The past few weeks have been full of travel - nonstop. Good preparation for my summer, I suppose. By the time my feet land in Israel and I am settled in a new apartment for two years, I will be ready to stay put for awhile.
Until then, I am enjoying the road.

After Pearlstone, we headed to Capital Camps in south central Pennsylvania. The camp just did a 15 million dollar renovation and it shows! It's beautiful - both as a facility and as a more remote basecamp for Teva. The grounds were huge and we didn't have nearly enough time to explore the woods, the creek, the ropes courses or the trails. We did, however, leave a lasting mark.

Jonathan, a fellow Tevanik, designed a sefirot orchard that we planted with the children. Each kvutzah group planted one tree to represent a part one of the 10 spheres in kabbalah. Each tree represents a different attribute, for example strength, beauty, or sovereignty - (at teva we break up in trail groups of 10-12 kids and one teacher). The type of tree we planted also related to the attribute it represented. Most of the trees were fruit bearing. This week, we had 7th graders who were a bit older and rowdier than our typical population. They met the challenge of tree planting and the orchard looked beautiful at the end of the week.

Last week I also had to use my Wilderness First Responder training for the first time. A boy was hit in the head with a rock and was bleeding pretty badly. He was scared, cold and wet. Along with the support of a few teachers and Tevaniks, we stopped the bleeding, calmed him down and kept him from becoming hypothermic. When the ambulance arrived, I briefed them on his condition. He received 7 stitches and a CAT scan, but was back at teva later in the day. Impressive! Go Michael!

A less serious event of the week relates to the discussions I had with my kvutzah about garbage. We try to teach the children the value of keeping resources in a cycle and that throwing things "away" is just misplacing resources and making them unrenewable. Nature, on the contrary, doesn;t throw away waste. Waste becomes food for another player in the cycle. My children, however, did not seem convinced that "away" is not a viable longterm option for garbage. We spent much of the week debating the merits and potential downfall of launching all of our trash into outerspace. In spite of the many counterpoints I offered, a few of them (including their college aged chaperone) remained married to the idea. On the other hand, the kids had great suggestions about how to provide water for everyone in a sustainable way. Creativity was on.

After a stop in New Brunswick, NJ, I headed to the city last weekend for Lauren's bday. Back at Surprise Lake Camp on Monday, we packed out our Achdoot backpacking trips. This weekend, we are taking 12 high schoolers on a 3-day trip. The following two weeks, we will be camping with 7th graders. Mati and I got to scope out cmapsites in northern connecticut. I can't wait! There are moose and bear in the area - and I am excited to be in relatively undisturbed parts of our woods. Getting all the gear packed and organized is a huge task, but it's worth it.

Now I am enjoying Shavuot in my mom's new house. It's beautiful and feels like home already. Having more space offers privacy and places to put oru things. The street is full of trees and I watched the sunrise this morning through the slants of my 3rd floor window.

Back in the wilderness - with trees this time.


So I am now in Reisterstown, MD - about half an hour outside of of Baltimore at a beautiful Jewish retreat center called Pearlstone. We have been here for 3 weeks, running the Teva outdoor education program for 5th and 6th graders.

The Teva staff (9 of us) are houses in three beautiful log cabins. We have our own bedrooms, linens, bathrooms etc. Its incredible. I can look out my windows and see farmland and trees. Each cabin has a huge porch with rocking chairs and benches. Everything is made of a beautiful light wood. We eat in the dining room which is also really nice. all of our food is vegetarian and the staff seems to love us! This place feels more like a hotel than the camp atmosphere of ISabella Freedman, where I was in the fall.

Being back with children has been incredible. They energize me and I love teaching them, being outside with them and hearing their ideas. The children down here seem a lot more childlike (with a preciously guarded naivete that is lacking in NYC kids.) These children are also less materialistic. They handle all the ticks and poison ivy pretty well. I've gotten good at taking out ticks and handing out Benadryl. There's a creek here that runs all the way around the property - a two mile loop that circles the green fields of Pearlstone and Camp Milldale. We take the children on creek walks, following the current along rocks and under and around branches. We see fish, tadpoles and various fly larva. Then, we test the water quality and show them where herbacides running off from nearby farms are creating algae overgrowth in the stream.

One girl I had this week was incredibly homesick. From 9am, all she would talk about was how she wanted to go home that evening. She had never ever slept away from home. With a lot of effort from several Teva staff and her amazing teacher, we helped convince her mother that staying here would be positive experience. She did! We were so proud of her. She did have fun during the days, and by the third night she slept well, too. We have a lot of children who come here with ADD, Depression and anxiety. The line for meds is outrageously long. It's great to see those kids empowered here. The experiential learning style lets those kids thrive sometimes in a way that many of them have never known. That is perhaps one of the best things about this program.

Jakir, a former Tevanik, lives and works here. Along with his wife - Netzizah - and a woman named Rachel, they are starting an incredibly organic farm. Weekly, volunteers come to help till, hoe and plant. In the fall, they built greenhouse. The vision and planning behind every aspect of the farm is impressive. The design in a combination of permaculture and kabbalah. Environmental responsibility and Jewish farming laws are considered and weighed at every turn. there will be a vineyard and separate fields for barley and wheat. They are also designed a children's garden to use as a teaching tool and to make the earth and plants more accessible to kids. This summer, Jakir will be running a camp here for the farm. Its combination farming/Teva. I'm so inspired by his ambition, and his ability to realize this project.

What I've enjoyed most out here - in addition to simply being around children and teaching again! - is being outside and watching nature change week by week. When we first arrived, the ferns were mere fiddle heads, just peaking up their bent feathers form the ground. Today, looking at the woods, the forest floor is a mass of ferns reaching up above our ankles. From the porch of our cabins, the trees look like giant versions of the new broccoli that is growing in the greenhouse. The trees have turned darker green, the cherry blossoms have come and gone in our brief stint here. By the lake, there are three families of geese. One with 6 goslings, one with 5 and one with only 2. The parents always walk on either side of their children, protecting them on either side and hissing at anyone who comes too close. The dandelions (edible!) showed up a few days after we arrived here but by now they have turned to seed. In their place, are beautiful buttercups that turn the hillsides into seas of yellow.