Summer Camp!

 So believe it or not, this is the first time I was a camp counselor. 

As you can see, I was definitely the hottest counselor around... 

This guy was interesting.  Very devout, serious guy...he was the unofficial leader of my "squad." 

 Here's my squad, lined up at 0730 for our morning exercises...luckily, the lady leading those got sick.  I was pretty upset that they only planned for seven hours of sleep in the schedule.

 Then I lead teambuilding exercises, or in Russian Тимбилдинги. (Teembilldyengi)  :)  This exercise was the old "fit your whole team on the mat.

 

Our group was close to getting the entire team standing on a piece of A4 paper, but they ran out of time.

The teambuilding activities were designed to stretch the teens and make them more aware of the people around them. All of them were recent graduates from children's homes in the region.


My favorite teambuilding was a game where the team had to stand in a circle and move as a group, without separating touching feet and shoulders.  Team 1:  Without a word, one guy started giving directions.  They had selected him as their leader and they trusted him.  He lead them, step by step, person by person, giving specific directions.  They never broke ranks, and so for the whole fifteen minutes they inched forward, finally achieving something around 20 feet as a group.  Team 2:  Were very quick to line up and get off the lines...at least 10 times...they would very quickly form up and start moving as quickly as they could, until they fell apart again and had to go back to the beginning.  They got frustrated, saw they weren't making it as far as the first team, and they started to rush even more, and fall apart even faster.  They made it about 15 feet.  Team 3:  My peeps, rather than starting immediately, sat down to talk.  They discussed.  They argued.  Time started to pass.  Five minutes.  Around 8 minutes they decided to tie their feet together to make sure they couldn't fall apart.  It wasn't until the 10 minute mark that they made their first attempt off the line.  However, tied together as they were, they confidently strode forward, making it close to 40 feet before they ran out of time, never once having to return back to the line.  

And I was like WOW...like...I don't like conflict.  The first group...they seemed to have the best idea...pick a leader, submit, go.  They never had to turn back.  The second group HAD conflict...but they lacked leadership and foresight.  They were so busy chasing the goal that they didn't sit back to think about how best to do it.  One of them even had the shoe-tying idea...but they didn't wait around to discuss it, and went on trying the same things with minor variations.  They tried.  Hard...but didn't accomplish anything.  But my team, they just sat there and argued for ten minutes.  If the game had had a ten minute limit, they wouldn't have even gone off the line.  But that conflict, that free-flow of ideas, coupled with some good leadership, allowed the best solution to surface, a consensus to form, and after that, allowed them to go further than any of the others.  I also liked the implications this had for commitment.  Often times, we think, "oh, I don't want to tie myself to someone or some organization."  But the thing is, if you're in an organization or a family or a group, and you want to get somewhere AS a group, without commitment, things can quickly fall apart.  And if you go somewhere, but leave half your group behind, that may work in the business world or a marathon, but when we're talking about families or churches or small orgs, the fact is you didn't make it anywhere as a group, if one of your members is still standing on the start line. 

 

 I got to emcee the talent show, which, while not nearly as cool as impressive as the SLI show, was still a lot of fun.  At the end of the talent show they asked me to play:  I played "Rollin in the Deep," "Bleeding Love," "In the End," and Источник, one of my songs that I've translated into Russian.

 Me with the buffalo horn hat.  Unfortunately, I was quite bullish with some aspects of the camp.  I let myself get frustrated with the other leaders over the schedule and not respecting my boundaries, and harbored a lot of resentment for no reason, and it took me a long time to ask forgiveness.

 This guy was kinda the odd man out...but that smile, definitely a diamond in the rough.

 Aizerek was my assistant.  And like a good XO, she did most of the work with our squad.  It's really fun to sit back and watch them work out their problems, and it was fun to see this youngin' holding her as a leader of a team with 7 boys on it.  :)  Each team had its own feel; our team was the youngest and the most open, which worked really well with our leadership style, which was to come alongside with a long leash and be more of a friend/mentor than a straight authority.  The older youth needed some authority, but these guys needed to test their own self-discipline and explore.  It was great, I really saw God at work in the
"matchmaking" of team leaders with teams (the students chose their own leaders)   :)   

 So this random Polish guy came to our talent show and proceeded to explain that he had a bunch of postcards from people in Europe specifically for children from children's homes in Russia, Central Asia, and he was about to hike across into China before hitch-hiking to India.  Anyways, this meant I had to translate the cards, and a lot of boys asking "is this a girl?  How old is she?" But it was cool for them all the same I think. 

 A was the lone girl on our team.  It was fun getting her to jump off the pier even though she didn't know how to swim.  (We picked a spot where I was just beyond touching for her to jump to)  She and the guy in the next picture did a guitar class with me, and hope to continue classes once my schedule in the city is solidified.

 Z...playa playa.  I have to admit, I can't bring myself to play twister, it just seems...kinky...

 Here's our leader again.  He's a really fun guy, really strong personality.  Also, he beat all of us at chess.  I had him in a headlock the other day at Oasis' drop-in center because he stole the pictures I had printed.  :/  One of the most interesting moments in the camp was on the last night, we decided to go around and give everyone compliments.  He wasn't satisfied with this, and held us all hostage until we told him what we DIDN'T like about him as well.  And while he had offended all of us at some point, he was a good guy with a good heart, and it was already forgiven, but he didn't want to hear it.  It was moving.  Comical almost, that he felt that way, but at the same time...I completely understand where he was coming from. 

At the end of the last night I was like "Can I pray for ya'll?"  And they were like "Like Christian prayer?" And I was like "To God prayer silly, (I know most of you are M-s-ms)."  But that was a really cool moment. 

 Camels sound like dinosaurs.  Also, he definitely spat all over that little girls' face. 

Of course, like all good locals, we swam in Issyk Kyl in August.  :)  The pier was pretty fun to jump off of too...but the water was bbrrrrzy.