Campers Feedback

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

Here is the feedback from the first camp, now two weeks ago, and the reason I consider this project a success. Sorry I couldn't publish it earlier due to various technical difficulties. Coming soon! Pictures. Until then pictures are posted here.

What I didn’t like about this camp: In this camp all what you have done was great, but I didn’t like the pressure that was between us (and that it wasn’t your fault) but now it’s ok because all that conflicts have resolved.

Games and the American peoples

Good appetites! Awesome! Thanks for not being picky eaters!

More water balloons

Meeting so many wonderful new people. Hugs and kisses all

What I liked about this camp: In this camp I liked almost, if not everything. I liked our conversations, the games, our activities, I liked that a lot of fun with you. Ohh..and the food was great. All was great. I didn’t like that it was too short and that it will never going to see you (excepting Laura) I hope that in the future, if you make another camp on something like that you will call us and that we will stay in touch.

More reliable transportation. No drunk bus drivers

I wish we will be one team

These students will be great leaders for the Baru camp. I just wish we could have reached more than the students who are already Red Cross volunteers with this camp.

Dislikes: I didn’t like (in on of this days I think it was dinner) the food.

Some more cultural exchange

Better involvement between organization and volunteers

I like all. I like the game, discussion, and all

All the PCVs were very resourceful. I was nervous about this project from the beginning but you guys all really came through. Thanks so much.

Likes: I like everything the activities the games that we had a lot of fun, I like the company of others. It was great.

I wish we could communicate better both for planning and at camp in Romanian and English

I don’t like because stead up 900 a clock

More communication between Romanians and Americans about transportation and changes in plans

The whole camp was very beautiful. The organization, your teamwork and the joy of life.

I didn’t like the tension between us yesterday but you don’t have anything to do with it. On the contrary you tried to calm things down. Anyway I had fun at the river, playing that game, making birthday cards for Heather and Dru, listening to Cory singing at the table. I don’t like that I became attached to you and now I don’t know when I’m going to see you again. I would like this to be a longer camp. I’ll miss you.

I liked the games, conversation about conflict and respect. I liked the fact that everything somehow helped me to put my own thoughts in order. The other day I was badly hurt by my boyfriend but you helped me more than you can imagine. I’ve suffered less because of the break up because of you. This means a lot to me. I like the conversation about relationships and I’ve learned how I could have more equilibrium in my life. You’ve answered many of my own questions without even realizing it and in a nice way, funny. I had a lot of fun.

Honestly there are no bad parts of this camp. I had a good time and I’m glad I met you.

Lessons Learned

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

A week ago today we were arriving at the cabana and everything was coming together for the first camp, or not, as it were. Here are some reflects on the success of our first GLOW/TOBE camp outside of Simeria and how it could have gone differently.

The Red Cross did eventually follow through on everything they said they would do: just not in the way we expected, or in the way we Americans considered the most efficent. We were told food donations were aquired, though they were never produced because we didn't need them at the time we learned of them because we had already made a menu and purchased food for 20 people on our own. And then we found out we only had 9 campers. So we had plenty of food.

The Red Cross promised us transportation, but at the last minute we found out there was a problem with the driver and we ended up taking 5 taxis (paid for by Red Cross) to the camp location and showing up several hours later than planned. This turned out all right though because we still had our first session on Self Esteem on schedule and our activities for the first day ran smoothly.

The Red Cross invited a speaker to teach sessions on Anti-Human Trafficking, Drug Prevention and AIDS/STD prevention, however I don't know what was communicated to the speaker. I was told several different things: she was staying at the camp with us and the camp would cover the cost of her food because she was a volunteer, she would change the schedule and teach all her sessions in one day. In actuality she showed up one day to teach one session on drug prevention and then didn't contact us again. In my opinon, it ended up being a good thing that the Peace Corps volunteers got to take over the sessions on Human trafficking and AIDS/STDs because we got to talk to the students informally and asked them what they already knew on these topics - which turned out to be quite a lot! We also got to tie the topics into other things we covered in the camp like self-respect, communication, trust and healthy relationships. In other words we got to spread the message: It's not just about using condoms, its about communicating with your partner, respecting yourself and making sure your partner respects you.

Overall I'm very proud of the way the camp went, however there were many disapointing aspects of the pre-camp planning and coordination. This was reflected in the feedback I got from the other Peace Corps volunteers that their definately needed to be more communication between the Red Cross and the PC volunteers. However, I don't know how it could have been different since I was trying, desperately trying, every day to find out more about what was going on. Communication, when only one person is trying to communicate is not communication.

I actually thought about canceling this camp the week before. However, on the Friday before the week of camp I spoke to both Otilia and the contact she gave me to work through due to her illness and both assured me it would be all right. I still appreciate how frustrating this entire process was for all the other Peace Corps volunteers who gave their time and paid their transportation to be involved in this camp. Most of them arrived last Monday to find I didn't have any answers to how many students were showing up, what they were going to eat, when we were buying the food, how much food was donated, did we have enough tents, what does the space and facility look like, etc. etc.

I decided not to cancel the camp the week before because I took my communications with the Red Cross that Friday to mean that they were still interested and were planning on coming through for us - which they did in their own way. I also thought it wouldn't be fair to cancel at that point and not give our Romanian partner organization a chance to either fail or come through. There was a lot we didn't know the answer to - such as are they really going to provide transportation? - but until the day transportation was supposed to be provided they didn't have a chance to come through for us or not. I didn't want to pull out because they hadn't given us enough assurances on our timetable. I didn't think that was the right thing to expect.

I was told by someone not at the camp that I could have encouraged more communication between the Red Cross and myself if I had been willing to express anger or threaten to call of the camp. As it was, I was not willing to do this because of the situation with Otilia's illness. I had no idea how serious her illness was, and several times thought the worst. Once, I misunderstood what was said to me in Romanian and thought she was in the hospital. I later found out she wasn't in the hospital.

However, Romanians and Americans have different ideas about the neccessity for following through, in general, and definately when one is sick. Romanians think of sickness differently, and Americans will kill themselves by continuing to work when they are sick. I decided that it was not my place as a foreigner to insist to someone who is sick that they follow through on their committment to a project. Or it wouldn't have been my place if I had been able to reach her on the phone more easily.

Perhaps for the sake of myself and the other Peace Corps volunteers, and for the sake of partner buy-in I should have canceled the camp. But then we wouldn't have reached the nine students who did attend and had only positive feedback to give, and then we wouldn't have five potenial student leaders to facilitate the next camp for the younger students in the Romanian language.

The lessons I'm tempted to take from this are: 1) Maybe think twice about planning a camp with an organization that can only meet with you one day a week to plan, although we started planning in March, and I don't know how interested anyone in Romania is in planning things that far in advance.
2) Consider expressing anger and using threats to get results. That is, if the person you're working with isn't unavailable do to illness.

Other than that I'm not sure if I could have done anything differently. And judging purely based on the feedback of our students, I think its fair to call this camp a successs.

We're Still On!

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

The camp is still on even though I still there's a lot we don't know. Otilia is still ill and in bed so I hadn't spoken to her in two weeks when I tracked down her friend Kristina. I feel really disorganized about this camp, but I don't know how this situation could have been prevented since Otilia got sick.

As I understand it Kristina's father owns the place the place where we'll be camping on Thursday through Sunday, so I called her. Now she is working with us to get the details of camp sorted out, telling the students what to bring, figuring out what we're going to eat, how much food to buy, when we're meeting with the Red Cross volunteers. When I got through to her on the phone on Friday Otilia promised that Kristina would answer all our questions or get back to us with the answers. It's only a slight problem for me that Kristina doesn't speak English.

"The troops" started arriving today so we're figuring out our lesson plans and buying up supplies for our activities. There's still a lot that we're not sure about, such as who are our students? Where is the camp site? Have there been any food donations? Do we have enough money in our budget to feed all these people and provide an educational camp experience?

Anyway we're going through with it and trusting it will all work out. Maybe not like we planned, but it will work out.

Hey, where'd everybody go?

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

Didn't meet with Otilia today. She didn't answer her phone. Which means I really need to meet with her tomorrow or I won't see her this week. I don't necessarily need to see the camp site right away, but I would like her input on the current draft of the schedule, too much free time? not enough? I would also like her to see the budget and sign the letter of agreement about what Peace Corps pledges to bring to the table and what we expect from the Red Cross.

None of these things are deal breakers, but they would help make me more comfortable. In the meantime I had a good conversation with a fellow volunteer about expectations and the culture of camp in Romania and what we want the students to take from the experience.

I do believe that everything is going to turn out fine. I just need to worry about it a lot because a lot of it is outside of my control. Therefore it is really difficult for me to give other people the opportunity to come through for us because I feel better if I do everything, knowing then that it will get done.

As they say in Romania, asta e (that is life).

But today I did get a surprise care package with a bag of marshmallows the refreshing morale boost that comes with peanut butter and maple syrup and other treats! Thank you Karen!

Negotiating Camp

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

This week I was unable to meet with Otilia to discuss camp because she's having a medical issue. This makes me a little anxious, but so far I think we're in a good place. We're close to nailing down the schedule and next weekend all our principal players (PCV instructors) will be together in Ploiesti to talk about the camp. It's going to be a crazy busy weekend for sure, but it will be a nice change to communicate with each other face to face.

In the meantime we have set the dates for the Baru camp, which makes me feel good. We have two weeks in between for planning and whatever else needs to be done.

For now I have a list of questions for Otilia the next time I see her, a letter of agreement between the Peace Corps volunteers and Red Cross outlining the responsibilities of each organization, and I want to be taken to see the campground whenever possible before Friday.

New features on the blog - I added a poll so assert your opinion on this week's topic, and I added links to some fine camp-planning and activity resources. And, and and I have a package to pick up this Tuesday...what could it be? Could it be...Marshmallows?

Our story so far, as I remember it...

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

July 07 - I mentioned to Otilia, the Red Cross volunteer coordinator in charge of a group of high school students, that I was interested in doing a summer camp. I was thinking about a GLOW and TOBE camp but I described it as being about things like healthy relationships, leadership, teamwork, communication, conflict resolution, life skills. Otilia was interested too.

Flash forward, it becomes apparent my volunteer neighbors in the village of Baru Mare as also interetested in doing a GLOW camp. The male-counterpart, TOBE, is catching on but is newer and more rare than GLOW, and ithe in-thing right now is to combine the two and have joint camps.

The GLOW manual mentions inviting former campers back as Junior Campers to help plan future camps and put those leadership skills to work. Somehow in my mind that morphed into "Let's have a high school camp in Deva where PCVs instruct the students in English, and then invite the high school students to apply to be volunteer-leaders at a second camp in Baru where they can teach the middle school students in Romanian."

It is important to understand the cultural attitude towards camp when you're planning one. In Romania summer camp is more like a vacation that the summer camps in the U.S. where kids are expected to show up for every event on the schedule. I wanted to give the high school kids ownership of the camp sessions so they would be motivated to attend. I also know that while they can speak English, most of the high school kids don't like to. I didn't think they'd be interested in coming to a camp if it was all in English like the drama camp I taught at last summer. The Red Cross volunteers are trained in Peer to Peer education and can instruct in First Aid. They also go into schools and lecture on AIDS and STD Prevention, Drug Prevention and Prevention of Human Trafficking. I asked Otilia if the volunteers would make presentations on these topics at camp.

January - Originally I envisioned both these camps as day-camps where the students ate at home and packed a lunch. I thought this would be cheaper since we'd only provide snacks and maybe a breakfast or dinner and wouldn't have to worry about where the campers would sleep. I wrote a proposal in Romanian to the Red Cross and my counterpart at my primary organization helped me correct it (rewrite it in Romanian so it made sense). Then one week I presented it to Otilia and we discussed the idea and we discussed the idea. Day-camp was thrown out. There's really no concept of day-camp here, so when I wrote the proposal I actually wrote "summer school but fun." Otilia also believed it was cheaper to have an overnight camp in tents and told me about free access to land. Many of my ideas for sessions and lesson plans were rejected. I asked Otilia what they wanted the Peace Corps volunteers to teach about and we settled on healthy relationships, conflict resolution, self esteem and leadership.

February/March -My friends in Baru and I, working with a school teacher and Peace Corps counterpart, wrote our proposal and submitted it to the GAD committee for the March meeting. There were two weekend trips to Baru where I paid my train fair in coins and we hashed out the details of the budget and proposal for funding our two camps. We hit a few snags, like my grossly overestimating the amount of money that was available for us to apply for, but in the end our project was funded for $1,000 U.S. for both camps. It's half of what we asked for but with a few adjustments camp can still happen.

Also the Mayor of Baru wasn't too keen on us having the Baru day-camp at the school, but he granted us access to land and is even going to ask the forest service to build us outhouses. At the last minute the proposal changed to reflect two camping in tents style camps. The Red Cross and the Baru Mayor's office have both agreed to do a lot for this project through in-kind donations and services such as use of land and donated transportation. For the Baru camp the Mayor has even promised us a cook to prepare the food at the camp site. We will be cooking the food the kids bring from their family gardens.

May - After months of being unable to reach Otilia we had our first meeting about camp in a long time on May 8th. It didn't help that I went on a vacation for a month and that she's only available one day a week. There were many rainy Fridays when I walked to the Red Cross office strongly suspecting that no one would be there to meet with me, but my tenacity forced me to go and see anyway. Why? It sounds cheesy but I was in alone in the drizzling rain I was proud to answer that question: because I'm a Peace Corps volunteer.

Otilia chose the dates for the Deva camp that were only four weeks away. Last week my PC training class had our Mid-Service Conference and I was able to have a meeting with some of the volunteers I invited to be instructors at the Deva camp.

Our next immediate order of business is to prepare a new budget showing how the camp will take place with the amount of money we were granted. We need to re-submitt the budget and and show written agreements between us and the Red Cross and the Mayor's office at the GAD meeting on June 7. There are so many balls in the air right now; budget, schedule, communication between partners and or course curriculum and activities. It's so exciting. So nerve-wracking. It's going to be great!

Here's the idea

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

My original "vision" for this blog was to use it to all those friends and family members who I asked to send me marshmallows or cash for the Deva Simeria GLOW TOBE camps this summer, up to date on the process of planning the camp. I thought I would use it to show you pictures, tell stories, and let you know what activities I was planning and also illustrate the process of planning a summer camp, so You my very-important conscientious donors of marshmallows or three to twelve dollars can feel involved and see what good you're accomplishing with your money.

Then the idea grew. I started thinking about letting other volunteers I've invited to be instructors at the camp post on here with their ideas for activities, inspirations and experiences. Maybe we could catalog the process of organizing a GLOW TOBE summer camp that other volunteers can use as and example and learn from our mistakes. We can share resources. Peace Corps volunteers doing GLOW and TOBE in other countries might use it. We can even include all Peace Corps camps. It doesn't have to be about Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) or Teaching Our Boys to Excel. And then, eventually, when the time is right, this blog will take over the world!

So that was the idea. I intend this blog as a place where PCVs organizing camps can write about their experiences, share pictures, stories, ideas, resources and reflections and I intend to use it to chronicle the challenging process of carrying out two summer camps that combine girls and boys GLOW and TOBE in one summer. And I hope other people will join me in telling these stories.

I should mention here that we've had some discussion about whether or not this is an "official" blog as in belonging-to GAD Romania which is a funded committee of PCRo. For now, it's not. It's my blog and the people writing here will be writing at my invitation. They will express their own opinions and speak for themselves, but we do not represent GAD or PCro or the U.S. government. That, I think will make itself fairly obvious.