So, you want to know what we’ve been up to this week? Well we’ll tell you.
On Thursday morning we waded into the week with a watsu session. This was a very different experience to the one we had on Lotan, starting off with a water-based relay race. Friday was a very Israeli Christmas with most of the group heading off to Nazareth to visit our good pal Jesus on his birthday, while some of us stayed at home for some Karmiel based festivities. We attended a Christmas mass in the church where Mary discovered she was pregnant with Jesus. We had the chance to walk around the market, visit the Greek Orthodox Church and the white mosque, causing it to be a very cultural day. We then came back for a spontaneous Christmas themed kabshab to welcome in the sabbath.
On Saturday we started off the day with a lovely shacharit service run by Daniel and Sammy. This was followed by a really interesting and educational chinuch by Maya on her experiences on a J street programme. That night we had our first successful pot luck dinner, consisting of pasta, sweet potato fries, a variety of salads and of course, friendship. And Maya’s chocolate bark.
Monday night was a very special night indeed. At Shnat orientation seminar, we all wrote down a wish for an event we wanted to happen at some point during Shnat. On Monday night, we granted Ella’s wish with a surprise drag show! We danced, we lip synced and had a lot of fun, while looking absolutely fabulous.
On Tuesday we had a seminar run by Tomer on human rights and morality which was very thought provoking and existential crisis forming (in the best way). Beth and Charley ran a peulah on Tuesday afternoon centered around group dynamics to combat the mid-Karmiel lull (or balagan b’kvutzah as it is colloquially known).
On Wednesday, we volunteered as usual and had a social action meeting, which brings us to today, New Year’s Eve, on which we are throwing ourselves a party in our house. There will be music, there will be food, and of course, there will be…friendship.
Happy new year to all of our loving readers, With lots of love from Sophie Phillips and Charley Katan