Malchat Hamidbar

Several months ago I was approached by a YC madrich and asked if I wanted to participate in a special program. The conversation at the time went something like this:
Madricha: Laura, do you want to do this?
Me: What is this?
Madricha: It’s this women’s thing. It’s supposed to be very cool.
Me: But what do they do exactly?
Madricha: I’m not sure. I think they do something in the desert.
Me: Who is it for? When is it? How much is it?
Madricha: I don’t really know.
Me: Is there anything else you can tell me about this?
Madricha: Not really, no.

Weeks passed without me hearing anything. Then comes last Thursday when I get a call from someone on the staff reminding me about this “Malchat Hamidbar” program on Friday. After everything I had gleaned about this outing you can understand why I went into it with zero expectations.

We were told a bus would be at campus at 7:20am to pick us up. The day got off on a wonderful note when my alarm didn’t work and instead I was being woken up by a friend telling me it was 7:25 and the bus was here. On the bus ride I was understandably grumpy, tired and hungry. Fortunately, this concludes the depressing part of the story.

As we enter the clearing, I immediately perk up upon recognizing where we were: the Magical Forest (a pine forest approximately half way between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem so named by YJ summer program participants for its mysterious appearance on our bus routes no matter what direction we’re coming from). We were greeted by around 50 Israeli women of all ages giving us name tags, sweatshirts/tshirts and a table filled with coffee, tea and cookies (Jewish women know how to treat you right).

They then gathered us all onto mats in a small clearing and introduced themselves and what this day was all about. Malchat Hamidbar is an organization that brings together women from all over Israel to go on a weeklong jeep ride in a different remote location of the world each year. Hundreds of women partake in this adventure and every “Malcha” I talked to that day called it a transformative experience. Essentially it’s an extreme ice breaker/bonding trip. Many of the women knew each other from their Malchat Hamidbar trip and it was fun watching them greet and treat each other like old friends. Where do we come into all this? Malchat Hamidbar decided to try a joint program with MASA (the umbrella organization that funds gap programs like Year Course). This is a two part event, with the first being last Thursday and the second being in late May. This first day was dedicated to ice breakers and getting to know each other. We were split into groups in which we spent some time just playing basic ice breaker games and team building activities. Though I have done most if not all at some point in my summer camp career, these were still lots of fun because everyone was enthusiastic to get to know each other.
(I forgot to mention that in addition to the girls from Year Course the bus stopped at the old Judaean Youth Hostel and picked up some 40 girls from Australia who were participating in IBC- Israel By Choice- year program. We were the only two MASA groups there.)

A couple hours in we broke for brunch. I was expecting juice and rolls. Instead these women pulled out all the stops with an entirely homemade pot luck brunch. There was a huge array of salads and pastas and quiches and spreads. There was even soup!

After lunch we had a drum circle lead by a woman who I am told is famous and has played with people like Bruce Springsteen. Somehow what had begun as a drum circle singing Hebrew songs morphed into a huge dance party with a combination of popular English and Hebrew songs. There was an extremely comfortable and relaxed atmosphere. Looking at it from the outside it might seem a little strange: a group of over 100 women dancing to the beat of drums in the middle of a forest but it was seriously cool. Here were people who before this morning did not know each other and by the end the girls were exchanging numbers and the women were all inviting us over for Pesach Seder or Shabbat. (We even got goody bags as we were getting back onto the bus.)

I’m so glad I had the opportunity to take part in this. Though it was only a few short hours, I had the chance to connect with women whom I otherwise would never have met and got to do so in a very unique setting.