By Rachel Ball Kefiada Volunteer, St. Louis

Hi, my name is Rachel Ball from Saint Louis, Missouri.  I am excited to start camp after a week of planning.  Hopefully we will be prepared enough.

This is the first week of camp, the theme of the week, balagan!  To describe what I mean I need to first paint the picture of the scene.  We arrive at Oranim School in Yokneam and we start to prepare for the day.  Yeah, what a day!  Just after we arrived there were children everywhere, oozing out of the outdoor basketball court as moms and dads gave hugs and kisses goodbye to their little ones.

As Jonathan, Elizabeth, Avital, Nick, Elyse, Jane, Colette, Morgan, and I were introduced to the camp were suddenly realized what we were in for, a crazy camp.  Though not everything was quite organized we had fun interacting with the children for the first time in Yokneam.  Many of us got frustrated not being able to understand the children as they were speaking miles, no kilometers, a minute in Hebrew.  While we were getting aquainted, Avital was our best friend as we constantly were asking her to translate.  The Israeli couselors were just as confused as we were, but we managed as the first day of camp ended and we got on autobus sheva (bus 7) for the first time on the way to the Matnas, the community center.

Tania, our coordinator, had debated before whether or not we should have an evening activity planned for that evening and I think many of us were glad that there was none.  We are so grateful to Tania for lending us an ear as we let her know all of the happening of the day, the good, the bad, and the... other. Several field trips are planned for camp and we were excited to accomplany the children to the pool as well as Cinema City, the biggest movie theater you have seen. 

Thursday seemed like forever away, but when it finally came we were so grateful and waiting to spend a restful Shabbat. Time to get recharged for another week!