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Silent Night

Machaneh (camp) is usually loud (in a good way) with chanichim singing, playing and shouting cheers at the top of their lungs. But on Tuesday evening machaneh was completely quiet.

The stage was set for this special evening by letting everyone know that although there is a set plan, the success of the evening depends on everyone’s cooperation. The goal was to learn to communicate in new ways other than our voices and words. Chanichim were to go through different challenges, as a group, using only body language, movements and eye contact. They were asked to be patient and to observe their friends.
 The first station was a rope tied to a stick which the group had to cooperate moving in a spiral. The next one - the group stood on chairs where at each new stage, musical chairs style, one chair had to be removed – so that  in the first stages they had to start sharing chairs, and eventually, when the number of chairs was further reduced, they had to hold and support each other while figuring out the next complicated move without uttering a word.

Next station was a conversation without words. Chanichim started by playing a human mirror game, and moved on to have a conversation where they received a key detailing different movements corresponding to different sentences and had a conversation by moving their bodies.
They went on to cross a rope web that was tied across trees. Chanichim had to help everyone get to the other side without touching the web, and then continued into a Human Knot station.

Following that was an art project station that was guided by two prompts – “who are you” and “what are you feeling”. Chanichim had various materials available to them and created side by side.
Everyone came back together and broke the silence by singing a song together. It was a calm, especially cooperative and super fun night, and besides some giggles, all challenges were successfully passed by all groups in complete silence.




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