Well, I do apologise but for some reason the pictures from Thursday and Friday are not uploading and I really must apologise but I seem to have forgotten to take pictures of today and last night!
Moving on...
Friday night we escaped our hotel that had been overtaken by the French and went to the local French (they are ALL french) shul and davened Kabalas Shabbos and then came back to the hotel to daven Ma'ariv together. We walked in the humid, sweltering, wet night the 0.9miles to our brave hosts, the Ben-Chaim's in Kiryat Sanz.
The meal was truly an experience. For most of us it was the first time that we had been in a Chassidishe house and a few girls said that it was a bit surreal. Claire, the token Sephardi, said that it was 'eye-opening'. It was a beautiful meal and the three boys were singing throughout. Apparently, they usually go to bed after the fish course and were singing for three hours just in our honor. On our walk back, around 12am, Michelle bumped into (literally) two girls who were walking in our direction. By the time we got back to the hotel, us and Michal and Rivka, were really good friends and we stayed downstairs talking for an hour before we made them promise to come back the next day.
The next morning we got up and davened. Unfortunately, though, we didnt make it to shul because we were all shattered from the whole week of constant action. We then had a discussion about identity and some very interesting points came up about how each person can be free within boundaries and the greatest happiness and contentment is found within a person that has boundaries - ie being jewish and keeping the Mitzvos are our boundaries and that is why most people find contentment in their 'search for happiness' when they discover judaism.
Then at 2pm we arrived at our hosts from the night before for our meal. It was delicious and again, an amazing experience. The view from their living room window was breathtaking! Our walk back was surprisingly uneventful and we spent the afternoon taking walks along the beach, sleeping or in major discussion. At around 6:30, Nechama called us all upstairs for another discussion. This time just a general one and a summary about how we felt after the diverse experiences and incredible mix of people we had had and met all week. Questions about the three weeks also came up and by the end of Shabbos we all were talking about how we wanted, this year, to be more aware and careful abot how we followed the halachos of the nine days. Liora read from an article to us about what actually happened during the three weeks and personally, I felt like I truly understood and felt as if I am in mourning. More than any other year. We all took it upon ourselves to ensure that this last week of the program would be in the right spirit for the nine days. We also had a great Seudat Shlishit followed by a melodic havdalah courtesy of Abby.
After a quick discussion we realised that bowling was out of the question and decided to go for Ice Cream - it was delicious! When we got back, Michal Tshuva (great name!), from the night before was there! We all had a great time talking to her and getting to know her and she stayed until really late when we all had to go to sleep. We got her details and will definitely be keeping in touch with her and her cousin, Rivka. We really have made so many good friends on this trip!
Anyway, must get to bed...
Layla Tov!
Brocha
ps Soon I'll be writing the blog in Hebrew, we have all learnt to speak it semi fluently over the last week! Maybe by next week it will also be in French...
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Friday, August 1, 2008
Day Five and Six
Hi! Long time no speak!
Wow, so much has happened since you last heard from us. We have been all the way up to the North, to Pki`in and back (a few minutes ago).
So it all began on Thursday morning, we had to be all ready by 7am after being woken up at the unearthly hour of 6am by Hed. We picked up all the girls from Givol at 7:30 and started the three hour jouney up to the Galilee.
Somewhere along the way we picked up Michal Tal, our tour guide for the next two days. She is a German, Israeli, Sephardi Jew and was an amazing storyteller! The bus started the hike to our next stop, called as far we know just 'Viewpoint'. Our lovely bus truly gave a new meaning to 'slowcoach' and we climbed the hills. We saw the entire Galilee from the second highest mountain in Israel after Mt Hermon, it was beautiful.
Then we had another harrowing bus journey to our next hike, down Har Meron to the Yehudia Stream. We had a delicious lunch before the 4 hour hike down and up the hill. It was filled with singing (from Linor), dvar torahs (from Michelle), and deep discussions (Michelle, Michal, Sacha, everyone around them). By the time we back to the top, we were hot and sweaty and tired and hungry. We were greeted by Ruti and Abby who had forgotten to turn on the air conditioning! After changing clothes we piled back on the coach for our next trip.
Then we had a vote about if we wanted to go to Meron to visit Reb Shimon Bar Yochai's kever (Rashbi). We scraped by with a yes which turned out to be he best decision any of us ever made. Upon arrival Michal got up and said that we had to be Tzniut to go in. Most of the Israeli girls were not at all but really wanted to go in. Sapir borrowed Yosepha's long sleeve pink top and white skirt and Koral borrowed Michelles t-shirt and put on a skirt, Lihi put on Hed's skirt and a towel around her shoulders. Sapir looked beautiful and we all had a picture before we went in.
Please look at the pictures because my description doesnt do justice to the beauty of the sight of Michelle teaching Koral how to daven Shemona Esrei for the first time and of Sapir and Lhi struggling through the prayers that they were seeing for the first time since primary school. Koral said afterwards that she felt that the words she was saying was 'Emet' the truth and Sapir announced that she wanted to keep the skirt. Emanu said she wanted to try being religious all next week after Michelle teaching her the Brachos to say on food and Avital begged us all to give her a skirt too!
At dinner Emanu said each bracha with Kavana and wouldnt eat until she had said each one and Koral said Amen to her Brachos. We then had a Tochnit arranged by Koral after being sung to by Emanu and Noa' guitar accompanying her beautiful voice. We then had a social which involved fruit and chocolate fondue prepared by our great Madricha - Rotem. Then we had to write a question and put it in a bottle and we came with things like 'Why does Linor call Abby - Ebbi??' and others. We then had a beautiful Kumzitz with the music of a village wedding in the backround.
Shattered we all took showers and fell into bed.
The next morning we all piled onto the coach at 8:30 and had a tour of Pki'in. We first went to the cave where the Rashbi hid for 13 years over 2000 years ago. We sat under the Carob tree and listened intently to Michal's fascinating stories and Divrei Torah about the Rashbi and the miracles taht occured in his time. She has amazing respect for him and loves the stories. She tod us a beautiful mashal about why Hashem gave the Jews mann every day instead of once a lifetime and compared it to a king who gave his son an allowance every day so tat his son would visit him often and not forget him or who the allowance was coming from.
Then we saw the spring that the Rashbi and his son would drink from and walked past the only jewish school in Pki'in that is not even used now. We then saw the old, 1000 yr old shul which is maintained by the only Jew left in the Druze Village. It has two stones that were brought from the ruins of the second Beth Hamikdash and is outlined in blue (as is the other jewish buildings) to protect from Ayin Hara. Lastly we visited the shop and source of the famous Safta Gamila soaps and oils and heard the original story. It was in Safta Gamila's house! We all bought tons of soaps and oils from there as it is sold in Harrods for $45 and was 20NIS for us!
Then we went on a beautiful ride to our lunch spot which had an incredible view. We had a fascinating discussion about what Shabbos means to each of us and what we want to gain from this Shabbos. Among the things that came up what was most obvious was that Shabbos, for the English and Israeli girls, was a time of peace, quiet and seperation from the rest of the week.
After another three hour drive we arrived at the hotel and now must go for a shower and get ready for Shabbos!
Good Shabbos!
Love, Ruti
Wow, so much has happened since you last heard from us. We have been all the way up to the North, to Pki`in and back (a few minutes ago).
So it all began on Thursday morning, we had to be all ready by 7am after being woken up at the unearthly hour of 6am by Hed. We picked up all the girls from Givol at 7:30 and started the three hour jouney up to the Galilee.
Somewhere along the way we picked up Michal Tal, our tour guide for the next two days. She is a German, Israeli, Sephardi Jew and was an amazing storyteller! The bus started the hike to our next stop, called as far we know just 'Viewpoint'. Our lovely bus truly gave a new meaning to 'slowcoach' and we climbed the hills. We saw the entire Galilee from the second highest mountain in Israel after Mt Hermon, it was beautiful.
Then we had another harrowing bus journey to our next hike, down Har Meron to the Yehudia Stream. We had a delicious lunch before the 4 hour hike down and up the hill. It was filled with singing (from Linor), dvar torahs (from Michelle), and deep discussions (Michelle, Michal, Sacha, everyone around them). By the time we back to the top, we were hot and sweaty and tired and hungry. We were greeted by Ruti and Abby who had forgotten to turn on the air conditioning! After changing clothes we piled back on the coach for our next trip.
Then we had a vote about if we wanted to go to Meron to visit Reb Shimon Bar Yochai's kever (Rashbi). We scraped by with a yes which turned out to be he best decision any of us ever made. Upon arrival Michal got up and said that we had to be Tzniut to go in. Most of the Israeli girls were not at all but really wanted to go in. Sapir borrowed Yosepha's long sleeve pink top and white skirt and Koral borrowed Michelles t-shirt and put on a skirt, Lihi put on Hed's skirt and a towel around her shoulders. Sapir looked beautiful and we all had a picture before we went in.
Please look at the pictures because my description doesnt do justice to the beauty of the sight of Michelle teaching Koral how to daven Shemona Esrei for the first time and of Sapir and Lhi struggling through the prayers that they were seeing for the first time since primary school. Koral said afterwards that she felt that the words she was saying was 'Emet' the truth and Sapir announced that she wanted to keep the skirt. Emanu said she wanted to try being religious all next week after Michelle teaching her the Brachos to say on food and Avital begged us all to give her a skirt too!
At dinner Emanu said each bracha with Kavana and wouldnt eat until she had said each one and Koral said Amen to her Brachos. We then had a Tochnit arranged by Koral after being sung to by Emanu and Noa' guitar accompanying her beautiful voice. We then had a social which involved fruit and chocolate fondue prepared by our great Madricha - Rotem. Then we had to write a question and put it in a bottle and we came with things like 'Why does Linor call Abby - Ebbi??' and others. We then had a beautiful Kumzitz with the music of a village wedding in the backround.
Shattered we all took showers and fell into bed.
The next morning we all piled onto the coach at 8:30 and had a tour of Pki'in. We first went to the cave where the Rashbi hid for 13 years over 2000 years ago. We sat under the Carob tree and listened intently to Michal's fascinating stories and Divrei Torah about the Rashbi and the miracles taht occured in his time. She has amazing respect for him and loves the stories. She tod us a beautiful mashal about why Hashem gave the Jews mann every day instead of once a lifetime and compared it to a king who gave his son an allowance every day so tat his son would visit him often and not forget him or who the allowance was coming from.
Then we saw the spring that the Rashbi and his son would drink from and walked past the only jewish school in Pki'in that is not even used now. We then saw the old, 1000 yr old shul which is maintained by the only Jew left in the Druze Village. It has two stones that were brought from the ruins of the second Beth Hamikdash and is outlined in blue (as is the other jewish buildings) to protect from Ayin Hara. Lastly we visited the shop and source of the famous Safta Gamila soaps and oils and heard the original story. It was in Safta Gamila's house! We all bought tons of soaps and oils from there as it is sold in Harrods for $45 and was 20NIS for us!
Then we went on a beautiful ride to our lunch spot which had an incredible view. We had a fascinating discussion about what Shabbos means to each of us and what we want to gain from this Shabbos. Among the things that came up what was most obvious was that Shabbos, for the English and Israeli girls, was a time of peace, quiet and seperation from the rest of the week.
After another three hour drive we arrived at the hotel and now must go for a shower and get ready for Shabbos!
Good Shabbos!
Love, Ruti
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Day Four
Hi! Welcome Back!
Today the theme was Multiculturalism.
We arrived bright, early and exhausted at Givol and began the day with some...acting!
We were split into four teams and had to write and identity card for a Jewish woman in London, a Arab woman in London, a Jewish woman in Israel and an Arab woman in Israel. Then each representative from each group were asked questions and had to answer as the person they were representing on a scale of 0% - 100%. It was interesting to note the contrasting opinions of girls from different cultures representing different people.
We then travelled to Ein Hod, a village which used to be Arab until 1948 but then it was overtaken by Jews. These Jews, especially a man called Marcel Janco saved the village from destruction by turning it into a living museum of the Dada Movement! People live there yet most of them are artists and we had to keep quiet the whole time (a hard feat to acomplish!). ps they grow Pomegranates, figs and olives!
We then went on the MOST harrowing coach journey EVER to Ein Chud, the village where all the arabs from Ein Hud escaped to, much to the excitement of all the girls...(not)! But they were very hospitable and the view was worth, kind of, the harrowing journey through the hills...
We survived the journey to Haifa where we met some Israeli's and Arab's who live together and believe that the way to peace is by recognising the good in everyone. We had some very controversial discussions about issues concerning the relationship between Arabs and Jews in Israel. The opinions were fascinating! A lot of girls enjoyed discussions in private with Koral, Dana and Linor afterwards.
We then played some drama games with the Theatre group and were dancing like maniacs and trying to move our whole body before running around the room a different speeds - profound!
Upon arrival at the hotel after dropping off the Israelis at Givol and getting the exciting news that we would be back at 7am the next morning...we all went to go eat an extremely original meal - not! We were greeted by Breslover Chassidim who knew the Rebi Nachman song! can you imagine?? After this we all went down to the beautiful beach for a walk (wow) before settling down to an early night before our even earlier start tomorrow!
Love, Yosepha (for a change...)
PS We wont be able to blog tomorrow as we are sleeping in a youth hostel for the night with the Israelis! Sorry! Enjoy the pictures!
Today the theme was Multiculturalism.
We arrived bright, early and exhausted at Givol and began the day with some...acting!
We were split into four teams and had to write and identity card for a Jewish woman in London, a Arab woman in London, a Jewish woman in Israel and an Arab woman in Israel. Then each representative from each group were asked questions and had to answer as the person they were representing on a scale of 0% - 100%. It was interesting to note the contrasting opinions of girls from different cultures representing different people.
We then travelled to Ein Hod, a village which used to be Arab until 1948 but then it was overtaken by Jews. These Jews, especially a man called Marcel Janco saved the village from destruction by turning it into a living museum of the Dada Movement! People live there yet most of them are artists and we had to keep quiet the whole time (a hard feat to acomplish!). ps they grow Pomegranates, figs and olives!
We then went on the MOST harrowing coach journey EVER to Ein Chud, the village where all the arabs from Ein Hud escaped to, much to the excitement of all the girls...(not)! But they were very hospitable and the view was worth, kind of, the harrowing journey through the hills...
We survived the journey to Haifa where we met some Israeli's and Arab's who live together and believe that the way to peace is by recognising the good in everyone. We had some very controversial discussions about issues concerning the relationship between Arabs and Jews in Israel. The opinions were fascinating! A lot of girls enjoyed discussions in private with Koral, Dana and Linor afterwards.
We then played some drama games with the Theatre group and were dancing like maniacs and trying to move our whole body before running around the room a different speeds - profound!
Upon arrival at the hotel after dropping off the Israelis at Givol and getting the exciting news that we would be back at 7am the next morning...we all went to go eat an extremely original meal - not! We were greeted by Breslover Chassidim who knew the Rebi Nachman song! can you imagine?? After this we all went down to the beautiful beach for a walk (wow) before settling down to an early night before our even earlier start tomorrow!
Love, Yosepha (for a change...)
PS We wont be able to blog tomorrow as we are sleeping in a youth hostel for the night with the Israelis! Sorry! Enjoy the pictures!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Day Three
Hello! Welcome to day three!
Unfortunately I am not any more awake than yesterday but ill make the effort.
A quick review of yesterday:
We arrived at Givat Olga and the theme of the day was multiculturalism. First, we all realised hat we have a love of music so we played a game with beats and rhythms, the english girls beat the israelis. However, they proved themselves in the next game when we were split into groups again and we discovered that they are incredibly artistic and talented!
Then, an Ethiopian Immigrant woman called Tenat came taught us her art of sculpting with ethiopian clay. It was incredible!!! She showed us how she made faces, statues, animals and said that her ideas are inspired from the dreams she has at night. We made all our own sculptures, using our own imagination and created everything including frogs, mobiles, hot dog buns, faces, fruit bowls, elephants and birds.
Then, we watched a short clip that showed how the immigrants of the seventies from all over the world came to Israel and how they treated and were treated by the immigrants already there.
After a short break in which we all were taught wedding dances by Liora and Rachel Leah and one of the Israeli girls, Linor, taught us Israeli wedding dances to Ani Ma'amin. It just shows that languages are not a barrier if you dont want them to be...
Then we all walked the three minute walk to the most amazing house EVER! The woman had mangoes, lemons, and figs growing and had coffee grinders and cats and dogs and a huge concrete well that was used as an oven for the Pittas we were to be making.
In short (because I must sleep), we learnt how to make Couscous:
Semolina, Oil, Salt, steam it for a bit, then mix and steam again and then push it through a sieve and cook it! Its amazing, you will never buy Couscous again. Then we made Pitta: Burnt a massive fire then waited for the ashes to go down, then the woman rolled the dough into balls and flattened it against the bare sides of the metal basins.
Fast forward an hour or so and we had the most delicious meal of couscous, pitta and pickled vegetables and cooked vegetables and the spiciest Harif ever!
The lady was from Tripoli, Libya and told us about how she keeps to all the old traditions.
I must finish up now but the last thing we had was the coolest Theatre workshop about which I will explain tomorrow.
We ended off and all hugged eachother, we really bonded today. I love them all!
Till tomorrow!
Brocha
Unfortunately I am not any more awake than yesterday but ill make the effort.
A quick review of yesterday:
We arrived at Givat Olga and the theme of the day was multiculturalism. First, we all realised hat we have a love of music so we played a game with beats and rhythms, the english girls beat the israelis. However, they proved themselves in the next game when we were split into groups again and we discovered that they are incredibly artistic and talented!
Then, an Ethiopian Immigrant woman called Tenat came taught us her art of sculpting with ethiopian clay. It was incredible!!! She showed us how she made faces, statues, animals and said that her ideas are inspired from the dreams she has at night. We made all our own sculptures, using our own imagination and created everything including frogs, mobiles, hot dog buns, faces, fruit bowls, elephants and birds.
Then, we watched a short clip that showed how the immigrants of the seventies from all over the world came to Israel and how they treated and were treated by the immigrants already there.
After a short break in which we all were taught wedding dances by Liora and Rachel Leah and one of the Israeli girls, Linor, taught us Israeli wedding dances to Ani Ma'amin. It just shows that languages are not a barrier if you dont want them to be...
Then we all walked the three minute walk to the most amazing house EVER! The woman had mangoes, lemons, and figs growing and had coffee grinders and cats and dogs and a huge concrete well that was used as an oven for the Pittas we were to be making.
In short (because I must sleep), we learnt how to make Couscous:
Semolina, Oil, Salt, steam it for a bit, then mix and steam again and then push it through a sieve and cook it! Its amazing, you will never buy Couscous again. Then we made Pitta: Burnt a massive fire then waited for the ashes to go down, then the woman rolled the dough into balls and flattened it against the bare sides of the metal basins.
Fast forward an hour or so and we had the most delicious meal of couscous, pitta and pickled vegetables and cooked vegetables and the spiciest Harif ever!
The lady was from Tripoli, Libya and told us about how she keeps to all the old traditions.
I must finish up now but the last thing we had was the coolest Theatre workshop about which I will explain tomorrow.
We ended off and all hugged eachother, we really bonded today. I love them all!
Till tomorrow!
Brocha
Monday, July 28, 2008
Day Two
Wow, today was truly amazing!
We all got up, davened and ate breakfast by 8am, met Keren and got on the coach.
After a quick tour of the school we met the Israeli Girls!!!!
We met: Lihi, Linor, Dana, Avital, Koral, Emanu, Tali, Meri, Noa, and Sapir.
And please check out the pictures for more info!
We had a bonding session but we didnt really connect properly until we got a chance to just chat. Everyone got on so well, it was amazing! The language was not a barrier, we all just broke our teeth and by now we all speak a lot more hebrew!
We went for a tour of Givat Olga and visited two Youth Club Houses and spoke to the people who head them. They told us about how the reason that there used to be violence was because the teens were bored. This sparked off a massive discussion between everyone, english and hebrew, about why there is violence in Givat Olga and in London. It was fascinating!
We arrived at the most beautiful beach ive ever seen. Check out the pictures! We had a delicious lunch and saw the first ever house built in Givat Olga. After a long walk down the beach we arrived back at the school and had a half hour break.
Then we had the coolest activity EVER!!! This group of people have begun a project where they collect old clothes and scraps of clothes and recreate them for people to wear - recylcing clothing. We were each asked to describe ourselves in one word and then split into groups. We were told that we each had to take one full piece of clothing and then pick scraps and buttons and zips that we wanted and create our own piece of clothing.
In short, check out the pictures...it was fantastic!
Brocha
We all got up, davened and ate breakfast by 8am, met Keren and got on the coach.
After a quick tour of the school we met the Israeli Girls!!!!
We met: Lihi, Linor, Dana, Avital, Koral, Emanu, Tali, Meri, Noa, and Sapir.
And please check out the pictures for more info!
We had a bonding session but we didnt really connect properly until we got a chance to just chat. Everyone got on so well, it was amazing! The language was not a barrier, we all just broke our teeth and by now we all speak a lot more hebrew!
We went for a tour of Givat Olga and visited two Youth Club Houses and spoke to the people who head them. They told us about how the reason that there used to be violence was because the teens were bored. This sparked off a massive discussion between everyone, english and hebrew, about why there is violence in Givat Olga and in London. It was fascinating!
We arrived at the most beautiful beach ive ever seen. Check out the pictures! We had a delicious lunch and saw the first ever house built in Givat Olga. After a long walk down the beach we arrived back at the school and had a half hour break.
Then we had the coolest activity EVER!!! This group of people have begun a project where they collect old clothes and scraps of clothes and recreate them for people to wear - recylcing clothing. We were each asked to describe ourselves in one word and then split into groups. We were told that we each had to take one full piece of clothing and then pick scraps and buttons and zips that we wanted and create our own piece of clothing.
In short, check out the pictures...it was fantastic!
Brocha
Day One
Hi!
Welcome to the Givat Olga Summer Pioneer Program (GOSPP) Blog .
Our first day was rather uneventful but we had a few great hours of bonding time when our plane was delayed!
We arrived, met Hed and went straight to the hotel to meet: Yariv (the Headmaster of Givol), Shani (the everything of Givol), Hed, Rotem, Nechama and our security guard!
After a ten minute dash upstairs we went to an amazing restaurant...
However, our first activity beat all and any food by far! We all had to pick three things from a huge assortment of pictures and objects: What we felt we had come with, what we wanted to achieve or experience and what we wanted to leave with. For example, I picked a picture of clothes for what I came with, an Indian (for the cultures I wanted to experience), and some house keys because I want to leave with the intention of having somewhere to come back to im"yh in the near future.
Exhasted, we ended the day and crashed into bed, just after we found out we would be up at 7am the next morning!
SPECIAL GUEST TOMORROW: KEREN MALKA!!!
Brocha
Welcome to the Givat Olga Summer Pioneer Program (GOSPP) Blog .
Our first day was rather uneventful but we had a few great hours of bonding time when our plane was delayed!
We arrived, met Hed and went straight to the hotel to meet: Yariv (the Headmaster of Givol), Shani (the everything of Givol), Hed, Rotem, Nechama and our security guard!
After a ten minute dash upstairs we went to an amazing restaurant...
However, our first activity beat all and any food by far! We all had to pick three things from a huge assortment of pictures and objects: What we felt we had come with, what we wanted to achieve or experience and what we wanted to leave with. For example, I picked a picture of clothes for what I came with, an Indian (for the cultures I wanted to experience), and some house keys because I want to leave with the intention of having somewhere to come back to im"yh in the near future.
Exhasted, we ended the day and crashed into bed, just after we found out we would be up at 7am the next morning!
SPECIAL GUEST TOMORROW: KEREN MALKA!!!
Brocha
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