Day 20: Yom Kvutza at Sde Boker

Today, MBI had Yom Kvutza! Each kvutza had the opportunity to run different blocks for each other. In between, they got to soak in the beautiful views around Sde Boker.

Kvutza Ramon had an activity about capitalism and socialism in their lives and discussed how they relate to it on both a local and a wider scale. They also had an extreme anything for candy challenge. They played a few games and then rose to the challenge to complete various tasks! Lastly, they split themselves into smaller groups of three people each for a café dilemma, an activity in which you get to ask questions, express opinions, and engage in topics of interest. Ramon centered this activity on Judaism and their Jewish identities, and served each other some light refreshments such as cookies, coffee, and tea.

Kvutza Arbel had an activity involving HDNA's pillars. They also put their imagination to work when they ran an activity all about "Jaliens," or Jewish Aliens. These Jaliens made contact with the kvutza, and then each person had to collect parts to build a rocket ship to visit them. The parts of the rocket ship corresponded to different parts of their identities. Next, they had a kvutza party where there were many stations such as a basketball challenge and water games.

Afterwards, both kvutzot had the opportunity to debrief the day. They shared what it was like to be a part of a creative planning process, from forming ideas to deciding how to turn these ideas into activities they could run for their peers to actually running them. Whether it was leading a peula, explaining directions for a game, or helping to make sure the activities were in order, each person had an important role to play.  

In the evening, both kvutzot ran their own wish night. For those unfamiliar with the structure of wish night, each person writes a wish and then someone else must grant their wish. Sometimes, it's not a problem to take these wishes seriously and actually give the person exactly what they wish for. However, most of the time it's impossible to actually grant them, so the other person must think of a silly and creative way to present the granted wish to their friend! This often serves as a great test of creativity for the person granting the wish, and leaves the person who receives the wish feeling very appreciated! Overall, lots and lots of laughs were had!