A little overview about the camp/Kefiada program that I am doing– 6 other Americans and I will be working at the Kefiada camp for kids in Arad/Tamar and will be teaching them English through various activities. There are 4 guys and 2 other girls (one also named Lisa!). Four of them are from Vineland, NJ, one is from Monmouth County, and one is from Elizabeth, NJ. The camp is three weeks long (Sunday-Thursday) from about 7:30-2, and the off times will be spent doing things around Arad and also traveling in Israel to Tel Aviv, Eilat, and Jerusalem. Lots to look forward to in the next month – learning to juggle fire with our camp manager Lior, going to the Dead Sea and Masada, a jeep tour..and more.
First I will give you a rundown of what we have been up to so far.
Monday:
It has been a very busy but fun two days in Arad so far! The flight to Israel was very long, and we arrived in Tel Aviv, Israel around 8 am (1 am NJ time), after getting on the plane around 1:30pm NY time, waited forever to go through customs, and then were on our way. Arad is about an hour and a half drive from Tel Aviv. We got to the city and were brought straight to the Partnership 2000 office, where we met Ofra and Lior, who then took us to where we will be living. Ofra and Lior are both in charge of the camp, but also like parents to us while we are here. The four guys are living in an apartment and the other two girls and I are living in a house. It is nice! It has 2 bedrooms, 2ish bathrooms, and a living room with cable TV and stuff. It also has a porch area – and in the distance, you can see Jordan. After we dropped our stuff, we went and ate some lunch and met some people who work for the partnership. After lunch, we unpacked some and then went for a brief little tour around the central parts of Arad – saw the mall and surrounding shops, post office, etc. We were all so jetlagged so luckily we had the rest of the afternoon to relax and nap. Later on in the day, Ofra made us all pastrami/hummus/other Israeli stuff on a pita and then we walked around the city up to the observation point in Arad (the highest point). It is fun to walk around Arad – everyone is friendly and seems to know each other. Lior seems to be like a celebrity in the town because everyone is always stopping to say hello to him. At this point, we were all exhausted, but we ended up all hanging out as a group and then heading to a local bar to watch the world cup game. It was a very long first day but a good one!
Tuesday:
Today was the first day of camp orientation. We spent time in the morning meeting our Israeli co-counselors and learning about what we will be doing at camp this summer. My co-counselor’s name is Paz – she is almost 17 and lives in Arad. Her sister went to work at the JCC camp in Medford last summer, and she also worked at Kefiada last summer. After the orientation, we all split up into groups and went to the local elementary schools to advertise for the Kefiada camp to get some more campers. I kind of just followed along with the other Israeli girls that I went with. The school was very interesting – Israeli kids are really rambunctious and wild. Also, we went during lunch, and they were eating lunch facing the wall side by-side. They all had lunches that were from the school and almost looked like airplane meals that come with a few different things. After this, we went back to the camp (which is in a school) and had lunch with a birthright group from the Univeristy of Delaware Hillel. Together in the afternoon we painted the walls of the school and made it more welcoming for the kids to come.
After camp, around 4 or so, the other girls (Sam and Lisa) and I went to the mall and walked around there and now are back at our house just relaxing. When we were walking around, we stopped at the post office to exchange some money. Very interesting experience...it reminded me of a DMV and we had to take a number and wait a while. They questioned us as to why we were going in, which I assume is for security purposes. I think that Lior might take a couple of us to the supermarket later on to get more food. They stocked our refrigerators pretty well with food to eat, but they want to get us more. We are all pretty jet-lagged still but are definitely enjoying the time here.
It’s fun coming to Israel and being able to know some Hebrew. They all talk pretty fast so I can’t always understand, but I can definitely pick out the words that I know. I hope as time goes by that I am able to better speak Hebrew. Luckily, all the counselors at the camp also speak English.
More to come later! Tomorrow we have more orientation and we are hoping to then go to the pool in the center of the city, which we have free access to thanks to the Jewish federation!
