Dear Folks back home,
Sorry that I haven’t written home since day one. So much has been happening here that I have a hard enough time catching my breath, let alone write.
I’m sure you’ve been following the camp blog, so you should be pretty up to date on what’s happening here. I’ll just pick up from where the blog left off. Friday afternoon the camp underwent this crazy transformation as we entered our first Camp Simcha Shabbat. Shabbat in Camp Simcha is legendary, and it sure lived up to its expectations this week. Friday night services took place in the social hall where all staff and campers gathered under one roof. A lot of staff members dressed up in these whacky costumes, and everyone rocked up the place. As a fellow camper led the services, my co-campers and I were lifted up onto shoulders, and were danced up and down the aisles. Even the more traditional campers couldn’t resist the excitement and opted to join in. It was quite an amazing experience.
After the services, the camp proceeded to the dining room where we had a gala feast. The zemirot (Wiki) were beautiful, and the unity displayed by the whole camp was something worth crossing the world for. When we finished eating, we all gathered in the middle of the room where we were entertained by Duvi “the legend” Becker. Duvi told us three stories of campers in camp who exhibited outstanding character this week in camp. Jonah, Liem, and Chaim Moshe all won a Giant’s sweatpants and Eli Manning jersey for being giants in character. Afterwards, a friend of mine from England, Eliyahu J, delivered a very inspiring speech to us. The night was topped off with more singing, as we sat around eating chulent and sharing stories.
Shabbat morning we once again had services in the Social Hall. From the services, the camp proceeded to another gala meal. Following the meal, we were entertained by a bunch of counselors. One counselor got up from each division and had to say the most embarrassing story that ever happened to them. It was quite hilarious. One counselor spoke of a time he was in India and had to sleep in a room with a bunch of Buddhist monks. When he woke up in the morning, they all wanted to lynch him because throughout the night he had been killing mosquitos (Buddhists consider them sacred). After that, we had a scavenger hunt on the baseball field. The winning division won an Apple iPod Touch to raffle off to one of its members.
After lunch, I had a few hours to relax, play some games of miniature golf and ping-pong, and enjoy the gorgeous weather before heading to Bingo. This was no old-fogie Bingo that grandma and grandpa play. This was EPIC Simcha Bingo! A friend of mine (Ori from Israel) won the latest generation Apple iPod Nano!!! How crazy is that? I hope I win it next week.
To cap off this amazing Shabbat, we had a scrumptious Seudat Shelishit with fresh salmon, flounder, bagels, fruit, and more. If you find another camp that serves even one of those things let me know. We ended the Shabbat with an epic havdalah. It was really nice to have a break from the non-stop action of the past few days. I spent the day chilling with friends and had a great time. But the non-stop action here can’t stay away for too long. After Havdalah, we unleashed all our pent up energy with an epic upROAR in the dining room, complete with live music and dancing.
I’m getting tired, and Dembi said there a special treat in store for us tomorrow, so I want to be totally awake. I think I’m going to catch some z’sssss.
Love you guys.
Good Night