Last year, on the first day of camp, I packed my students’ cold lunches. I introduced them to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips, apple juice, complete with a banana. This year, with fewer students, I decided to give them something even more shocking: cheeseburgers. I took them to Tropical Burger and ordered us a few burgers to share (including a veggie burger for myself), and watched their eyes light up as they tried something new. Luckily, they loved it! And then it was off to Wondo Genet.
One of my sessions was Journal Making – and we quickly learned a little more about the campers. Sultan loves to draw and he sketched an image of Jasmine he found on one of the stickers, quite well if I might add. And Michael admitted he wanted to go to Peru of all places, so he drew a ship to sail away on. But my favourite journal cover by far combined America and Ethiopia:
My next session was Reader’s Theater. This year, we used the Eager4English books I helped publish here and we had the campers act out stories from Yirgalem in SNNPR and Gimbi in Oromia. Even some of the shyer students began to come out of their shells.
My final activity was Camp Olympics, and much like last year, it worked out wonderfully, despite being left to the last minute haha. We had a water balloon toss, obstacle course, tank & driver, water challenge, relay races, and puzzles & piggies.
Throughout the week, we had other awesome activities, such as Tae Kwon Do, mural painting, a culture fair, malaria info, a hygiene session, tree planting, a nature hike, a gender equality session, yoga, and so much more.
One of my favourite parts of camp is getting to know my campers so well. This year, Bill and I headed up the Yellow Tigers:
But honestly, I’m such a small part of making this camp happen. Camp GLOW was definitely a highlight of my time here in Ethiopia, and that’s because of the awesome Peace Corps Volunteers, the hard-working counterparts, and the (sometimes over-) eager campers. It’s a week I’ll always remember.
Sounds like you and the children had a great time and lots of fun! I hope the “wind-down time” for the next 2 weeks goes slow enough to allow you enough time to rest and still get ready for your next journey.
LoveYa,
Mom
I was in camp a couple of mounth ago and you certainly narrated a bundle of laugh we had beautifully.i am happy about you favourite journal.
Michael, so good to hear from you! I miss everyone from camp.