Galil heads to Camel Beach

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Yesterday morning, the sleepy chanichim (campers) were woken up by the ram kol (loud speaker) announcing that it was Yom Yisrael (Israel Day), and that we were going to meet in the city Eliat, aka the chadar ochel (dining hall), for a celebration. Yet, as everyone finished breakfast, our Merakez Techni (Technical Director) Josh, announced that it was not actually Yom Yisrael, but the Kupa Trip instead.

Every session we take our chanchim on one very special outing that we call the Kupa Trip, which is easily one of the most anticipated days of each

session. The nature of the trip changes from year to year, from the classic dinner and a movie to a day in an adventure park. Yesterday was much closer to the latter-- we loaded all of

Machaneh (Camp) Galil on to the buses, and sent them up to Camel Beach, a water park in the Poconos.

As the chanichim entered the park and saw literally a mountain full of water rides and slides, they were more than over-joyed, considering the sweltering heat we went through over the past week.

There we spent the day just going with the flow on rides like the lazy river, or sliding down and a round at full speed on rides like The Vortex, which can be best explained like the flushing of a toilet. Bathroom humor aside,

The Vortex was definitely the fan favorite.

And to all of you concerned friends an family out there, everyone was adequately sun-screened.

Upon arrival back to machaneh yesterday evening, everyone enjoyed a shower, baked ziti, and a machaneh-wide movie night. Now we await shabbat, the rain and another exciting week to come.

...Check out and Shabbat Shalom

M.C. SHMOLLY

Making the Rounds in Sadnaot

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Tzevet (staff) at Galil is broken down into a few parts. The bulk of our tzevet is comprised of madrichim (counselors), then tzevet mitbach (kitchen staff), tzevet techni (tech staff), the Mazkirut (directors), and last, but certainly not least, our specialists. The specialists do

things like open the melechet yad (our art room) and water the gan (garden); but they also have roles as vital resources for a lot of things at machaneh (camp) that regular tzevet just can't provide. Because of this, we have a block each day designated specifically for the specialists called sadnaot (workshops). Each sadna is visited by a different kvutzah on a

schedule that rotates every two days; so throughout the course of the session, our chanichim get the opportunity to connect to mediums that they may not have been exposed to by choice.

Duirng sadnaot, chanichim who do not consider themselves to be "out doorsy" do leadership training on our low ropes course, or get their

hands a little muddy in the gan, or some of our chanichim who spend a lot of time on the migrash kadorsal (basketball court) get a chance to work on their visual arts and

expression in the melechet yad. Also, though we make a concerted effort to incorporate

ivrit (hebrew) into our day-to-day activities, we have a special z'man Yisrael (Israel Time) with our Israeli Mishlachat (ambassadors/counselors) to teach the chanichim a little more ivrit and what's up in Eretz Yisrael (The Land of Israel).

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M.C. SHMOLLY

Dude, You Must Chill!

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Even though today was the hottest day that good ol' Ottsville, PA has seen since the summer of 2001, we are managing to get along just fine. How you may ask? Well essentially we turn yom hamsin (hot days) into yom mayim (water day).

We drink outrageous amounts of water, we play in the pool, with the hoses and sprinklers, and in our beloved creek. Everybody has to stay cool

somehow, so we have spent most of the day just...splashing around. We understand that plans need to change from time to time, and nobody really minds spending the hottest days in and around the water.

Along those lines, water bottles are the new hot commodity at Machaneh (Camp) Galil.

Everybody, literally, just has to have one. For those who don't, three tzevet (staff) members have been making the rounds all day, dropping off cool water bottles so everyone has the opportunity to get in on the newest Galil fad: hydration.

For a place that puts heavy emphasis on equality throughout our community, we couldn't deprive our tzevet and chanichim (campers) of getting in on the action! A group of people sitting together at lunch got so excited about hydration that they collectively drank over 600 ounces of water! Pretty refreshing, huh?

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M.C. SHMOLLY

Mifgash: A Very Mosh Invasion

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One of our beloved chadar ochel (dining hall) songs called 'Separation Blues' has a verse that says, "Mosh in Maryland, Galil in Penn. We're gonna get together again, because we got the separation blues." Machaneh (camp) Moshavah is the

Habonim Dror camp from Maryland (just like the song says). Being only a few hours away, Mosh and Galil meet every summer on what we call Mifgash (meeting). Decades of mifgashim have also lead to decades of rivalry between the two machanhot. It's not a real rivalry of course, we just tease them because clearly we are better. So today as our Madatzim packed up to head to Mosh of a Mifgash of their own, our Bogrim (14-15 year olds) greeted Mosh's Bogrim in the best way they knew how; with song and dance.

It's important to note the great thing about Mifgash, despite the teasing. A lot of these Bogrim, from both machanot, have been involved in their machaneh for at least a few years and have had pretty similar experiences to one another. There are common chants, common values, common games, and many other, well, commonalities. So unlike when our chanichim meet new friends

outside of machaneh and need to explain how they spend their summer, chanichim from Habonim Dror machanot share a frame of reference that makes bonding occur just slightly slower than the speed of light. It's not quite a phenomenon because it makes total sense, but the experience for everyone is still pretty extraordinary.

So while the Bogrim approached one another like Sharks and Jets in front of the chadar ochel, the Amelim (9-10 year olds) sat inside of the chadar ochel and made cakes. These weren't

just ordinary cakes though. The Amelim were split up into three groups and given a cake, candy, and icing, and asked to create a map of Israel. They used hard candies for major cities, blue icing for the Mediterranean, and Graham Crackers for the Negev Desert. As they built their states, their madrichim (counselors) asked them questions about Israel's history and people.

Yesterday, Galil celebrated America's independence with a Yom Meuchad (special day). The day was framed as if the chanichim woke up and it was Independence Day in the year 2510 where nearly everything was run by fast food and video games. Though initially a lot of the chanichim were excited about some new virtuality in their machaneh lives, they soon grew bored and unchallenged by a culture that America had become. As the day went on, we reconnected with the freedom and independence we have today and had a dance party that couldn't be beaten.

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M.C. SHMOLLY

Though it's a great way to practice democracy, it doesn't just happen before Independence Day

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Every Friday after lunch, we have a nearly twenty-year-old tradition of doing an activity we call Hyde Park. Based on the Hyde Park in London, England where people go up to the

talking rock and can say anything they want just as long as it doesn't insult The Queen, our chanichim (campers) follow a similar practice...but clearly with much more swagger. Here's how it works: all of the chanichim sit on a circle of benches in the location we have conveniently named after its purpose (Hyde Park), and in the center of the circle is a multi-colored tire.

Chanichim must "strut" up to the tire, without running, and the first person or group to reach the tire in a creative and fair way gets to go up to our talking rock and say pretty much whatever they want.

For the most part, comments include things like "I want more meals that include bananas" or "Last night's tochnit erev (evening program) was so cool, we should have it second session too." One of the mazkirut (administrators/directors) members writes down

all of the comments so

that the people to whom the feedback is given, can receive it constructively and make necessary adaptations or changes. This time is highly valued by are community for the sheer reason that we give each individual the option to voice their thoughts, feelings, and opinions in a constructive and safe way. Some people are only in it for the strut, which

is a great way to express your goofiness and creativity to the rest of the machaneh (camp) and others are in it because they know that we are all capable of being agents of positive change.

...Check out, Shabbat Shalom, and see you on July 4th!

M.C. SHMOLLY

So much to Gan in one summer!

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In the summer of 2006 we built the gan (garden) next to Hyde Park. It took a group of overzealous seventeen-year-olds with a strong love for wearing overalls and seven hard-working weeks, but at the end of that summer we had the first real functional gan in a long time.

We started out small with plants like mint, basil, and snap peas, but four years down the road, our gan has nearly trippled in size. We still grow peas, mint, and basil but now we have the space to grow lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant. So not only is the gan a great source for our seasonings and salads, but it is also a great place for informal learning and growth to take place.

Every day we work on and water the gan, we pick the herbs and vegetables, we run peulot (programs) with Jocelyn our Gan Specialist, and we sit and enjoy the aromatic mint and basil that grows four-years strong in our free time. At this point, the gan is a fantastic way for us to actualize upon our agricultural roots, seeing as the origins of Habonim camping trace back to farming communities modeled after the Israeli Kibbutz. It seems more than appropriate that

once every decade or so we make a concerted effort to reconnect with the roots that got us to where we are today. How fitting then, that we use plants and their roots to help connect us with ours.

Here is a picture of our beloved gan.

...Check out and Viva la Dance Party

M.C. SHMOLLY

Five Years Ago, Today, and Five Years from Now

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In the summer of 2005 the Sayarim (post 6th graders) wrote letters to themselves

for the summer of 2010 when they would be in Madatz (our post 11th grade counselor training program). Each of the chanichim (campers) addressed

future aspirations, the status of their friendships, and their feelings about that summer. Their madrachim (counselors) wrote letters too, addressing some of the same points including their thoughts about that kvutzah (group), what their chanichim would be doing in the summer of 2010, and what they would be doing as well. After the summer of 2005, one of their madrachim and one of their madatzim buried all of the letters and keepsakes in a large plastic tub in a secret location only to be revealed, well, today.

Time capsules happen all the time here--perhaps one every summer.

Seldom though, are those who buried the time capsules present for the follow-through and reveal. So about one foot under Galil's historically-rich ground there are probably enough letters and keepsakes from chanichim over the past 64 years to fill a museum. But this summer and this time capsule happens to be different. That particular madatz who helped bury the time capsule five years ago happens to be at Galil this summer. A former Sayarim madrich from that summer also happens to be working at Galil (not the one who buried the time capsule though, he is getting a PhD in Colorado). So at 10:45 this morning, the Madatz were lead to the secret spot with two shovels and they began to dig.

Remarkably, all but two of the madatz here this summer

had dampened, but legible, letters from their twelve-year-old selves--along with bracelets, a fan, a few pictures, and two pairs of boxer shorts (?). For the greater part of an hour, the madatzim read their letters and shared funny anecdotes with one another and with their madrachim both past and present. Now with chanichim of their own, the madatzim discussed what it takes to connect with a chanich/a that they might have trouble relating too, or try and get behind what would motivate a twelve-year-old to leave a pair of boxer shorts in a time capsule. They acknowledged the power in reconnecting with their past to better understand their present. A lot can happen in five years, perhaps in 2015 those same madatzim will be digging up time capsules that they buried in the year 2010 and then blogging about it.

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M.C. SHMOLLY