Hello Workshop Friends and Families,
Today I wanted to update you on the past week or so. As I mentioned in my last blog update, the
chanichim this past week had an Israel Advocacy Seminar organized jointly by the
Foreign Affairs Ministry and MASA. The seminar
took place from Sunday thru Wednesday and they stayed in a lovely hostel in
Jerusalem. The seminar consisted of a
mix of different speakers and workshops from a diverse group of people with a
wealth of experience and a variety of backgrounds. They had speakers from the government
(including the speaker for the Prime Minister’s Office!), they had speakers
from the media (including the Jerusalem Bureau Chief for the New York Times!), and
they had workshops from many different organizations that provide high-grade
training in areas such as public speaking, media correspondence, and social
network-based community organizing. The
seminar overall provided the chanichim with the opportunity to gain skills that
they can apply both to advocacy as well as to many other fields in which
communication and organizing are key, as well as being provided a chance to be exposed to
people with different views than our own – namely the Israeli government. Oh, and there was also a stand-up
comedian!
After that intense week, on Saturday night the chanichim
traveled back to the Jerusalem area for a celebratory dinner that coincided
with the World Mazkirut Convention, where the leadership from the different
Habonim’s around the world come together for a 5 day seminar. Here they hob-knobbed with the new Southern
Hemisphere chanichim as well as the new Latin American chanichim, the leadership from countries all over the world - Mexico to New Zealand, Brazil to France and more - they ate
pancakes, popcorn and cotton candy, and were entertained by the HaNoar HaOved
VeHaLomed youth choir - a big hit every year.
Today the chanichim are spending their regular Yom Kvutsa
on a special one-day hike in the far North near Kibbutz Ramot Naftali. It is going very well as of writing this
update.
I also wanted to give you what I promised – a description
of the chanichim’s Messima in their own words.
So here are a couple to start us off for this update:
Deshanim (Basha, Emma, Gabe, Finn, Leor):
This is the best messima, by far! On Sundays, we work
with tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders to help them learn english. We teach
less as a teacher and more as an aide as we sit one-on-one with students and
assist as the students complete worksheets. Sunday is our most active day, when
we work during all six of the class periods. Sunday is also the day in which we
bond with the students the most, as we work closely. Tuesday and Wednesday are
both days in which we plan the first half of the day and run our planned
activities in the afternoon. This ranges from explanations about our home
countries to inventions to even outer space! During the times in which we lead
a class, we play games and have the kids sit in a circle. We have learned that
movies always work. Deshanim is a high school a little north of Haifa. Every
messima morning, Basha, Emma, and Gabe leave at 6:30 and Finn and Leor leave at
7:15 in order to catch the public sherut, or large taxi. We then catch the
"school bus", or Egged (bus company) bus with the students and
teachers to the school.
Akko – Arab:
We (Brandon, Talia, Emily, Isaac) have been working twice
a week in an Arab school in the centre of Akko. We go into grade 7 and 8
English classes and run activities for them to teach them English in an
informal setting. Twice a week we also work at a primarily Arab after school
club for ages 3-18. In the after school club we do various things such as
cooking, sports, and arts and crafts. We love working in Akko, it gives us a
deep connection to our city and helps us understand the relationship between
the different groups of people that live here.
