Camp YavnehCamp Yavneh
July 24, 2017

Kerem Wraps Up First Session

Author - Camp Yavneh

As the day on Thursday descended upon us, we were ready.  It was time for Zimriyah (our annual singing competition where each aydah (age
group) prepares and performs 3 songs for the glory)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  As our Yavneh family members piled in to the Beit Am (literally nation house, our gymnasium where Zimriyah is hosted), we donned costumes for the customary Kerem walk in.  The chanichim (campers) waltzed into the Beit Am dressed as different kinds of bills, an homage to our new director, Bil.  They came up with it.  Pretty clever, huh?  Yep, you got some smart kids. Good job raising them!  Seriously.

As we entered the night, the chanichim performed for shir chasidi (the religious song category) a rendition of “Aleh Yerushalayim,” for shir yisraeli (the Israeli song category) “Hakol” by Avior Melsa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1SdGQPUwow), and for shir aydah (their aydah song category, where they write Hebrew words to another song) to the tune of Raging Fire by Phillip Phillips.  Even though Kerem placed in 6th in terms of placement, they actually all told this writer it was the best Zimriyah they had ever had and was the most fun.  It was amazing to see the chanichim have a larger perspective and eschew the hyper-competitive attitude of Zimriyah to model unity and jovial Zimriyah play.  And that’s the way the news goes.

On Friday Kerem spent the morning helping to pack all of the machaneh’s (camp) first month chanichim before they left.  After a
mistake in which a chanich was packed into their luggage with their stuff, the Kerem was taken out after lunch to a field trip.* Excitedly we rolled in to Chucksters, Chichester’s own mini golfing/go karting/rock climbing/high roping woodchuck themed amusement park! Unclear how many woodchuck themed amusement parks exist.  Just saying. Regardless, we met at the beginning to discuss the word.  The M word, the M_______h word, the word that starts with an M and rhymes with “Baccabiah,” you all know it, I won’t say it.  We voted on who would be roshes (literally heads, essentially team captains), for M A C C A B I A H (Yavneh’s camp-wide color war at the end of second month run completely by Kerem for the ultimate leadership experience).  A whopping 25 chanichim were willing to step up and be voted for, though there could be only 8.  We then went on to do mini golfing/go karting/rock climbing/high roping and stuff.  They have this fun game
called a Shoot-N-Shower where you shoot basketballs with another person and whoever scores the least in 30 seconds gets DRENCHED!!!!
BOOYA!!!!!!!!!!  Then we went back to camp and it was Shabbat.

Shabbat was amazing.  It’s always amazing.  But like really out of this world.  We led zemirot (Friday night loud camp-wide singing), we
had our tisch (Friday night quiet just Kerem singing/story telling in the dark) we had mentor meetings between the tzevet (staff) and Kerem
one-on-one, and we even had two doctors come speak for our Shabbat sicha (discussion) to tell us about their experiences in medicine.
Shout out to the Walenskys for being an inspiration!  Upon tzeit hakochavim (the emergence of 3 stars at night, signaling the beginning
of a new day and the end of Shabbat) the machaneh had a meaningful Havdallah (ceremony marking the end of Shabbat) before Kerem went to cover in tzrifim (bunks) while all of tzevet had meetings.  It was bittersweet for the younger chanichim to say goodbye to their Kerem,
and at least one kid actually cried about it, but the Kerem comforted them and reminded them that what even is meaning and isn’t the human
condition mostly arbitrary and nihil?  No they said the opposite and the chanichim were comforted.  What I wrote wouldn’t have been
comforting.  I’m glad they didn’t say it.

Yesterday most of you came and took your kids to probably Portsmouth where you all saw like all of camp.  If you weren’t here, your child
accompanied another family in Kerem and probably did that as well.  It was awesome seeing all of you, and if I didn’t get to see you feel
free to reply to this blog with a vlog (video blog) saying hi and we will respond (Talia doesn’t know I’m making this commitment)!  Upon
returning, we had amazing chicken fingers for dinner before we accompanied the new bunks our Kerem will be covering for this coming
month.  After they finished and the bonds had been freshly formed, our Kerem met about the upcoming Kerem Karnival (exactly what it sounds like this Thursday) and discuss volunteering opportunities to come. And that’s the way it was.  So it goes.  I will come up with a better
sign up by Thursday!!  Miss you all, bye bye now!

*this didn’t happen, the Kerem always does this field trip the Friday
before first month ends.

<3,
T & T