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.