What happened to the yeshiva students in January 1991 when they sat in shelters sealed with protective tape against Iraqi Scuds, gasping for air? I got the answer when I first entered the room where my sister was organizing her annual camp for kindergarten children. The little ones were red from exertion and lack of air in the confined space, and the already shaky patience of the camp director, 13-year-old Yocheved [Kavi], led the small group to a near national disaster, and in any case to a complicated class action lawsuit.<\/p>\r\n
Yocheved's pedagogical craze began at the age of 8. She announced that she was setting up a children's camp that would compete with the then-successful camp "Children Tell Their Own Story." My mother was a little frightened by the competition that could shake up the economy and suggested that she start like Rami Levy. Small. One store in Machane Yehuda, or in other words, to look after Shlomi, the screaming and annoying baby who just wanted to go down to the "lobby" all day. Walder didn't break down, but a few years later the girl announced that the Unity Camp was getting underway.<\/p>\r\n
It started, as always, with topical ads. The secret to advertising, a neighbor of Rachel Bolton told us, is not to go into too much detail. Yocheved also took a similar line. The ad only said that a dedicated, hardworking, punctual, kind, handsome girl, and experienced with children, was announcing the opening of a 'Unity Camp' for children ages 4-8. And what about the camp? [Yocheved's question was rhetorical], a host of attractions: crafts, arts and crafts, a fun day, a pool, plenty of sweets, trips, and more. The price: 8 NIS per day. For three siblings, 20 NIS per day. For two siblings, 15 NIS per day. The full camp price is 120 NIS, for three siblings, etc., for two siblings, etc., you can also send for hours. Price 10 NIS. For two siblings, etc., for three siblings, etc. All in all, correct.<\/p>\r\n
It's true that it's not necessary, but Yocheved was convinced that a little color wouldn't hurt. So the ads were decorated with butterflies [or flowers, depending on the angle of view] of different colors. A cute asymmetrical circle was also drawn at the bottom of the ad, which led to heated arguments in the stairwell between Cohen and Dweck from Minus One, whether a pool is depicted here, or is it a fat girl. Dweck insisted on the fat girl. Yocheved herself said that this is what's beautiful about the ad, like in poetry, everyone finds what they're looking for in it.<\/p>\r\n
In any case, the ad did not generate any customers, and Yocheved switched to the straw in the door method. My heart sank. I knew that no responsible mother would entrust her small children for an entire day in the hands of a 13-year-old girl who had enlisted the help of the 10-year-old "Medzit" Desi [cousin]. Surprisingly, my predictions were disappointed. The compassionate mothers were happy to send their children, and it seemed that the only thing that would have made them happier was the knowledge that they would be taken from them to orphanages. Within a day, Yocheved collected 15 abandoned boys and girls who received a crumpled piece of Bristol board that very day, with the name "Kitnat Ha'Achdut" on one side, and a Carmit toffee on the other.<\/p>\r\n
In the evening I was recruited for work. "You know how to write, you say, compose a hymn for the summer camp." The song "The Little Worm" from Jewish Treasures played in my head, but out loud I said: Sure. Easily. After a sleepless night, and countless erasures, I pulled out the following piece from under my hand:<\/p>\r\n
Unity Camp\/ Representative of Friendship\/ And We Will Know No More Loneliness\/ At Unity Camp\/ Peace to the Wanderers\/ At Unity Camp\/ End to Suicide\/ At Unity Camp\/ Time for Survival\/ At Unity Camp.<\/p>\r\n
I was worried that the 'unity' motif wasn't emphasized enough, but Yocheved said it was okay. She'll work on it. Overall, it's a catchy song.<\/p>\r\n
In the morning, the children appeared. It was hard to miss them. 15 excited children invaded the house. Three of them arrived in my bedroom, waking me up two hours earlier than planned. Yocheved, full of goodwill, brought them all into the small room and promised them a pile of sweets that would have made Ami and Tami's witch blush. For the first hour it worked, the children waited for the sweets. So did I. But then Yocheved pulled out a pack of red waffles [from Manna] and distributed a third of the waffle to each child. That should last until Tuesday, the coordinator said. They would be happy. An exception was Banjo [Benjamin], the sweet 5-year-old neighbor's boy who was rumored to slaughter cats at night for his own pleasure. He received a whole waffle in exchange for a complete stop to pulling the hair of Ruchami, the neighbor, whom we used to maliciously say was 'uncooked.'.<\/p>\r\n
It turns out she was right, the 'Man' product was enough. At one and a half hours I returned from my work and went to check on the progress of the project. The silence did not bode well. Had a rebellion broken out? Did the 15 little ones realize that the 13-year-old girl was treating them like idiots? Did they manage to reveal that the 'big trip' included crossing the road to the neighborhood grocery store? Did they discover, following an investigation, that the prize, which includes entry to the toy store and choosing any toy in the store, is limited only to the All Dollar Store chain?<\/p>\r\n
The answer to all the questions is no. The second I opened the door, I saw the 15 little boys and girls, screaming at the top of their lungs, "Unity Camp, Friendship Representative." I looked at their red faces and realized that the window was closed. "Banjo keeps climbing there," said the nurse. I was a little surprised to see among the children a 45-year-old man, shouting like a fool at the top of his lungs, "Friendship Representative." I took another look and realized it was Ruchami's father, a respectable Jew who worked from home. "She didn't stop crying and shrugging her shoulders, and he came to sing with her," Yocheved said quietly.<\/p>\r\n
I expressed my appreciation for their quick absorption of the anthem, which includes difficult words like nomads and survival, but my brother, who was lying in bed with a wet rag pinned to his forehead, explained that since 11 o'clock the children have been practicing the anthem, when they are forced to repeat the immortal words "Unity Camp, We Will Strengthen Friendship" over and over again, claiming that they "can't hear.".<\/p>\r\n
I was worried about something else. I believed that I was promised a great future in the world of music, and I feared that the children's screams would damage the sensitivity of my musical ear. Yocheved was not impressed by this. She claimed that I had nothing to fear from damage to my musical hearing, since it had never existed. An argument broke out between us about this, but we were unable to reach an agreement.<\/p>\r\n
Surprisingly, the children showed up the next day, but their number seemed a little suspicious. A re-examination revealed that the camp suddenly had 23 children, in the sense of 'a son is born to us, a child is born to us.' A slightly deeper examination revealed that the mothers said that, in their opinion, the exorbitant price of 24 shekels per day also included the daughter and cousin who came from Moshav Beit Halkia. The camp's founder and acting director accepted the decision with surprising calm, only being bothered by the capacity of the laundry tubs that served as the pool that day. I commented that such a large number of children in the pool was a guarantee of drowning, and suggested that everyone concentrate in the shallow water. For some reason, the children and Yocheved were not amused.<\/p>\r\n
After eight days of suffering in which we discovered the power of the subconscious, and became aware of the immense will of man to live despite everything, the little one ended, and Yocheved went out to collect her wages.<\/p>\r\n
The children in Kitana were apparently stupid, their mothers less so. The arguments that arose between Yocheved and the mothers would not have put to shame the inheritance dispute between Erwin and Leah Eisenberg. There is a long way between 8 shekels an hour and 12, and the mothers, as well as Yocheved, stood firm in their rights. In the end, Yocheved won, and with her hundreds of shekels, she went on a shopping spree that mainly included bottles of shampoo and packs of tissues of a certain type, since the ones we, the common people, use, the dirty ones, do not suit the needs of a teenage girl. "Your shampoo and conditioner are more suitable for the tribal period, before her cultural development," she told us, the natives.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hanukkah vacation is approaching, and with it the camp offers for busy mothers \u2022 Eliezer Heun recalls a certain camp from his youth that caused him to lose the joy of youth, the joy of life, hours of sleep, and also his musical ear.","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[7837,759,345,4776,7836],"class_list":["post-112291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-138","tag-7837","tag-759","tag-345","tag-4776","tag-7836"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n