Miriam Itzkowitz

Last week, our Year 10 embarked on a strenuous journey to Santa Sabina’s Tallong campus with barely any wifi reception, which resulted in barely any use for our phones. Most of Year 10 thought that we would go extinct without using the internet for ‘escapism’ purposes. But much to our surprise, we were successful in finding a way to survive through games, discussion and ruach (spirit/awesome dancing).

In all seriousness though, Machane Ayekah was definitely one of my favourite school camps, as it provided me with more insight into a variety of topics and additionally, provided many of us with a newfound respect and appreciation for our religion.

The first few days were jam-packed and extremely intense, pushing us to our absolute limits, and allowing for us to get used to the “harsh”, yet homely camp environment. We were split into mishpachot (families) which allowed us to share time with people in our year who we barely ever have time to talk with. This was nice, as it enabled us to get to know each other much better, and over all, become much more tight-knit as a year group. Through various pe‘ulot (activities), we were not only able to bond, we were also able to learn, in a very informal environment, which was very relaxed and enjoyable.

We also celebrated Shabbat on camp, and this was another huge highlight. Friday night was really amazing as we had a nice Kabbalat Shabbat service followed by an epic dinner, filled with a lot of ruach and singing. Saturday was also absolutely incredible, because our whole Saturday morning service was run by Year 10 students and I think everyone did a really good job.

Machane Ayekah was such a fantastic experience and wouldn’t have been possible without Mr Bloom, Mr Case, Ms Inberg, Mr Janks, Ms Reed, Ms Rosenfeld, Mr Samowitz  and Rabbi Siegel. And, of course both our Australian and Israeli Madrichim. Our year 10 thanks them all for providing us with this phenomenal expereince.