Shayne's Crazy Makdo Life: Back from Camp-o-rama

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Back from Camp-o-rama

Yes, I have returned. What a crazy couple of weeks it's been! It'd take me years to explain everything that's happened, so I'll just give everyone the Reader's Digets version:

Camp GLOW was fantastic. It went much smoother than I anticipated, which was a huge relief. We only had 4 no-shows, and out of 60 girls, that's pretty good. The place we stayed at was nice, and all of the sessions seemed to go really smoothly. Some of the girls' favorite sessions were the yoga session they had with one of the counselors and a self defense class that we had with a special guest volunteer. For the rest of the week, they were practicing their "NO!"s, and it was awesome. The camp was mixed ethnicities, and we made it a point to mix all of the girls in their rooms and small groups so that they weren't with anyone from their own community. The defining moment for me was during our Tolerance and Appreciation day, when one of the Macedonian girls told us that she'd never met an Albanian before, and that the night before, she and her Albanian roommate stayed up all night talking about the differences between their religions and cultures. I looked around and saw a lot of girls nodding in agreement, confirming that they had done the same thing. It just made me so happy to hear that, because one of the main goals of GLOW for me is to promote inter-ethnic understanding. So many of these girls grow up listening to their parents' stereotypes and prejudices, and they just assume that they're correct. Here they had a chance to actually meet someone of a different ethnicity, and I think some long-lasting friendships were made. It was really amazing.

Another really funny moment happened on the last night during our Goodbye Party. There were some boys outside our conference room, not really causing any trouble, but definitely wanting to meet some of our girls. They would talk with any of the girls who went outside, but other than that, they weren't really doing anything, so I just let them stay. Anyways, at the end of the night when it was time for the girls to head to bed, I asked them to kindly ignore the boys outside because they really did need to get up to bed to sleep. So, as they all exited the party room, they started chanting "Boys are toys!" I swear I didn't teach them that, but it was hilarious to witness.

So, after GLOW, I had a day at home to unpack and then repack for my other camp, which was just your basic English camp. It was like a vacation for me- 20 kids, 3 days long....it was no problem. I mean, we did have a lot of fun, and we were in a gorgeous location- Mavravo, a cute little village in the mountains that has its own man-made lake. It made me realize how much I really miss living near a body of water. But, less than 4 months to go, and then I'll be back home, near many many lakes.

Now what? Well, I've got a week back here in Orizari, and then I'm taking off for vacation. It's been quite a busy month for me, so I'm really looking forward to some nice R&R. I'm going with another volunteer to Burgas, Bulgaria, which is located right on the Black Sea. We'll be staying with a Peace Corps Bulgaria volunteer, so that saves me a lot of money. I just plan on laying on the beach all week with a nice book. After that, I've got a few weeks to prepare for the BIG VISIT- my dad's coming out here for a week!!! I'm excited beyond words. It'll be fantastic. After that, I'll be headed to Skopje to train for my new position for a week, and then the newbies will be here. Then, two months of training them, then.....HOME!!!!! :)