Whodunit?

For our last regular day today the madrichim pulled out all the stops for their peulot.  The Bonim played all sorts of water games, including one where the kids have to guess the animal the madrich is thinking of.  The kids didn't know it, but if they got it right, they would get a pitcher of water dumped on their head!  A perfect game for a hot day.

Later on the Madatzim returned from their trip to Machaneh Moshava for Madatz Mifgash.  They enjoyed themselves immensely and participated in a whole variety of peulot.  The Madatzim also had a service learning project: they cleaned out invasive plant species in a park in East Baltimore to prevent the park from getting overgrown with weeds.  They discussed how it takes time to build a trusting relationship with a community but also how important that relationship is.

After enjoying a Moroccan-themed dinner, the machaneh was swept up into its very first Murder Mystery.  One of the madrichim ran into the refet yelling about witnessing the dastardly crime, and at that moment two inspectors appeared and showed the chanichim their secret footage they taped over the last week.  The kids split up into small investigative teams and went around machaneh questioning the six suspects and examining evidence, including the crime scene itself and the recycling bins where the victim's water bottle was spotted.  So many turns and twists, and in the end more footage was recovered and the murderer was revealed! He was escorted in handcuffs by the kids towards the brecha, as what better punishment than to throw him into the pool?  The kids had an amazing time, and we wrapped it all up with our last rad hayom of the session before we welcome Shabbat tomorrow evening.

Laila tov,

Alon

madrich - counselor

Madatz - counselor-in-training

mifgash - meet up

refet - barn

chanich - camper

brecha - pool

rad hayom - the lullaby we all sing at the end of the night together (lit. "fall of the day")