Lately on Kaveret (March, April)

March was a very busy month for us on workshop. At the end of the month, my kvutza did our very first (and last) kvutza weekend. Everyone stayed in for the weekend and we planned fun activites for each other. For instance, we all watched the sunset together, has a picnic in the park, played a giant game of hide and go seek tag in the park, had a kvutza wide scavenger hunt all over Akko, and had a falafel lunch in the old city! It was an awesome weeeknd spent with my kvutza.

That Sunday after the weekend, all of Workshop went to Tel Aviv for VIA talks, which are TED style talks led by the WZO (World Zionist Organization). Most of it was pretty boring, but a few of the lectures were interesting. We got to meet the new Habo SAANZ and Australians for the first time too!

We also had a bunch of seminars in March/ early April. After the kvutza weekend, we had our Chava achot seminar. Each kvutza ( and the Aussies) are paired up with a HaNoar HaOved kvutza that is similar to ours. My kvutza's is in Haifa and earlier in the week we had dinner at their place and got to meet them before the seminar. The seminar was interesting, and I got to learn a lot about the similarities between the 2 movements. It was held at Kibbutz Ravid, which overlooks the Kinneret. Sometimes when peulot would get to be too long and boring, I would take a step outside and look at the amazing view. 

2 days after the Chava achot seminar, we had another seminar! However, this was waaaay different. It was held in Jerusalem at a hotel and it was run by Masa who partnered with Hillel for the seminar. We were split into groups with other gap year programs based on what school we're going to next year, location of that school, and type of school. I wasn't with any other workshoppers, which I was nervous about, but It turned out being just what I needed. I got to meet some people who are going to American next year too, but who are on a different gap year program. It was also interesting because unlike the Chava achot seminar, a lot of the other programs had a values and beliefs that did not relate to mine (or Habo's). I thoroughly enjoyed hearing everyone else's opinions though. By the end of the seminar, I was made even more excited for next year, but also sad that I also won't be with any habo's from my kvutza there. 

This past weekend I went to the Bahai gardens of Akko! I also got to go inside the shrine, but we weren't allowed to take pictures in there. Although the Bahai gardens of Haifa are more lavish (the ones in Akko are gorgeous too), the gardens in Akko are holier because they are the final resting place of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the faith. 

The entrance to the gardens

We also had a kvutza Seder the night before the actual first Seder and the night before chofesh started. We invited Maya and Nir over and set up the living room to make it like a dining room. I made the veggie option which was quinoa with cooked spinach, and I made chocolate torte for dessert! Other food that we had was brisket, potatoes, broccoli, and Matan's chocolate matzah brittle which was amazing. A few people in my kvutza made Hagadot for the Seder! Something we tried to do was incorporate everyone's Passover traditions into the Seder. Since it's most of our first times away from our homes in the States or Canada for the Seder, we thought it was especially important to incorporate a little bit of familiarity into the kvutza Seder. Ari made a traditions slideshow which gave little excerpts of everyone's traditions. For instance, Dan's family says a modern plague in addition to the 10 plagues, so we did that as a kvutza for our Seder too. Most of us wrote that our seder's involve a lot of singing, so we obviously incorporated a lot of singing into ours as well!

We finally have a kvutza name! While the name sticks will always have a special place in our hearts, we are now... (drumroll please).... Kvutzat Anafim! Anafim means branches in English. Branches are essentially sticks, but while sticks lay motionless, branches are constantly growing, just like us. Branches also stem from the same roots. The metaphor is endless! I'm very happy with our name. I love the metaphor, and not to mention Anafim rolls off the tongue pretty well.

Every Friday the bakery by our house gives us the left over pastries that weren't sold for that day. They can't keep them because they aren't open on Shabbat, so we get them for free! The week during Purim we got a ton of hamentashen! Too many pastries to count! 

About a week ago, we packed a thousand or so boxes of food for pesach for the residents of Akko who wouldn't have been able to afford it otherwise. The first day of the packing was actually a day that my tzevet had our Keitana, so when we got home we took a 20 minute break and then were on our way to help! When we got there the Kiyum 4 person tzevet was also helping. Earlier in the day Dufda and Kiyum 3 were also there, but they had to leave  for messima before my tzevet arrived. HaOgen also showed up a bit after we did. We stood passing boxes down the line while little orthodox children placed Matzah, ketchup, oil, matzo meal, etc in the boxes. The kids would scramble around trying to make sure that everyone box had the same amount of food in it, but sometimes the line would go slow because we would run out of sugar for instance, so I would often hear "ani tzerich od sucar" and I, or others would have to run and get more. Even though each tzevet had a very tight schedule, I'm glad that we were all able to squeeze some time in to help the Akko  community. 

Ein Gedi

With only a few more free weekends left on Workshop, Jess, Aliyah, Dan, and I decided to go down to Ein Gedi to relax by the Dead Sea and go hiking. On Friday April 4th, we took a sherut to Haifa, then took a bus to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem we took another bus to Ein Gedi. We spent the day relaxing in the Dead Sea, and then set up our sleeping bags. While Dan and Aliyah napped, Jess and I read our books with the last bit of daylight that was left before the sunset. Once it got dark, there wasn't much left for us to do but get in our sleeping bags and just talk. Aliyah and I fell asleep pretty quickly, so the next thing I knew it was morning. 

The next morning we woke up, and walked to some of the nearby hiking trails. Within 5 minutes of the hike, I ran into a branch and got these really awesome looking scratches on my eye.

 We hiked for about 4 hours, saw the Dodom caves, and hung out in some waterfalls to cool off and take breaks. 

When we were done hiking, we celebrated with popsicles. Yay popsicles! Because it was a Saturday, the first bus to Jerusalem wasn't until 7 that night. That's alright though, because we all fell asleep on the bus ride home. It was a really nice weekend spent in a beautiful place with some of my best friends from Galil. 

     

Jess, Aliyah, Dan, and I

The Dead Sea that separates Israel and Jordan 

Haifa Tzevet Keitana!

So when the kids who go to Beit HaTziorim (the ken I work at) have their spring break from school, the ken is usually closed as well. However, there is a 3 day camp (we planned 2 out of the 3 days and the HaNoar HaOved madatzim planned the other day) that occurs at the ken, and my tzevet was fortunate enough to plan and run it for the chanichim! 

The first step was to decide on a theme for the Keitana. We decided to loosely base it off of the movie Brave. The main characters during these 2 days were King Jacob, Queen Eva , Prince Eli, and Princess Hannah and they were played by 4 of the madrichim at the ken. The overarching theme of the Keitana was freedom of expression. Eli and Hannah want to go into the woods outside of the castle and explore, which is something they love to do, and somewhere that they feel they can be themselves. The parents don't like them to go out into the woods because they have responsibilities as the prince and princess of the kingdom. 

Each day started out with a skit and the song that we made for the Keitana. It's was to the tune of "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction. We then had chuggim, which were the same both days. I helped run a chug with Sara Banai and Geffen, which was chipping off paint from the wall outside Beit HaTziorim so that we could paint a new mural! Taking off the paint took longer than expected so that's what we did for all 3 days. Nonetheless, the kids really enjoyed it, so that made our job easy. Aaron ran a chug that was called funology, which was a series of science/ hands on experiments like trying to drop eggs without breaking them and making paper airplanes! The kids loved it! Next, the had a scavenger hunt around Haifa. Each stop along the way was supposed to be the kids' favorite places to explore outside the kingdom walls. They all ended in the park that overlooks the Haifa Bay. We were supposed to play a game of capture the flag (madrichim  vs chanichim) to the get the key to the kingdom, but since this park has a giant fountain in it, the kids all wanted to play in the water after walking around in the heat. We all realized that sometimes things don't always go as planned, but that's okay and instead of trying to make it work the way you wanted it to go in the beginning, feeling the vibe or the mood is more important. The kids would not have been able to reconvene for a game of capture the flag, or to sit for another skit and recitation of the song, so we let them  play in the fountain. And by the looks of it, they were having the best time ever!

The next day of the Keitana was a bit more relaxed, but still super fun. Again, they started out with chuggim, but then we had a round robin, which was meant for exploring different things they could do like being an artist, cook, builder, or athlete. The artist station was the one I was at. The kids made paper mosaics with cut up pieces of construction paper that spelled their kita (grade level). The building one was building with cardboard and other various materials. The cooking one was by far the favorite, and that was making pizzas with the pizza oven! And lastly the athlete station was playing soccer. I'm pretty sure the kids were only really hype for the round robin because they knew they would be able to make their own pizza at a station. The round robin transitioned nicely into a skit where the kids finally get to do what they want and the parents understand and know that it's best to let the kids be themselves and do what they love to do. The last part was a carnival on the migrash (the court that we use that's on top of the bomb shelter which happens to be where the ken is in). There were tons of different stations. Aaron and I collected coca cola bottles and filled them halfway for a bowling station. There was also a soccer station were you had to kick the soccer bowl at a bunch of different numbered targets to get points. There was face painting, anything for candy, a post man station, and building houses out of cookies and chocolate spread. There was also music playing in the background that went along with the theme. I took pictures on Aaron's camera  most of the time. The carnival went really well and I think the kids enjoyed it a lot. It was a great way to end our part of the Keitana. 

Afterwards, our melavim, Sarah and
Adam, took us out for ice cream/froyo! I got froyo which is something I really miss from home. Once we got back to Akko, I felt so happy knowing that we ran a successful Keitana and that we got to start our chofesh early! The other tzvatim still had their Keitana like activities, but we were free to relax which felt awesome.

Some of the madrichim at the ken performing in one of the skits