27 Luni

First, I’d like to say ‘Thank you’ to all of you who donated to our Peace Corps Partnership Program fundraiser for this year’s Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) and Teaching Our Boys Excellence (TOBE) youth development summer camps in Romania.  We absolutely could not have done this without your support and we are all very appreciative.  For those who donated, you should have by now received a thank you postcard from me personally in the mail and will soon receive a handwritten letter from one of the campers.  If you donated anonymously our thanks is just as genuine.

In all likelihood, if you are reading this post then you have probably read others about my time here in Romania; and, even to the casual reader, it should come as no surprise that my all time favorite Peace Corps experiences are the camps we run as volunteers.  They are a chance for us facilitators to work alongside passionate host country national Romanians to provide an unparalleled growth opportunity for their kids.  Through the implementation of proven educational strategies we are able to encourage noticeable improvement in important skills, attitudes and global perspective of our campers through fun, engaging and interactive activities.  The participants are very bright, well behaved and are genuinely a pleasure to work with; in many cases they are the very best that Romania has to offer.  My only regret is that this is my final year as a Peace Corps Volunteer and that I most likely won’t be working with them in any direct manner again.  With that in mind, I felt it was important that this final Peace Corps sponsored GLOW/TOBE Romania be an extra special one for all involved.

After acting in the capacity of session facilitator over the past two summers, I decided that it was my turn to manage the camp itself.  Undeniably, this year’s camp faced some challenges from the beginning.  These stemmed mainly from the withdrawal of two host country nationals critically connected to the programming and logistics of the camp; both were instrumental in the success and enjoyment of this event over the past two years and their absence added some definite complexity.  Thus, during the third installment of the TOBE, I was thrust into not only the role of a financial manager and fundraiser but also programming and operations.  The original site that had been selected for GLOW/TOBE turned out not to be adequate and as a result we made the last minute decision to move the camp to an alternative location, my Peace Corps assigned site in Valea Călugărească.  Fortunately, I had critical local support in three key areas.  The one remaining host country national from our partner NGO, Școala pentru Viața (the School of Life) who oversaw operations for GLOW was instrumental in making this happen.  Second, my Romanian Counterpart, Loredana Duca who was essential to the preparation of the new location was simply amazing.  Finally, my Peace Corps Volunteer colleagues who contributed to programming and individual session management; three of which came from their sites in the Republic of Moldova, at the expense of their own vacation time.  This camp would not have been the success that it was had we not leveraged the expertise of all these amazing individuals.

As in past years, the week was packed from beginning to end with many activities; from dawn until well after dusk, we kept the campers busy with team-building exercises and challenges of every sort.  Worth mentioning is that this is the first time in Romania that GLOW and TOBE were hosted at the same time in the same location.  This decision complicated matters logistically, but made for a much richer overall experience for the campers.  Both had overarching but different themes that each individual activity drew from.  This added an interesting level of complexity to everything the campers did.  Specifically, for TOBE, the theme was that of Knights.  With undertones of chivalry and honor penetrating each lesson.  Keep in mind that the vast majority of our boys were 14 years old; even though we encourage participation from teenagers up to 18; these are the kids who happened to apply this year.  The use of the Knights theme was hugely successful and as much as I would like to take credit for the idea, that distinction goes to Adrian Rusu one of our Școala pentru Viața consultants.  Really, I just liked being called “Sir Jeremy” all week.  We labeled each of the camp locations for meetings, dorm rooms, dining, etc., after something related to the genre; the Armory, the Squire’s Dungeon, and the Dragon’s Forest to name a few.  We even had a wooden sword crafted by my local friend, Marian, to pass around at the daily “Knights Quorum” as a sort of talking stick.  Upon arrival to the camp, each camper (as a squire) had to decorate his own shield (name tag) as it pertained to him.  Additionally, I am happy to announce, that at the end of the camp, each participant was “knighted” in a semi-formal ceremony in front of our large bonfire.  Fortunately, none of the knights was too proud afterwards to enjoy several s’mores…sorry, I mean dragon’s breath cookies.

Despite the initial challenges, in the end, what matters most is that the event was seamless for the campers and that they had a high quality, fulfilling educational experience and that they were able to make new friends that they will never forget.  Though dispersed throughout the country, there is now a thriving network of new acquaintances that will remain connected through social media.  Many of them have expressed interest in taking on the challenge of continuing the GLOW/TOBE initiative into the future even though Peace Corps is resigning from the country and won’t be here to help.  It’s my hope that through organizations such as the U.S.-based Friends of Romania group I’ll be able to help support these promising young leaders in the future, even if I can’t have as much fun as they do by attending the camp itself.