As recently as three months ago, back home in Jerusalem, 17-year-olds Yoel Zerbib and Aya Hussin would probably not have have come together.

Yoel is a fair-haired Israeli Jew who only knows one Muslim family. The dark-eyed Aya, though she attends an Arab-Israeli school that brings together two disparate sections of the war-torn region, had heard plenty of stories of Jews who hated her kind.

But then they found themselves stranded together in a kayak trying to head back up a canal in Kailua, yelling for help in Hebrew, Arabic and English.

"It was so funny!" said Yoel, as she and Aya giggled in unison.

"We are friends, now," Aya added.

It's moments like these that prove YMCA World Camp is living out its purpose, to teach youths from around the globe to see past their differences and into a world of commonalities.

Before heading to Camp Erdman on the far reaches of O'ahu's North Shore for Hawai'i's first-ever hosting of the ambitious YMCA gathering, these visiting teens spent a weekend at homes around the island. Hosts took them to favorite local haunts, held family-style barbecues and did the tourist thing, including souvenir shopping at the swap meet.

It was during their home stay with host Larry Bush, president and CEO of YMCA of Honolulu, that Aya and Yoel ended up waterlogged and relying on each other to get a kayak back up the canal. Now, it's an amusing anecdote, but at the time, it was a bonding experience.

Over the course of the next 10 days at the camp, they and dozens like them will be learning Hawaiiana, building a mural and peace garden as a service project, learning teamwork through a ropes course, and taking a few field trips to Waikiki and the Polynesian Cultural Center. And don't forget a trip to the water park and Waimea.

For Aya and Yoel, it's a bit of a dream, to be here.

"In Israel, when you say far, far away, you say you are 'going to Hawai'i,' that's the farthest place," explained Yoel. "When we know we are coming (to the YMCA World Camp in Hawai'i), we thought it was a joke."

Asked what they thought of the Islands, both said, "Wow!"

"I feel so at home, so much aloha," said Yoel.

However, not everything was picture-perfect for Josh Heimowitz, who is running the two-years-in-the-making YMCA World Camp. First came the Waialua wildfire that took down area phone lines. Then came something called Hurricane Flossie.

"It's a little extra added excitement that we weren't looking for," he said.

Indeed, as one participant was chatting away in Spanish on his cell phone before the opening ceremony of the camp on Tuesday, two English words came through loud and clear: "tropical storm."

Add visa refusals for several would-be African participants, or the six denials that preceded one participant's visa approval. Oh, and getting out of the Mideast (besides Yoel and Aya, there's one person from Egypt) brought its own frustrations.

None of that dimmed the hopes of Heimowitz, the kind of guy for whom the words "pumped" and "stoked" was invented. He actually attended the last World Camp in 1998, noting that previous ones have been held on the U.S. Mainland. The first World Camp was held in 1985.

"Ours is the largest at a single site, ever," Heimowitz said. "It's very exciting."

He's hoping Australia will take up the baton to host the next World Camp, perhaps as early as 2010.

Students from Hawai'i are joining in the experience, too, even if their school calendar conflicts with the schedule of the other youths. Heimowitz said that the timing couldn't be helped: While Hawai'i's students go back to school as early as late July, in most countries August means school break.

As an ice-breaker, campers on Tuesday had to find a way to line up by distance traveled — those who had come the farthest were the first to introduce themselves to the rest of the crowd.

Since the camp is being held in the Islands, planners also incorporated plenty of Hawaiian touches: a cultural group gave an opening oli (chant).

"Leave your problems outside," "Auntie" Fay Uyeda, executive director of Communities in Schools, urged campers, her voice carried by the wind off the Pacific. "I'm sure there are countries outside that are enemies. You have this tremendous opportunity to let it go."

Back home in Israel, both Aya and Yoel belong to the groundbreaking YMVP (Young Moderate Voices for Progress), a YMCA youth leader program that seeks co-existence for Arab and Jewish teens. The program starts by bringing together Jewish and Arab 15- and 16-year-olds in an effort for them to identify and communicate with one another. As members grow older, they take part in leader training.

Yoel and Aya learned they'd be coming to Hawai'i a few months before but didn't meet one another until last month.

Now they're fast friends.

"I came, open to know (other people), but I thought I knew the other side," said Yoel, struggling to find the right English words to match complex Hebrew concepts. " ... I know what you suffer and what I suffer. Now to be in the middle ..."

She patted her heart.

" ... I know better."

Added Aya:

"I didn't really have the idea that Jews are enemies, but I see on the news and there are lots of Arabs who hate Jews.

"The YMCA gives me the opportunity to show to everyone they do not have to be like this. Not all Jews are enemies."