Smells like Shabbas Up in Here (Up in Here, Up in Here)

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Every Friday morning the chanichim (campers) nearly race to the chadar ochel (dining hall) because they know what's awaiting them at the breakfast table, MUFFINS! First round muffin picks go to the chocolate chip and blueberry, next round pick goes to the poppy seed, and the third round pick goes to the corn muffin. So as we enjoyed the sweetness of the muffin to taste, our noses enjoyed the aromas wafting from the mitbach (kitchen)--the smell oh so familiar and

the closest thing to the smell of home; shabbas dinner.

The exact scent is hard to describe, it's some combination of roasted onions and baked potatoes with rosemary. It is definitely enough to excite a room for what comes later in the day.

We do spend our Fridays getting ready for Shabbat, or as we call it hachanot l'shabat. An extended avodah is part of that. We send the ashpa (trash) truck to go around and collect the garbage from all of the buildings and tzrifim (cabins) around machaneh, we mop the floors of the chadar ochel, and among other things we harvest the fresh vegetables and herbs from the gan and we live the difference between a week of work and a day of rest.

...Shabbat Shalom and Check Out until Sunday

M.C. SHMOLLY

This is the Remix Edition of a Song About Pishin'

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It may come as a surprise to families and chanichim (campers) alike the amount of actual

learning that goes on here. It's not that we try to hide it by any means, we just get that every opportunity is a learning opportunity, and just like we expression we throw around the...office: chinuch (education) is kef (fun). Though it may seem easier to find an interesting article, make copies, and distribute them to an entire shicvah (age group) to read and then talk about, it definitely isn't the most effective way to get a message across.

Around these parts, we call ourselves "informal educators" regardless of the tafkid (job) an individual holds. We plan peulot (programs) each day that teach a lesson related to the themes and the process of the summer during

peulat shicvah (a program by age group), which we refer to as pish. During this time, aside from the method of the peulah, there is also a latent learning function where the kids in each shicvah bond with one another by sharing in the same learning frame and process. Today, the Sayarim (post 6th graders) went on a scavenger hunt to familiarize themselves with the locations at machaneh and find their "missing kvutzah (group) member" to recognize the contribution of each individual to the group. And in a similar vein, the Bonim (post 8th grade) discussed inequality through exploring varying access to resources by breaking the chanichim into groups and giving each group different amounts of materials to make a raft that floats.

We learn by learning together. See, chinuch is kef!

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M.C. SHMOLLY

Intersession it's in between the sessions, it's after first session and before second session.

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Sending our four-weekers away can't help but be a little emotional, considering the measurable growth (both physical and emotional) we see in one another in just a month's time. It's quite possible that life-long bonds have been made in a this ripple of time, and the second you leave, it's only 11 months until you can come back again. Sarah in Chotrot (on the right) started to cry when she said bye to Julie our matzilah (life guard), and then Julie couldn't hold back her tears when they hugged. Shiah found the whole thing amusing, hence the two thumbs up. We say that generations here last about five years, roughly from one year's Amelim (age 9-10) to one year's Bogrim (age 15). It's

crazy to think that this summer's Bogrim will be the madrichim (counselors) for the 2010 Amelim when it's 2015 and they are in Bogrim. Confusing, but oh so cyclical. Shiah is 22, Julie is 19, and Sarah is 11, and yet they have all impacted one another's lives.

Now, welcome to Intersession, the hang time between first and second session. For chanichim (campers) intersession serves as a great time to catch up on sleep, euchre and other card playing, and trips to the movies to see summer blockbusters like Toy Story 3. We even bring in a special tzevet (staff) to help out themadatz (CITs) with running intersession programming. The intersession tzevet is normally

comprised of former Galil tzevet members and vets to the summer process. This year we brought in former Rosh Galil, Ben Profeta, former madricha, Gan specialist, and Driver, Ilana "Woosie" Goldfus, former madriach, Brian Cohen, and former madricha, administrative assistant to the Eexecutive Director, and the one we call "Grams," Arielle Wernick. It's nice for all of us to bring in some back up so that we, the tzevet (staff), have about 48 hours break everything down, build it back up, and just generally do our thing. And now with about three hours until the second-sessioners roll up, and the final moves being made to prepare for their arrival, we are just about ready to get this whole thing started again.

Second session will bring a whole new slew of energy and excitement and we are all just bracing ourselves to bring it all on.

Thanks for all of your patience in the blog-gap. Even bloggers have to participate in the intersession madness. Don't worry, your kids and friends are safe and happy!

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M.C. SHMOLLY

Are YOU Ready for Ivrit Shimushit?

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Each morning at the end of Hitkansut Boker (the morning flag-raising) the chanichim (campers)

and madrichim (counselors) sit in front of the toran (flag pole) to enjoy a mini-hatsega (play/skit). This isn't just any ordinary hatsega, it may in fact be our punniest time of the day, we call it Ivrit Shimushit (useful Hebrew). Here's how it breaks down: At the start of each session three to four madrichim create a plot line, characters, and a theme song to frame each day based satirically on a movie or TV show. Then while following the plotline, the

characters make pun-based links to Hebrew words that may sound like other words in English. For example, the Hebrew word for "fork" is "mazleg." So the classic skit has two characters

talking about how "There is a fork in Ma's leg." Get it?

So this session's Ivrit Shimushit skit is based off of the late 90's teen film, Josie and the Pussy Cats. So on the pictures to the right, meet Shoshi veh Ha'Chatulot (Shoshi and the Cats), who have just reached rock stardom and are on a world tour playing their music. As the skit comes to an end and the Hebrew word is revealed, the madrichim call out the word in English and have

the chanichim call out the Hebrew in a call-and-response manner. The theme song for Shoshi veh Ha'Chatulot also incorporates some

ivrit shumushit, the song goes:

Take a good look and remember us baby
Nichbosh ta'Olam (taking over the world) and it's gonna be crazy.

Top of the charts have a number one hit

We'll rock Galil while you learn some some ivrit

ooooooh ooooooooh

Shabbat shalom and see you on Sunday!

M.C. SHMOLLY

Tisha B'Av: A Day to Remember

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With the end of all of our good-deeding yesterday evening, we quickly transitioned into the reflective mood of the Jewish Holiday, Tisha B'Av (The 9th of the month of Av on the Hebrew Calendar). Tisha B'Av historically has been a day to commemorate the destruction of the second temple and being a people in national exile. Throughout history, however, the day has come to symbolize Jewish hardship and tragedy. Last night before the Tzofim, Bonim, and Bogrim watched the film, Life is Beautiful, they engaged in a discussion about the contrast between spending a day healing our community and then reflecting on how tragedy has impacted our history. What is the link you may wonder? Two of our Bogrot made a spot-on point about the two days. They pointed out that Tisha B'Av puts our lives in the context that frames the experience of Tikkun Olam's importance.

We have a responsibility to make the world better because of the hardships we have faced. So as we spend the day in conversation about good versus evil, the differences between tolerance and advocacy, and the role that events like liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto and the BP spill in the Gulf have to do with us today, it shows us that we learn about the past so that we can fix the future.

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M.C. SHMOLLY

Going Back to Our Roots

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After a full day of bringing Philadelphia to the chanichim (campers) for visitors day, we decided that it was only fair to bring the chanichim to Philadelphia. Each summer we reserve a day in the calendar for tikkun olam, the Jewish value of repairing the world, that manifests itself in a service project. This year we went for the classic "connecting to our roots" but oh so literally.

Starting this morning as the storm clouds cleared, we sent three bus-loads of tzevet (staff) and chanichim to four locations throughout Philadelphia to work with urban farming initiatives and

cooperatives.

The Amelim and Chotrim made their way to North Philadelphia to clean up vacant lots and do some community gardening with The Urban Tree Connection. The Sayarim were sent to the farm associated with the Weavers Way Cooperative in Mt. Airy, to lend their farming hands and greening thumbs. The Tzofim and the Bogrim merged two Galil values - environment and education - to work with Foundations and City Harvest to farm and weed along side with Philadelphia high school students, beautifying the growing gardens on their urban sites.

As the chanichim weeded their way through the greater Philadelphia area, our tzevet heard

more positive feedback from the kids than we ever do during our usual avodah (daily job) block. The chotrim called it "super avodah,"

the tzofim lamented about how it was essential to make our gan (garden) larger and self-sustaining, and as the Bogrim walked off of the bus they asked "Why can't we do this every day?" Something about today seemed to light at least a tiny spark under the hearts and actions of our excited and empowered community. We have taken this rooted reconnection to heart and it seems like now we are ready for the next step. We started as a learning farm to train for life on the kibbutz, so would it be retroactive to move back to a time where we were not just leaders in the Jewish community but in the agricultural community as well? All feedback is welcome.

Another day. Another adventure.

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M.C. SHMOLLY

Yom Horim: Take the Food and Run

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Coming to you live from chug Viva la Dance Party, where today instead of dancing...we are

digesting. We are digesting the food, of course, but we are all digesting all that we experienced on Yom Horim (Visitors Day). We try pretty hard to give all of you a taste of what we do here, but after a day of singing, eating, shmoozing, and bidding our three-weekers adeiu we will all sleep

early and soundly.

Starting at noon today, well a little before noon, Machaneh Galil was invaded. Not by the zombies and vampires that we see so much of in pop culture, but by all of our families, friends, and hopefully some of you! The first hour and a half is dedicated solely to the feasting and the shmoozing. Don't worry though, the chanichim (campers) and tzevet (staff) without families and

friends attending actually end up getting more food and more attention than those with visitors

because they become guests of each picnic blanket and manage to get all of the extra pizza, hoagies, and brownies their hearts can possibly desire.

The rest of the day was filled with a short performance by all of Camp Galil, Schiyah Chofshit

(Free Swim), and Ice Breakers where all of the visitors got to interact with their chanichim, their madrichim, and one another. This time in the day is really just a taste of what makes it so great

here, but we hope that you all enjoyed yourselves. We certainly enjoyed having you all here. The chanichim will spend the rest of the night relaxing at a drive-in style movie night watching, Honey I Blew Up the Kids, and gearing up for a day full of Tikkun Olam (our yearly service project) doing urban farming work in Philadelphia. What a great way to connect to our kibbutz and agricultural roots!

That's it for tonight and look forward to great stories about tomorrow!

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M.C. SHMOLLY