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.