First Retreat Recap

We had our first retreat on the weekend of March 16. It was so much fun. We arrived on Friday the 16th to Westminister Minister Retreat, in Alamo. When we arrived and settled in we participated in some icebreakers led by Hannah. The ice breakers were a little way to help us all get comfortable before the weekend and something for us to do while we were waiting for other fellow Dillers who were stuck in traffic or running late. After the icebreakers we had dinner, one of the many delicious meals of the weekend. After dinner we celebrated Shabbat in a great Friday night service led by Maggie, Jordan and Arielle.

We were not to write seeing that it was Shabbat and we all wanted to make everyone feel comfortable because we all come form different backgrounds, so we all decided to follow the rules of Shabbat and one of them was no writing. So we participated in activities where writing wasn’t necessary. Our first activity was called, “Who’s a Leader?” Every person received an envelope with yellow strips of paper with words or sayings on them that described different qualities good and bad about leadership. As individuals, we were to pick our top ten qualities that we thought best described the perfect leader. After we worked individually we were put into groups of 4 or 5. Out of the group's individual picks we chose ten that as a group thought described a good leader and then as a whole group we picked ten out of the individual groups of what we all thought described the perfect leader. When we finished we had a discussion of why we picked those particular qualities. One quality we were all controversial about was “ethical”. Our discussion was mostly about if ethics did or did not play a role in being a leader. We still really never came to a decision, but we put it in our top ten anyway.

Our next activity was Israel Geography. We were put into groups of 5 and given a list of places in Israel, some that we are going to visit and other places to just know of. Each group picked a person to be their human map. We then placed the places on the person that was the human map where they would be on the actual map of Israel. After we were done we compared the groups to see who got the most right. It was a great activity to get us into learning about Israel since that is where we are visiting this summer.

Our final activity of the night was a meditation of Shabbat. Our advisor Erica led it and asked us to find a place of our own in the room, lie down and close our eyes. It was a great way to end the day and begin the weekend.

Saturday morning began with a delicious breakfast. After breakfast we all came together to recite the morning blessings. Each Diller came up with a stretch to go along with the prayer they recited with the group. Next we participated in the Morning Services led by, Aryeh, Max and Matt. After services we spent sometime bonding and having fun while participating in some leadership games that we all had to work together as a group to accomplish. They were difficult at first but when we all put our heads together and instead of all being leaders at once taking turns we reached our goal. After the games we went on a study hike. We all picked a partner and Erica led us to a trail and then we were on our own. We had some questions to ask each other and an article to read. The hike was so beautiful; the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. It was a great way to explore our surroundings and learn about the Torah portion and hear what your partner had to say.

After the hike we had lunch outside in the garden. Then we had a break to do homework, sleep and spend time with each other. After the break we broke out into our groups for our community project groups. This year we are involved in North Peninsula Yom Ha’Atzmaut Celebration, Israel in the Gardens, Elem (an organization in Israel), and an Israel Mystery Project. We spent some time brainstorming ideas and thinking about how we wanted to plan our assigned events. Since we were not to write because it was still Shabbat we only brainstormed and discussed. When we were finished discussing within our small groups we reported to the larger group.

Next it was time for us to stretch our legs and enjoy the beautiful day with a good game of kickball. We split the group up by North Bay and South Bay. It was another great activity to bond with each other and also to see everybody’s competitive side. Next on the agenda was dinner followed by a short break. After the break we had a wonderful Havdallah service led by Hannah, Adam and Allison. It was a great way to end the Shabbas. After the Havdallah service we got into our small groups again to wrap up our ideas and write them down on paper. We also took some time to collaborate some ideas for this blog and we brainstormed ideas for gifts for our Israeli friends. When we finished with brainstorming activities for the Mifgash (our retreat with the Israelis) we had a Program Share Circle. We all paired up with someone and shared ideas for a programs and then the outside circle rotated until we reached one full rotation and had shared all our ideas for different programs.

Our final activity was a sharing circle where we shared what we were looking forward to on the Israel trip and as each person talked they wrapped blue and white string around their wrist to be cute and made into a bracelet. After the last activity we all went to bed.

The next morning we had breakfast and then wrapped up the weekend with an activity to decide on a DTF logo for our t-shirts. We worked first in small groups and then we came into one big group, voted and decided. Our final activity was to reflect on the weekend and answer a survey. Then we ate lunch and were on our way. It was a great weekend, a lot of friendships were made and as a whole we began our new family as Diller Teen Fellows.