Hey, sorry it's been such a long time. Things have been very busy here at Galil.. We enjoyed a wonderful Shabbat. It started with Kabbalat Shabbat, led by the Sayarim. They sang a Hebrew song and an English song, and danced to Yo-Ya, a popular Israeli dance. After singing a number of traditional Jewish songs and welcoming the Sabbath queen, Ruth, the rosh (head of camp), told a Yiddish story about the value of the self in relation to society.

That evening we watched the Madatz (junior counselors) put on their oneg (comical play), during which they poked friendly fun at the madrichim (counselors) and chanichim (kids). After the oneg we all did rikud (Israeli dancing). The kids had a great time, and worked up a hearty appetite, alleviated by a mid-rikud watermelon break.

The following day the kids enjoyed a sleep-in (a Galil Shabbat morning tradition). On Saturday we empower the bogrim (10^th grade) to run chugim (clubs), activities such as sports, music appreciation, or games for the younger chanichim. This teaches the bogrim to be caring and responsible young adults while allowing the younger kids an opportunity to interact with and emulate the positive traits of the older ones. Later in the day, pre-bar and bat mitzvah kids had a great tutoring session with our bar mitzvah specialists, Nomi and Sophia. The kids are coming along and sounding good.

We had a relaxing, reflective Havdallah service following Musicale, a weekly talent show devoted to music. After Havdallah, we had our weekly medurah (bonfire). We all sang songs around the bonfire, and then the kids, who had came up with various comedy acts during the week, performed them in front of the entire Machaneh. We all had ice cream before going to bed.

Signing Off,

Dusty and Nora