Camp is over - an update from Lindsay

I received this update from Lindsay via email. Dan

Kaitlin and I are back from camp! We spent the last 10 days at Lake Svityaz with 36 kids (and no WiFi). The bus ride out to camp was the first opportunity to get to know the kids, although it was challenging with the language barrier (can anyone make of the word hot dog in the picture?).

We got to stay in a new building that has been completed since Dan and Analu were there 2 years ago. It was very peaceful as not many people, other than the Y, were at Svityaz due to the rain.

At camp the counselors had many amazing ice breakers that we’ll be sure to use in Canada at staff training and children’s camps.

The days had different themes such as Pirate Day (where Joey was the lead pirate as Jack Sparrow), Water Day (a national holiday), pyjama day, and reverse day (some of the older teenagers became counselors that day).

One of the highlights of camp was the talent show on the last evening. Groups and individuals all had a chance to perform skits, songs, jokes, poems, traditional dancing, and TenSing (modern dancing and singing).

We did an introductory game with some Canadian culture and flag freeze tag (with Canadian flags that they got to keep). Marta also had us lead English camp songs!

The counselors and children did very well with the rain, setting up a big tarp for eating under and heading off to the disco during the day for games and dancing. It rained for 7 days straight and suddenly we had great weather the last 3 days (35 degrees on the last day)!

Finally we had an opportunity to swim and Kaitlin taught lessons to groups of 7-8 campers. This was a big hit just like in Canada, the only difference being that she had a translator and was teaching in open water! She started with getting them to blow bubbles, as many of the kids were new to swimming, and worked up to front crawl.

I had the opportunity to teach 4 different fitness segments. This was well received by the older campers who wanted to work off Paulina’s excellent cooking, and the younger ones who love to move. One of the teens later told Ivanna that she hopes to be a fitness instructor one day! I played a lot of sports with the kids when we had free time, such as Frisbee and soccer. Sport is a great way to build relationships. One morning I even brought out the TRX to show the older teenage girls. Many of them are interested in being more active. I hope the YMCA in Ukraine can start a female floorball team!

Joey has been an excellent host while we’ve been in Ukraine and invaluable at camp. We were able to talk to a lot more kids with him around. He helped us with travel preparation and educated us on personal safety in Ukraine. We got to see a program he started at school and play reverse checkers and table tennis with the kids.

Today we are off to Lviv and then Zdolbuniv. I’m looking forward to some teenagers from camp who will be showing us around their home town! We hope to write more posts in our last 5 days now that we have internet again. Papa (bye-bye)!