Youth Camp in the Country

Sometimes we all imagine how things might have been. I thought about joining the Peace Corps 40 some years ago when in college. I used to tell myself it was because I studied classical languages in high school and had no experience with spoken languages. But I think during the past 10 days working at a Youth Camp in a remote village I re-discovered the real reason. I imagine I knew I was not ready for those assignments in the early 60's to the remote areas of Africa and South America. I was ok with having just one lukewarm "bucket shower" while at the Youth Camp. But after ten days of using the outhouse with its wonderful fragrance and logistics, I was ready for my apartment. I was delighted actually to return to …. a shower and a toilet seat.
But despite that, the whole Youth Camp event was quite wonderful. There were 50 teens from 14-16 years old that were full of energy and joy. Some of us like me were teachers for three 50 minute classes a day (Leadership, Project Planning and Theater) and the other half of the staff functioned asTeam Leaders, motivating and coaching their groups of 10 in preparation for various cheers and competitive challenges. For many of them it might have been the first experience of working as a team. One could see the resulting growth in confidence and maturity. And having functioned as The Lone Ranger for most of the past year, I was also delighted for the interaction and support of teammates

The week overall was a good blend of learning and fun. The goal was to help them acquire some new life skills and to improve their English speaking along the way. But the journey was filled with much laughter and friendly competition. At the completion of every day, the kids were told the theme for the coming day. And the next morning the judges were ready to award the prize to the team who showed the most creativity for "Crazy Hat" or "Crazy Hair" day. Classes and lunch took up the late morning and early afternoon and by 2pm they were back in their teams preparing for the new Team Challenge for the day. Most of the kids were sorry to see the camp end but for me and several of the other counselors, we were "running out of gas." Riding home on the bus to my usual worksite, I couldn't help but remember that my best memories of my youth were those spent at summer camps. Funny how that works out.

Now I go back to tutoring English for the month of July and hopefully will have a chance to help out as a counselor at a "Green Camp" in August in another part of Armenia that I haven't visited yet. I imagine I should get my hot showers in before I leave as the joys of modern plumbing will most likely be absent again. Yet when I look at my photos and see the joy on the kids' faces, I am reminded what is really important.