Whew... I've been in Balaken (a town north about 40 minutes marshurtka from Zaqatala) this last week. It was a six day camp, well organized by two AZ 8 PCV's. Each day they had a different theme (e.g. environment day, leadership day, film and Olympics day) and the students were divided into three teams "Red Bulls", "Green Crocodiles" and "Blue Elephants" (my team). They had to make up their team name, flag and cheer. The first day was about painting our "team" shirts and drawing our flag and writing a cheer. Rules were established and points given to each team. They were given water bottles and each day they had to bring their water bottles (with water) to camp and their team would get points. Points were also given out for participation, responsibility and respect. Each PCV's could give up to 3 points a day to an individual or a team if we felt they were doing something outstanding. The team that earned the most points at the end of camp won a prize. It was close but Team Crocodile edge us out. My team (Blue Elephant) had 2 sisters that for the life of me I could not get them to play any games that first day. Girls here are taught to be ladylike and are not to have fun. These two are tiny, dress to the nines and wore loop earrings and were afraid to do anything physical. Each day I would encourage them and then on the last day the oldest sister (7th grade) won the game of ship wrecked. This game is grueling, laying on the ground, running, jumping, pushing, laughing boys generally win the game. I was so proud of her, I was jumping up and down screaming, cheering her on. I am so proud of those two sisters, they learned to have fun. My job was arts and crafts and resident photographer. We made book markers (turned out great) and friendship bracelets (not so great, too hard and took too long, they lost interest really quick!!). They had about 12 PCV's helping out at any given time. The week was extremely tiring but was so great. I took almost 200 pictures (not all good, had to delete a lot), but on Saturday they had a slide show and each team did a 2 minute video on film day and they showed that as well. They also learned a dance during the week and on Friday evening we met at the park and they dance on the steps. Afterwards they went on park rides and ate ice cream. I had only one little mishap. On Thursday I was catching a cold, so I went back to Steph apartment (where I was staying) to rest and to try to feel better for the next day. I jump in to take a shower and rinse out some undergarments. Steph is on the 3rd floor and her clothes line is outside her window and kind of broken. As I was hanging my things, that darn line jump out of the nail and flew down and my clothes fell right on dirt, rocks and mud. Dang, I ran down stairs, got my things and came back up and had to re-washed them. Now how am I going to get that clothes line back up to the 3rd floor?? Idea... I've been working with the friendship bracelets and had a ball of yarn I was untangling. So I got a clothes pin, tied the yarn around it, drop it down to the ground. Ran back down stairs, waited until all the cars passed (it was a parking lot), tie the line to the clothes pin, ran back upstairs quickly before any cars came by and broke the line and started pulling it up (just like fishing), its working until it was just beyond my reach and the yarn was thin and getting tighter. I slowly pulled until I could lean out that window as far as I thought safe and grab it... Whew, the yarn held and I hammer another nail into the window sill and the clothes line is secure. So much for resting.
My next camp is local in Zaqatala and it will be cheaper (yes, we have to pay all of our own expenses to help with these camps and no reimbursements). I am looking forward to this camp as I am working with my co teacher Aygun (she has volunteered to work on arts and crafts). Now that I have experience from my Balaken camp I can show her what works and what doesn't.
Please watch the slide show of the Balaken Camp, these kids were awesome.. No pictures of me as I was the photographer.
Life Challenge: Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product... Eleanor Roosevelt
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