Last weekend was our annual Fall Seminar! Chanichimot came together from Los Angeles, the Bay, and San Diego for a weekend of camp fun!
If you missed it or can't wait for the next one, make sure to mark your calendar now for Spring Seminar - March 29-31, 2019!
Keep scrolling for pics and to hear from Sophia, a first-time madricha (counselor)!
Friday
As chanichimot arrived on Friday evening we played games and hung out by kvutsah (age group) to get to know each other and our madrichimot (counselors). High schoolers from our justice-oriented program Tzedek led us in a Shabbat dinner. As per Friday night tradition, we did rikkud (Israeli dancing) in the library before we went to bed.
Saturday
After breakfast Saturday morning we had pish (experiential learning activity) by kvutzah around themes of creation as a means to challenge consumerist norms. The younger kvutzor learned about the environment and why we need to find more sustainable options. They looked at some of the behaviors we see as normal, but are actually unnecessary and damaging to the earth. The 7th grade kvutzah looked critically at the consumerist society we live in and how they experience these pressures in their lives. They looked at the role of media and the portrayal of wealth as creating happiness.
Before lunch we did projects with visiting artists. The older chanichimot participated in a creative mug designing process with Gilboa alum Erin Earp. The younger chanichimot planted snapdragons and other seedlings with Ruth from Little Saplings, an organization that plants gardens with kids at homes and schools.
After lunch we had chug kef, a time on Saturdays for fun electives. Because of the air quality, we stayed inside, but that didn't stop us from getting creative! The choices consisted of improvised “dog touring” and “cloud watching”, music video-making, magic playing, and mafia.
Later in the afternoon we had some relaxing downtime. We watched Shrek 2 and kids could choose to read or play board games.
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| Playing cards in their fort |
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| Bayla and Sunshine performing at Musicale |
After dinner we had havdallah, ice cream, and then epeps — nighttime activities by kvutsah.
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| Havdallah |
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| 7th grade epep - baking brownies! |
Sunday
Sunday morning was in the hands of Tzedek, our 9th and 10th graders! They ran an informative and fun tochnit erev style activity, meaning a camp-wide experiential activity where we all become a part of a story and complete games and challenges to move through it.
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| Creating our alien unity flag! |
This activity took us through the Thanksgiving story we are usually taught, and exposed the darker side of the history that often gets ignored.
To learn the story, everyone turned into aliens! The activity started with an announcement by the alien leaders that we had discovered a new land with lots of resources and that we needed to prepare to go there and conquer it. We dressed up in costumes and trained to travel to this new land.
As we were about to go, we learned that there was another alien nation already there. We each split up by grade and decided what we should do - in the end we created an Alien Unity nation, where everyone was valued equally and no one was exploited for the other's gain.
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| All the aliens! |
We ended with a short discussion about how this is not what happened in America and that we still see today different groups in America fighting to be better than each other. The message that we left with is that we should spend Thanksgiving being thankful for all that we have, and must remember that we must keep working toward an America that respects and values all people.
Tzedek
The seminar ended in the morning for younger campers, but the high schoolers in the Tzedek program stayed for the afternoon to keep working on their justice projects for the year. The topic that they chose for this year is immigration and LA has their first action coming up!
The LA Tzedek participants will be co-hosting a Hannukah protest at the High Desert Prison in Adelanto on December 9th, alongside Bend the Arc and other Jewish organizations. We will be traveling there from LA around 3pm, or you can choose to meet us there around 5pm.
Check your email for more info and follow our facebook page to RSVP to the event once it's posted! We'll be sending out details closer to the day, but if you'd like more info in the meantime, contact Josh Bloom at tzedek@campgilboa.org.
From Sophia Whyte, 11th grader:
This past fall seminar was my first time acting in the role of a madricha (counselor) and I felt this responsibility especially when leading my first pish (educational activity.) The topic was “environmental awareness” and I was unsure if leading a discussion during pish was going to be interesting to the kids. When we began the discussion, I asked my question for the chanichimot (campers) and they gave genuine, intellectual answers that made my heart soar, and I felt like they were really trying to engage. I was so relieved that they took it seriously and happy that I could facilitate an interesting discussion. Even after moving on to the next activity, I felt like I was able to keep them engaged and I now held the ability to run certain activities with more confidence than before.
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