Jewish families from Ust-Kamenogorsk community went to the Emerald Altay Resort on August 20-22. Prior to the trip on August 18, we had a meeting for all the participants to make everybody aware of the goals and tasks of the upcoming family camp. The goal, set by organizers, was to enhance Jewish upbringing of children in families and to promote interest to the Jewish way of life. Everybody received a homework task - to prepare a presentation "Family Album" to tell about the family history in an interesting form.

On August 20, 20 participants of family camp - families of Ushakovs-Belozerovs, Fridmans, Kovshirins, Maltsevs-Finkelshteins, Sklyarskiys, Lukyanovs, Artemenkos, and Larionovs got on a bus to go to the camp. The trip took about 40 minutes. During this time Volunteer Alexandra Artemenko held an interesting training "Introduction".

In the Resort the families settled in cozy rooms and after lunch actively got involved into the camp work. Having read a week chapter from Torah with Volunteer Tatyana Riskina, we started preparations for Shabbat - learning songs and prayers. In the evening we all gathered around a festively-set table, lit Shabbat candles. Alexey Larionov recited Kiddush on wine, and we met the Queen Saturday. During Shabbat we held a quiz to check our knowledge of Jewish Tradition: how many candles are lit at Shabbat? why there are two khalas on the table?; why khala is dipped into salt? People were given sweet prizes for giving right answers.

In the morning, families did morning exercises "Boker tov" accompanied by Jewish music. After breakfast we came together in a summerhouse by the brook where we had presentations of "Family Albums". We listened to many family stories - sad and funny, humoristic and serious. Everybody was very interested in the theme and did not want to leave.

After coffee break we divided into teams to get ready for an evening show "One Day of Jewish Life".

After lunch we went for a walk to enjoy the scenery. There were lots of fir trees, pine trees, motley grass. Many people picked oregano and mint.

The class "Jewish Ethics in Family" raised many questions. Tatyana Riskina answered questions and read excerpts from the book "Jewish Values".

After classes, children were swimming in the pool with warm water, while adults were sunbathing.

The evening show was a lot of fun. The teams showed sketches with Jewish humor, changing cloths, witty costumes made from toilet paper. Both teams received prizes - friendship won! After the show we went to the Jewish dancing party to dance to songs of Zoar group and Natalya Polyanskaya who are well known and loved in our community.

Nobody wanted to leave. All became good friends and one big united Jewish family. At the end, adults and children wrote their comments in a special journal.

Tatyana Riskina