It's hard to believe it's been 10 days since we left you at the park...our second Shabbat approaches and we look forward to our CIT group leading us in our Friday evening services and then treating us to a finale carnival on Saturday day afternoon. A few of our staff members have planned a wonderfully creative tefillah service for Saturday morning where each camper will make his or her own prayer book to their liking (ask to see your camper's creation when we arrive home). Our middle-age campers (Unit 2) are planning our final Havdalah service, and the staff have a great banquet and dance planned for our finale Saturday evening program -- we'll be celebrating Jews around the world as we teach and learn the song "Wherever You Go, There's Always Someone Jewish". Also, I have a special treat for all of camp this Saturday morning -- LOX -- to go with our traditional bagels and cream cheese (and tomato and onion) for Shabbat breakfast.
Looking back on our week full of fun, we had overnights under the stars for all of our units. Thanks to those of you who reminded us to look for the Perseid Meteor Shower; unfortunately, a bright moon prevented us from viewing all but the brightest of "shooting starts" a few nights ago. Nearly annually, we see this event during camp...maybe next year, the stars and moon will be aligned such that we'll be treated to the hundreds of meteors-per-hour than can often be seen on a dark mid-August night.
All our campers had the opportunity to walk not too far from camp to beautiful Jenk's Lake and to paddle canoes across its sparkling waters. Even I took some of our Unit 1 campers canoeing today as I could not pass up the opportunity to spend some time with them in that incredibly beautiful and serene environment. Many campers have had the opportunity to climb the 20 foot high rock wall (well harnessed and protected with helmet and top-rope) as well as participate in trust games and team building exercises on our low ropes course. Volleyball, ping pong, foosball, frisbee, archery, basketball, campfires, smores, and more were in full force throughout the week, as well as more artsNcrafts, some "mystery" & "scary programs" for the older kids and a dance party, twister, and other games for our youngest campers.
The CITs have been spending some time among the other units practicing the tricks of our trade and have enhanced the program with their fresh creative juices and eager expenditure of energy as they test out their newly acquired counselor skills and techniques.
The food continues to be tasty and plentiful satisfying our hunger created by all the hard play at 7000 ft. The weather has been beautiful all week with day time temps hovering around 80 and night-time lows near 60 degrees.
Rabbi Zach Shapiro, from Temple Akiba, visited today and spent time at the lake with Unit 1 and the CITs, and he even climbed the rock wall after watching some kids scamper up as if it were a simple walk. Yes...he made it to the top! He also "rocked us" with some fun Jewish music during a rousing lunch-time song session.
We're still awe-inspired daily by the incredible array of old-growth trees that shade our camp, and we take time occasionally to get mini biology lessons from our in-camp nature specialist and lifeguard Galen. A Camp Tata Pochon employee, Galen also graces us with wonderful piano recitals at all hours of the day, especially as we enter the lodge for breakfast -- I brought him the music from Fiddler On The Roof, and he's been playing that and some classical music whenever he has a few free minutes.
Alas, we plan to arrive at El Marino Park around 2:30pm, give or take a few minutes, on Sunday, as planned. As usual, I'll be in contact with the office at Temple Akiba, and you are welcome to call me on my cell phone after about 1pm to get an update on our ETA (please wait until after 1pm as I won't have a good feel for our arrival until after our sack lunch stop at a park in Redlands at the bottom of the mountain. It's sad that this will be the last update of the year for Camp Akiba 2009, but the campers are still having a great time, though they also anticipate a cheerful reunion with you and a tearful parting of the ways in Culver City on Sunday.
I'll try to get some more pics up this evening, but it's a very busy time here, so I'll do the best I can, but I can't promise it will happen. Thanks for your understanding and patience.
Shabbat Shalom and looking forward to seeing you all at El Marino Park!
Sincerely,
Rick