for a couple of hours.
Next was a very tough peulah, and a renowned peulah on this machaneh that happens every year – the Final Solution Exhibition. This is where they deal with the tough issue of Hitlers Final Decision through a Habonim Dror UK owned exhibition that has been gathered over the years. They slowly walk around looking at pictures, watching short videos, reading poems and stories. When they come out there are plenty of leaders around keeping a close eye on everyone to ensure that all chanichim are ok, not too upset and dealing with the issue ok.
This was followed by a short tekes where they lit 6 candles in memory of the 6 million Jews that were killed in the Holocaust, and this was linked in with the current genocide that is happening in Darfur.
Dinner was a lovely fish fingers, mashed potatoes, peas and beans before having processing time in their kvutsot (groups). Here the leaders that the chanchim are closest to took them through the day, processed what happened, and made sure that all the chanichim were all ok after the hard day they had. All the leaders said that the chanichim were absolutely great, and found the whole day extremely worthwhile, and most have committed to getting involved in helping the Darfur situation.
The whole spirits were raised after this, with a fun (non-alcoholic) pub quiz which was won by the Ani Levitz kvutsa.
Tuesday 7th August: Mainsite (Day 8)
This morning, after the usual WUMBA, they went into a Resistance peulah. Here the chanichim found out all the different ways people resisted throughout the war in the ghetto, and did so by visiting different characters where they were taught different techniques of the trade (eg. How to smuggle stuff into the ghetto, how to steal identities, spiritual resistance, etc). don’t worry, the techniques they learnt are far from good enough to actually be used – all a bit of fun!
Next they had a ZK (Zman Kvutsa, Group Time) where they were tought about how to write a peulah. This is in order to prepare them for 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 had a peulah showing them all the different cool things the youth movements did during the holocaust, and especially focused in on Dror (Habonim and Dror used to be two separate movements, before merging after the war. Dror played a key part in the Warsaw ghetto uprising). They found this fascinating as we are talking about people of their age 60-70 years ago.
They then had kibbud families, which was followed by a peulah about the Righteous Gentiles and how they risked their lives for some Jews in the holocaust.
After a lovely dinner of Stir Fry they are going into the renowned Conscience Play. The conscience play happens every year on Sayarim, and looks at the tough issue of how people can be bystanders during the Holocaust. This play takes a lot of work from the leaders to prepare for, and is always extremely effective and is remember by all (even I remember my conscience play which was now 9 years ago!). FYI this play was written by Dan Patterson (famous comedian who wrote series such as Whose Line is it Anyway).
Wednesday 8th August: Mainsite (Day 9)
Today, Sayarim had their day out and what fun they had! They were up nice and early to ensure they made the most of their day out. Off they trotted to Wallaby World, which is a big theme park, similar to the likes of Alton Towers.
They were split into smaller groups, and everyone had a little bit of money for them to spend on whatever they wanted – be it presents, memorabilia, or some snacks.
They also received their camp tshirts this morning, which they all loved.
When they arrived back this evening, they had a BBQ waiting for them, and then they settled into the film Schindlers List as so many of them wanted to see it.
All had a great day, and are thoroughly exhausted!
Thursday 9th August: Mainsite (Day 10)
Today sayarim woke up, had breakfast and did avodah before the "where was the world" peula, which involved a mock Evian Conference.
Its been rainy today so they had lunch inside and as such they spent most of the afternoon writing their own peulot for MYOD and made kishuit.
Before dinner they had workshops that they could choose to go to; "where was God", "the rise of anti-semitism" "Habos view" and "why jews" where they sat talking about the subject matter.
The group had pizza baguettes for dinner and tonight the camp are having a "what happened to the jews after the holocaust" in a murrder mystery and all the subjects are things that happened to the jews.
Everyone had a good day.
Friday 10th August: Mainsite (Day 11)
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!
The themes of all the peulot were to do with feelings, so one group had Love, another Hatred, Tolerance, etc. Methods were all varied from role plays, to moving tasks to a mock Conciounce play. Everyone had good fun, and the chanichim really found it worthwhile and got a taste of what being a leader is like.
Tonight they had a kabbalat shabbat service, followed by a delicious vegitarian spaghetti bolognaise dinner and ice cream.
The night was rounded off by a final MYOD peulah and a huge bonfire and shiron (song) session.
Saturday 11th August: Mainsite (Day 12)
Today they had a typical Shabbat lie in, which was followed by a lovely special breakfast.
They then went into a sing songy shabbat service, and then looked at hte parsha. This told them about all different rules there were from kosher laws to charity laws. The chanichim discussed the meaning of rules in general, and then looked at the rules in the torah discussing the relevance of it to them.
After lunch they had shabbat chugim which ranged from Quiditch to Make Your Own Band, to Chocolate Krispie making, to Ultimate Frisbee to Scoobie Making. All were extremely relaxing and fun.
After this was havdallah, followed by a huge Mexican banquet for dinner. Next up is a big Bingo session!
Sunday 12th August: Mainsite (Day 13)
The first peulah of the day looked at Denial and how easy it was to deny the holocaust. This came in the format of a chat show.
Next up was a peulah on Israel and the Shoah where they all had to earn money to pay an evil scientist for products, after which they watched the chemical solutions to do their thing, a catalyst happened – and oops.. Israel was formed! It basically showed how the shoah was the catalyst for the state of Israel.
After this they had a great tunnel peulah relating to Rwanda, where they had speakers, photo galleries, and watched clips from Hotel Rwanda – everyone was very moved by this powerful peulah.
In the evening they did a peulah about darfur, where they went into a dark hall, and everyone was holding a candle, and watched a different take on the Conscience play. They then had a board game, followed by them writing letters to their local MPS about the crisis in Darfur.
Monday 13th August: Mainsite (Day 14)
Today was the last day at camp, and of course was a sad day for all!
They started off with a caring carnival, where they met random “nice” people and all had to do random acts of kindness. They then had their final sikkum which took the form of speed dating.
After a bit of cleaning up, they went into their final mifkad where everyone sang each others songs, which was followed by their final party and lots of ziggim (skits).
They all said their teary goodbyes to their new friends, and everyone has said they are definately coming back next year - wicked!
Click here to see photos of Sayarim - Set 1!
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