Dear Parents, Snifim and Shanties, Shalom Rav!
One more week has passed and we are coming to the end of the Options period. This Tuesday they will be leaving Karmiel and we will be meeting again in Kibbutz Hanaton where the Jewish Identity Seminar will take place, the seminar will end on Friday and our shnatties will start a small vacation just before starting the third and last part of the program on Kibbutz Lotan.
On many occasions I have related in the weekly reports anecdotes about my son Ilan, who is now a year and half (and I cannot believe how time flies), and once more I would love to share with you an amusing anecdote.
I find it impressively amazing how baby's/toddlers minds work and how they learn and absorb things. This week my son showed us that he learn how to take the clothes from the dirty hamper and put them into the washing machine, we found it very amusing and have no idea when he learned that that is what you are supposed to do, we still found it amusing when he kept putting different things into the washing machine, like his little blanket, his bottle, etc. We still found it amusing when he decided he wanted to take the clothes we just hung up to dry right back into the washing machine. The next step was when after putting every thing he could find at hand into the washing machine and still with a thirst for more turn around to find the garbage can and started transferring things from the garbage to the washing machine, needless to say that although I found it very amusing and could not stop laughing while my wife told me about it, she found a bit less amusing than me. And obviously all of this while he maintained his face of: "IT WASN'T ME".
Back to our shnatties, the girls in Karmiel are working very hard, Kitty has been helping out organizing the big Dance Festival that Karmiel hosts every year, they have been hosting this festival for over 20 years, Liz is hard at work with the babies and the rest of the girls are helping out at the "kef li aviv" camp, where they are very much needed. Josh and Lily are still in the Uk leading the RSY campers and we will be seeing them soon once they get back to Israel.
Yesterday I went up to Karmiel to visit our dear shnatties and was accompined by Hana our Madricha in Kibbutz Lotan, who had a chat with them, got to know them a little better and to get a feel of the shnatties expect to get out of their time in Lotan, they cannot wait to get to the kibbutz J
I want to wish you all a great week,
Michael
Weekly report by Jade K and Kathryn H
Netzer Fest Not Netzer Fest:
Netzer Fest this year unfortunately didn't go ahead, what happened instead was more of a mifgash between Telem, RSY and NFTY. Kathryn, Liz, Sophie and Jordy arrived at the Chavayah campsite ready for a full on day of peulot leading and very excited to see Jade and Shana who had been gone for the better part of a month, needless to say there was lots of catching up to do. First order of business was going over the peulot for the next day before heading down to a well earned dinner in the chederochel. While a few of us caught up on sleep, others were catching up with friends from Chavaya or having indepth conversations with Maoz.
We woke up bright and early the next day, pulled our green Chultot over our heads and steped out of our cool rooms into the hot sun. We had a quick breakfast, finalised the lines for our rediculous skit and found our co madrichim. The busses arrived and out poured about 200 exhausted sixteen year olds from America (NFTY) and England (RSY Netzer). They had spent the last three weeks touring Israel. After an opening ceremony, complete with the rediculous skit, we split them up into smaller grops and off we went to learn a little more about what judaism and the connections we can make as jews around the world, really mean to us.
After lunch we took to the stage again with a power point presentation on what Shant is for the Northerners and a little parody song to 'Save Tonight' (quite the performance if you ask me) and had a mini question and answer session, where we pretended that kids asked questions. LOL!
The kids from Noar Telem and NFTY had a small ma'amad where they taught eachother new songs and tunes for the prayers and with that the day was over.
We packed up our things, hopped on a little minibus after a few heartfelt goodbye and we were off, back to Karmi'el.
The Karmi'el Dance Festival, an Inside scoup:
The energy in the offices over the last three days has been quite crazy and the phones have been ringing off the hook. There's been so many people rushing around, in and out all day long. There has been so much to organise and finalise before the opening performances. In the last few days I've helped finnish off the roses for the dancers costumes and prepare the song books and programmes for all the patrons of the Dance Festival.
We all got dressed up for a night on the town, donning pretty dresses and make up for what felt like the first time in three months. We spent the evening walking around the craft market stalls, taking in the energy in the crowd. There were clothing stalls, craft stalls, weird 3D cat picture stalls, toy stalls, tattoo stals, the stalls where you can have your name written on a piece of rice and the stalls with all the cheap toys and a spongebob squarepants who blows bubbles.
Jade and I found ourselves making pottery vases on the wheel and watching the fire work display. We're still puzzeling over the fact that there was white nutella and were determined to find it. Shana, Jordy and Sophi were enjoyiing the dancing of the festival on the grass, wich was pretty chilled.
All the way from the Land of Tea, Josh and Lily:
Its been quite a few weeks since we last heard from Josh and Lily as they dont really have access to theinternet on their camps. Josh seems to be enjoying leading on camp, he has kids that are about 13 or 14 years old. Lily sent us all a message last night from outside the offices saying she misses us all teribbly. From what we've heard leading the brittish kid sounds like its a rather big challenge for both of them, what with the cultural differences and getting used to the strange rules of english camp. It sounds as though both of them are having a really hectic time but are still up for the challenge.
But wait, there's more!
As this is our last week in Karmiel we are super busy and still have heaps to look forward to. Tonight Jordy and Shoshana are attending the wedding of the daughter of one of the host families in Haifa, Mazeltov to all involved. We are also responsible for the entire service at Yedid Nefesh on Friday night, admittedly a challenge but we can't wait to teach them our tunes. Last but definitely not least we are all super pumped to see the new batman movie at the Kiron on the weekend!
Last but not least, the Mystery of the White Nutella:
It all started at the Dance festival when Kitty and I - obviously in desperate need of nourishment after a long night of shopping and ceramics - turned to the crepe stall. What we discovered there changed our lives: White Nutella. We have since searched and seems that it doesn't exist (we even checked the website) any leads would be much appreciated.
Missing you terribly!
Love Teva (and extra love Jade and Kitty)