My second day camp has come and gone. This week was an incredibly busy one, what with 10 youth and 30 children in and out of the office every day.
Sunday was full of children for Gan Katan and youth for a leadership series session, led by a popular local lecturer. By the end of his program, the Szarvas youth were ready to finish their preparations for the week. By Sunday night at 7:30 p.m., I was finally able to head home, for an early wakeup the next day.
Day 1 of day camp focused on the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry, the Ashkenaz shtetl, and the differences between the Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews. The kids spent their morning rotating in stations between madrichim, playing games, having discussions, and doing art projects. That afternoon, we played the Game of Life, in which the teams, “families,” answered questions about what they learned in the mornings, to advance themselves around a life-sized game board. Correct answers allowed them to keep their spaces and to earn Life cards, which gave them more spaces, help on questions, or the ability to pass on a question. Wrong answers pushed the teams backward on the board.
- Sarah and our Time Machine
- Token madrichim photo
- Making challah covers at the shtetl
- Acting during the Game of Life
Day 2, while the kids were learning about the Inquisition and Expulsion, I was down at the FRRO, applying for my visa extension. I was able to make it back to the office for a couple of hours of the morning programs, but I had to return in the early afternoon to be granted my actual extension. The officer wouldn’t give me the full extension that I wanted (through August), but he gave me until the end of my contract with the JDC. So, I’ll be in India until July 7 or so, since my visa now expires on July 8. The extra two weeks were hardly what I wanted, but it’s better than nothing. I was really upset at first, but in the end, I will have to leave, whether in a couple of weeks (original expiration date), a month (current expiration date) or a month and a half (desired expiration date). Sooner or later, I’ll return to the U.S. and move on to the next stage of my life. I guess, now that the date is set (even though I’ve been wanting it to be settled for a while!), leaving feels real.
Anyway, having missed the second day of camp, I headed into the third day with excitement, particularly because I like the subject matter for the day. The kids were learning about the creation of Hasidic and Reform Judaism, pogroms, and immigration to America, and we had them watch “An American Tale” in the afternoon.
Day 4 was dedicated to Israel: Anti-Semitism and Zionism, the establishment of the state, and the wars. The kids had a lot of fun playing monkey-in-the-middle to learn about anti-Semitism and having a water balloon fight to simulate war strategy. In the afternoon, we watched “The Star-bellied Sneetches” and played Israeli team tag: each member of each team receives a ribbon, and the kids have to capture each others’ ribbons (but not those of their team members). The team with the most ribbons at the end of the game wins. The kids had a lot of fun, even though the play got pretty brutal at times! Apparently, there is a similar game in India, in which the players are supposed to jump on members of the other teams and drag them back to their safety zones. There was a lot of confusion when Sarah and I had to interrupt play to pull kids off of each other to tell them that that is not a part of our game!
The last day of day camp, we talked about the future of the Indian Jewish community. We reviewed our history, by watching a slideshow of the week, and we talked about how we need to learn our history so that we can prepare for the future. Then, each “family” made a time capsule of Jewish items they might need for the future. The kids were really creative, excited, and motivated, and the madrichim did an incredible job overseeing and working with the kids. When our programs were done, we finished with awards and ice cream treats before saying goodbye. Then, the madrichim, Sarah and I debriefed and rewarded ourselves with M&M cookies Sarah and I made the night before.
It was a very busy and tiring week, but it was much less chaotic than the last day camp. The days went by pretty smoothly, the madrichim were really on top of everything, and the kids were attentive and enthused (for the most part!). I am so proud of the work the youth put into this camp, and I am incredibly satisfied with the end product.
This week, we also celebrated Sarah’s 24th birthday! We went out for Thai food last weekend and shared a nice bottle of wine, and then on Tuesday, at the JCC, Sarah brought the staff ice cream, and the kids sang to her and wiped cake on her face; that night, a bunch of our friends came to our apartment with cake and snacks to hang out and celebrate. Sarah ate lots of cake, fed to her by friends, as per Indian custom, and she wiped lots of cake off her face, also per Indian custom.
Tomorrow, we leave for Nepal! We’ll be there for about a week, June 7-14, and when I return, I’ll have such a couple more weeks left before it will be time to come!
For now, I’ll have to sign off (my deep regrets for the lack of photos – the Internet has been uncooperative today!), but I’ll write when I return from my last vacation on this side of the world.
Until then…
