Directly from the Director
Queridos Madres y Padres,
With our days as jam-packed with fun and excitement as they are, it’s amazing that we’ve done everything that we have in just one week. Early on we introduced our campers to our theme of The Seven Days of Creation, which includes skits by our Head Staff and Chacham Greenberg to illustrate which day we are focused on. To celebrate the separation of Light and Darkness on Day One, campers stood confused during lunch as the lights flickered violently in the Mess Hall and Chacham Greenberg announced over the microphone, “Yehi Ohr – Let there be light.” And in this spirit, program director Shimra Barnett scheduled one heck of a Glow-in-the-Dark party for our night activity which included neon-clad campers doing anything from lights-out bowling to line-dancing to The Cotton-Eyed Joe.
To celebrate Sephardic Adventure Camp’s first ever Seahawks Day, all of our campers geared up to play all-camp football in the big field. With one game for the 1’s and 2’s, another for the 3’s, 4’s, and CIT’s, a cheerleading section between the two, and a group of curious campers learning the rules and regulations of football from counselor Kalman Clement, everyone got to participate in the Big Game followed by a Nacho lunch and Seahawks-themed cake designed by our beloved chef, Shulamit Urenia.
Though the weather here in Shelton started off with the perfect balance of cool shade and sweaty sun, it took a turn for the Seattle as it began raining later in the week. Fortunately, most of our campers embody the kind of Seattle spirit which enables them to identify highlights of camp thus far like swimming and boating in the rain or our all-camp Friday morning nature hike with our very own Mr. Invincible, Quinn Rose. Among other things like survival skills, Quinn taught campers about identifying different kinds of trees and bushes. After the hike, everyone gathered on the porch of the Mess Hall to celebrate Shimon Gamel’s birthday with ice cream sandwiches and, conveniently, Friday’s Ladino-Phrase-of-the-Day was, “Me vas a tratar un ayiscrin” meaning, “You are treating me to an ice cream.”
Our first Shabbat at camp was an absolute hit among our campers and staff, and it left us all feeling unified as we say in our camp song Ojo De Hamsa, “We stick together like Yaprakis con aroz!” Having Rabbi Chaim, Sara, and Benjy Weiss, in addition to Rabbi Hassan and his family, created unique opportunities for everyone like a three-Rabbi (including Chacham) panel for Stump the Rabbi. On Shabbat afternoon, after a delicious boreka/bureka/borecka and quijado/cuijadu/quajado/cuajadu lunch, every staff member was paired with one or two campers to create one full campsite of Shabbat buddies who were spotted in deep conversations everywhere from sitting in lawn chairs on the waterfront to strolling around the field. This gave each camper a chance to create a meaningful relationship with a staff member other than his or her counselor, which everyone really loved.
Not only were our meals filled with classic Shabbat pizmonim like D’ror Yikrah, Ki Eshmerah Shabbat, and Big Gedaliah Goomber, but campers also excitedly sung a Ladino song called Azen Hamotzi Sovre Dos Panes, which is a description of the different preparations necessary to create the peaceful Shabbat atmosphere. And if you’re still not convinced that Ladino is important to Sephardic Adventure Campers, just wait until you hear about the program Chacham led on Shabbat afternoon called Refranez. Each bunk was given a choice of many popular Ladino sayings, with which, after choosing one saying, a skit was based on and performed in front of the whole camp! The winning bunk was the CIT Boys who based their skit on a Ladino phrase which means, “The poorest of the poor is the king of the poor.”
Today, as we celebrated Rosh Hodesh (ne
w Jewish calendar month) and officially hit the one-week mark since camp began, we started to look forward to the week to come and all of the exciting surprises it will bring!
Al Vuermos,
Chana Adatto-Shefa (SAC Director)
