Today began at around
7:15 for me, waking up to the smell of Omer’s dad cooking eggs. I was promptly
given an egg in a pita and sat down to enjoy it while Omer took it to go. After
picking up Yuval Moriah and Marisa Parnes, we headed to a youth center where we
were briefed on what was to come; we were
working with Ethiopian Israeli youths in a camp setting. We made a big
entrance singing and dancing and then we took an hour bus ride to Alexander
Muss High School in Hod Hasharon where the fun began. The bus ride was an
amazing experience in and of itself the seats reclined, and we all found
ourselves in a comfortably reclined daze. I was on the spirit team so most of
my efforts went into motivating kids, singing dancing, dressing funny, the sort
of stuff the people on my team do every day. 
Of all the teams the counselors definitely had the hardest job after being constantly with the kids. We thought the Israelis had energy to spare but these kids obviously had apple juice or something before coming. Luckily for the counselors the schedule for oncoming days has been revised in order to give them more breaks. The enrichment team really found it meaningful to spend quality teams in more personal groups. The camp seems to be off to a good energetic start. Currently there is a "teen zula" going on for the kids. "Teen zula" is pretty much a tent where kids can dance. The thing I found interesting was that they're having a headset party. The basic premise of a headset party is a DJ transmits music to a heap of wireless headsets and the kids dance and hang out with them on. From our point of view not only is it hilarious to watch kids just randomly dancing but they're all quiet!! We still have our night circles and sleepy time left on the schedule.
Overall today had a huge learning curve for me. The main things I
learned were how to deal with energetic kids who don't speak the same language
as me, how to set up a tent, and how really as a teacher you can learn from
your students in ways in which you'd least expect. Most important of what I
learned from the kids specifically today is the little things really affect a bigger
group. I saw one of our Dillers pick up a piece of trash and a few campers
follow. Hopefully tomorrow I will learn even more from this experience. Laila
tov, to my mom and family I love you and hope you have a good night.
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