Summer Camp!

June 13, 2007
Sorry for the absence of blog postings lately. I have been keeping very busy with all of the projects designed to teach Peace Corps trainees what it means to be a volunteer. I also think these projects are designed to weed out the weak of heart and instill in trainees the massive importance of getting to know the language.
There are two parts to our training as Peace Corps Trainees. The first part is to design and implement a community project. The second was to plan and run a summer camp for students. This sounds easy but don’t be fooled. Ukraine does not work the same way America does and neither do Ukrainian students.
The Community Project. Our community project was a talent show that would use presentations by the local youth groups to do two things; create awareness of the youth community and its needs and to raise money for youth programs at the one and only school in my town. In order to do this we worked with the local after school clubs, the dance club, and poetry club. We also created an English Club and a Tae-Kwon-Do club. We took acts from all of these clubs to create our show so the dance club did some dances, the poetry club read some original poetry, the English club sang a song in English, and the TKD kids got to do a little demonstration. Also, the three other volunteers at this site and I got to sing a song in Ukrainian. I believe most people thought that this was the highlight of the concert not because it was good, oh no, but because it was probably the funniest thing they have seen since the end of the cold war. Allow me to explain. Here is where things stood the day before the concert. I had a practice for the TKD kids and 3 showed up (this is ater I had been gone for 2 weeks at my visit to my new site, so they hadn’t had a class in 3 weeks), half of the English club miraculously disappeared, and we had still not memorized the lines to our Ukrainian song let alone learned the tune. The night of the concert, I get there an hour early and I have 11 kids for the TKD demonstration of which only 3 learned the demo I had planned. 2 of the kids that showed up had only attended 1 TKD class, I did some serious tutoring and decided to demonstrate with the kids so the ones who didn’t know what to do could follow me. They had so much fun strutting their stuff that in the end it really didn’t matter if it was correct or not. Then we had the English club. We had chosen a very cute song called “Baby Shark” for the kids to sing because it has actions like “Lady swimming” where they pretend to swim, and “Shark Attack” where they get to jump about like wild monkeys and bring their hands together like shark jaws. Again, this performance was a success by virtue of the children’s outstanding cuteness and the fact the most of them did know this words to the song or if not the words, at least the gestures. Who does not love an 8 year old pretending to be a great white? Finally, the crowing achievement, the Americans attempting to sing in Ukrainian. They went all out for this one. Each one of us was given a traditional Ukrainian costume to wear (I wad redressed by 4 different women until I had it on right) and we got to sing with an accordion. I sang in Ukrainian, with an accordion, in front of a native speaking audience. I will never fear any kind for public performance after this, I simply can’t imagine anything more intimidating. To say that we weren’t the best would be something of an understatement but here is the really cool part. When all of us had completely lost the beat of the song and weren’t sure how to salvage this performance, the audience started to clap and sing along with us. We finished the song together, that was pretty cool. In the end we raised about 350 Hyrvinas for the school.
TEN THINGS I LEARNED FROM SUMMER CAMP IN UKRAINE
If you give Ukrainian students a lunch break they will never return. Teaching in
a prison would be easier because you at least know that they will be there.
9. Capture the flag, a game that Americans can play for hours, will be completed by Ukrainian children in less then 15 minutes. Why you ask, because someone will go turncoat and tell the other team where their flag is and may even go get it for them. I have no idea why.
8. When told to wear “sports attire” Ukrainian girls will wear skirts, high heels, and lots of make up but they will pull their hair back into a ponytail. I really don’t understand this.
7. If Ukrainian children decide that they don’t like the game you are trying to explain to them they simply will not do it. There is no arguing, they simply turn into statues and will not move until you agree to do something else.
6. Every Ukrainian teenager knows who Eminem and Britney Spears are and they will ask you if you have met them.
5. Dancing provocatively at a discotheque is fine for teenagers but they would rather die then learn how to swing dance.
4. Teenagers are like wolves, they can smell fear and they will eat you alive.
3. Younger children are like mimes, they will do everything they see you doing, and I mean EVERYTHING. And never think you are not being watched.
2. You will never be cool enough in a teenagers eyes so don’t even try, just teach.
1. Many Ukrainians have never heard American country music and it scares them, especially John Denver. Again, I have no idea why.