By Yonah London, Rosh Eidah of Kallah
The first week of Kallah Gimmel flew by! We had an amazing first Shabbat with all of camp and ended it with a great, shared program with Gesher. All of the Kallah chanichim (campers) got to pair up campers from Gesher (7th-9th graders), get to know them and play games with them before our havdallah. Right after concluding Shabbat, the staff announced the tiyul (trip) for Sunday, the Kallah hiking trip! The chanichim were all really excited and on Sunday morning we departed camp for the Scuppernong trail.
We took a short hike with the whole group when we arrived at the trail and when we returned we ate lunch together and had activities at the campsite. There was sports, cards, board games, lanyard and bracelet making, singing, and reading. Some of the chanichim also chose to learn a bit more about camping with help from the madrichim (counselors) who taught them to set up tents and make tea with herbs (from the OSRUI garden) on a camping stove. Finally a small group went on a longer second hike. It was an amazing day, and one filled with appreciation for teva (nature). We concluded our tiyul with a surprise stop at The Kiltie Drive In to get ice cream cones (or dairy free sorbet) for everyone!
The trip was great but by the end of the day we were exhausted. We slept in a little bit later than usual the next morning to recover and went back to our normal schedule with a few changes for another special day, yom keshet (rainbow day). After dressing up in multicolored outfits and painting our faces, we learned in the our limud (jewish learning) about the value of lo levayesh (not to embarrass) and to love and except our differences. We stressed the acceptance of differences and spent the day celebrating our uniqueness. We concluded yom keshet by tie dying t-shirts.
The past few days have been crazy and we are looking forward to even more special days in the coming week. Sneak peak for the upcoming days: more activities with Gesher, a Kallah pool party, and auditions for OSRUI’s all camp talent show. We have tons of fun things and surprises yet to come so stay tuned!