The End of Summer and the Beginning of a New School Year

The summer is finally winding down, but sadly the temperatures have been rising.  For the past few weeks I have been relaxing and enjoying doing nothing, with my fan going full blast, before school starts and the new volunteers arrive. I did not do any big international trips this summer, trying to save up my days to do some nice trips next year.  I did go to Stenje, a little village around the Prespa Lake, for a few days with Irena. Her family has a summer house there and we spent the days on the beach and the evenings on the porch.  It was a nice getaway.  It was very similar to a vacation with my family. We woke up and went from pj's to swim suits, stayed on the beach till lunch time, came back for a little break, and then went back to the beach until the sun went down.  In the evenings, we would sit on the porch. Listen to some music, snoop on the neighbors (people watching is a very popular pastime in Macedonia), and read. It was very quiet and relaxing.

 The beach. The beaches around Prespa are where you can find sandy beaches. The ones around Ohrid are very rocky.  There were not many people there; but it was still interesting to find that people from other countries like to come and spend their vacation here also.

 Irena's family's summer home. We spent alot of time on the top porch because from there you have a nice view and you can look out onto the lake.

View from the porch. I took this right after it had rained. You can see a rainbow above the yellow house.

School starts on Thursday. Every year school always starts on September 1st; it does not matter what day of the week it is. Last week and this week Irena, Maria and I have been working on getting the Resource Room ready.  Our goal is to have it ready to open on the 5th since the first 2 days of school are probably going to be a bit crazy. The kids are all excited to be back and sadly the teachers do not even have their schedules yet. So those first 2 days will be spent still getting everything in order.  We painted the walls a nice light creamy white color and then painted the bookcases and the windows brown.  Maria, who is a very talented artist, even painted some pictures on the walls.

 Maria painting the walls.

 Irena painting the bookcases.

 Working on the tree house. This will be behind the desk, which will house the computer and printer.

 The finish product. Isn't it amazing? It only took her 2 days and she did it all free hand.

 There was some water damage by the floor boards so Maria had the idea to add some more images to help cover it up.

After Week 1.  Its getting there.

Since then we have added a rug, some tables and chairs, and have been working on organizing the books.  A company from the states, Darrin Book Aide, will send a box of donated books to volunteers and international schools in need.  Irena and I both requested a box, not knowing the other one had done so, so in the end we received 2 boxes filled with picture books, young adult chapter books, classics, and even textbooks.

You will just have to check back next week to see the finished product!!!

Camp GLOW- Girls Leading Our World

This blog is a few days overdue  because I have been recovering from my 10-day adventure which is known as Camp GLOW.  GLOW stands for Girls Leading Our World and in Macedonia we have  local clubs and a camp.  This year I was the Jr. Programming Coordinator and next year I will be THE Programming Coordinator, the big guy, the boss.  Lucky me!!!  GLOW is more like a primary project, it takes the whole year to plan and it ends up taking up most of your time the closer camp comes.  This summer the camp was in Pelister, located in between Bitola and Resen, which was very convenient for me.  We have older Macedonian girls, ages 15-21, that are our CITs (counselors in training) and Counselors; along with PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) who are both counselors and instructors.  Eighty girls from all over Macedonia attend the camp, improve their English, and had a wonderful time.  Every day they woke up bright and early and we had a morning meeting, then breakfast, and then their classes began.  Each class was taught by a PCV and a Macedonian and the campers had 8 classes a day.  The topics of the classes were Womens' Studies, Civil Society, Environment, Life Choices, and Artistic Expression.  Each day the girls also had recreation; some of the classes were yoga, kickboxing, soccer, and basketball.  In the evenings the girls were able to attend an elective that was created by the PCVs.  Some of the classes were pop culture (where they had karaoke), improv, beauty parlor, and Chinese.  We also had special events throughout the week. We had a Red Cross Day where members of the Red Cross in Skopje came and taught the girls the basics of First Aide and CPR; then there were scenarios where we the staff were the victims and they had to take care of us.  We also had a pirate-themed field day where the girls competed against the other groups while wearing pirate outfits and speaking like a pirate.  There was a disco night where all the girls dressed up in their nice outfits and danced; and we had a big delicious cake to celebrate.  And at the end, there was the closing ceremony. Everyone sits in a circle and each person has a candle; and after they light it, they say something that they enjoyed about their week at camp.  It was a very emotional time for the girls and there was a lot of crying.  But by the end, all of the girls made many new friends, were all glad that they came, and were sad to leave.  So far it has definitely been my most rewarding experience.

Now after reading that beautiful summary, you  will want to see some pictures.  The problem is I have 10 CDs FULL of pictures from the week and there is NO WAY to capture the camp fully.  So I pulled a few just to give you an idea and to see the smiles and joy on all the girls faces.

 I got the task of meeting all the campers at the bus station.  It was very easy until the last 30 minutes when we are getting 80 girls onto a bus and a combi with all their luggage. Elena, another coordinator, and I were trying to tell the bus driver to wait 10 more minutes to see if any other girls were on the next bus coming in.  He obviously had something else he wanted to do because the next thing we knew we were getting yelled at in Macedonia.  A cultural experience I will never forget -- haha.

 Everyone else, all the counselors, CITs, instructors, and staff were waiting at the hotel ready to greet the girls with hugs and a song when they arrived.

 Every morning, during the morning meeting each group had to perform their chant.  A good way to get them and everyone else excited and ready to go early in the morning.

 The instructors, also known as the others, had their own chant.

 As well as the CITs. They came up with a new chant/lyrics (about camp) to a different popular song every day.  This was on the last day where they all turned around and sadly said that they did not want to go home. CITs were all campers that had attended last year; and they were all very excited to come back for another year. They taught classes and helped out with things around the camp.

 For breakfast and lunch the girls had to sit in their groups with their counselors, but at dinner they were allowed to go and sit with their friends.

 Headquarters, as we referred to it. Where all the behind the scenes stuff took place. This is where you could find me when I was not walking around checking out the classes.

 The kind words wall. Everyone had an envelope and anyone could write something nice about that person thoughout the week. By the end, all the envelopes were full and the girls were very excited to read what others had written.

 During our first day there before the girls arrived, we all prepared our lessons and made posters to give the place a more camp like atmosphere.  We had some very talented and creative counselors and CITs that made beautiful posters to decorate the halls, the community rooms, the classrooms and signs for the girls doors.

 The main building where we all slept and ate and had some classes.

 Where the morning meeting took place.

 The other building where the rest of the classes took place.

 Some of the campers working on a task in the self-esteem class.

 Yoga in the afternoon with Jane and Debbie.

 AAAAGGGG. Pirate Field Day!!! One of the groups all pirated out and ready to kick some bootie.

 Even the PCVs got into it  --lol.  They were some very scary pirate captains.

 Disco Night!!!  The campers all wore their best outfits while the PCVs got a little more creative.  As you can see by Lauren in the toga and Jane to her right in her 70s inspired workout attire.

 Lovely isn't it?  This was from the Red Cross day.  They brought make-up to make our "injuries" look real.  We had skin burns, dog bites, chopped off fingers, and broken bones coming out of the skin.  And they all looked realistic.  The girls came around, in their groups, and had to "save us" using the First Aide and CPR skills that they had learned earlier that day.  It was a lot of fun; and everyone enjoyed acting out their injuries and being very dramatic. Even me........

 OOOOHH NO!!!! What happened to poor Michelle?!?!?!?!?  It looks like she is not a very good housekeeper and while going to plug something in stepped in a bucket of water and electrocuted herself!!!!!!

The girls had to do CPR, on the manikin of course, in order to save me and then wrap the burn on my hand.

 I had to make it look realistic!!!

We also had a few visitors throughout the week.  Ladies from the US Embassy came; they wanted to check out the camp, since that is where we got our money from.  Also people from Peace Corps showed up. This was taken when our Country Director brought guests from Washington to see the camp.

 The final camp group shot!!!

Now that I have fully recovered after what you can see was a long week, I will be going to Stenje, a village near Resen and by the lake for the rest of the week to stay with Irena and her parents at their summer house.  Then the beginning of next week I will be going to Thessolaniki, Greece for a day.  Just for some shopping, some gooood eatting, and Starbucks!!! with some friends.  I won't be able to blog until after the l0th.