What a wonderful camp filled with laugher, smiling and growing! We had such a blast learning about all the cool things in Netzer, and actually getting down to the fun stuff. Here’s a little update as to what went down on Machneh Chakirah – Lets Go Exploring!
Day One: What a crazy, busy day here in Pennington!
Early this morning we all indulged in delicious pancakes before heading off to some group bonding activities and obstacle courses. We over came many fears throughout the day and did some rock climbing. We spent the rest of the day eating chocolate, singing, praying and learning about our ideology and being a Maddie in Netzer!
Now its time for a night of chilling out in the wilderness!
Day Two:
We are proud to say that we are tired but also excited!
We took a trip down the road to the beach and enjoyed a relaxing few hours before getting back to learning.
Day Three:
We delved into our personal ideology, and learnt about the different focuses an ideology could have and did some drama games to learn how to project, speak and lead with Spontaneous Hadracha (leadership).
We finished off our day with a Ma’amad and a delicious stew to warm us up!
Day Four:
Early this morning we walked to the beach to take part in welcoming Reece, one of our Channies, into the Jewish tribe. With her Batmitzvah in a few weeks, we were lucky enough to take part in her Mikveh Ceremony on the beach.
Day Five:
Friday brought with it the promise of a relaxing Shabbat, with a moving service run by candle light. Singing and praying together, like we haven’t in such a long time. After an amazing three course meal we enjoyed a lot of raucous behaviour in our Oneg activity.
Day Six:
Saturday started with a bit of a sleep in an a “Choose Your Own Adventure” Ma’amad. The rest of the day has been pretty chilled and were all rejuvenated and ready for the new week, jam packed with learning and friends before school starts again.
It has been an unexpectedly special Winter Camp with our Young Leaders inspiring us and making us proud through how they have grown and learnt!
Day Seven:
A really productive day today with Netzer South Africa. Our Mazkirut and oldest age group – Keshet – have been hard at work over the past six months preparing proposals for their Va’adot. Today we finished the first two of our Kinnus Sessions, where we discussed and changed the way we vote and spoke in-depth about Shabbat and how to make it a special occasion on Camp. We are also in the process of adding new and creative ways to do Birkat Ha’mazon.
We’ve made a lot of progress in changing some of our policies for Summer Machaneh and for during the year. We look forward to implimenting the changes we have made to our Tifilah policy throughout the year and on Camp.
To end off the day, this was followed by an amazing connectivity Ma’amad.
Day Eight:
We woke up to a beautiful Ma’amad run by two of our Keshetnicks. Today was also the second, and last, day if our Kinnus Discussions, where we made quite a few changes regarding Tifilah and even voted in an amazing Tifilah Booklet so that all our Madrichim in the future have access to as much information as possible. We also consulted our NSA Constitution and made positive changes to our Israel Stance policy.
All our updated documentation will be available through the Netzer South Africa website as soon as we’re all home.
<WATCH THIS SPACE!>
As for the fun stuff, we’re having a Bon Fire and movie night! I hope you’re all jealous!
Here’s some art that we made during the discussions:
Day Nine:
Well Winter Camp Chakirah is officially over but it was totally worth it. We ended our Winter Camp with a lovely Sikkum Peulah and a retrospective, backwards Ma’amad where we had time to reflecxt on what we had learnt about ourselves and the movement over the last few days.
It has been an amazing 10 days down the coast of South Africa!
#letsgoexploring #bestweekofourlives #shame #thepoorjoburgerswhohaveaneighthourbusridehome #machanehchakirah
