Ten days at a beautiful beach in Albania surrounded by 15 children and wonderful staff is my idea of a perfect vacation! Yes, this is my Albanian Peace Corps experience this summer. And it just keeps getting better and better. This blog will be dedicated to the actual camp experience; the activities, the schedule and the people. The next blog will update everyone on my bakery project at Home of Hope.
WHO? Thirteen children of HOH and some of their friends and children of staff members made the total children head count up to 21. Staff members came with some of their family members and we invited a talented musician to come with us for entertainment every night. Eight beautiful young ladies came from Holland to spend the week with us. They are the ones that raised the funds to pay for this summer holiday, but I will get to their story in a bit. We were a group of about 50 people.
WHERE? We stayed at a fantastic seaside hotel in beautiful Spille Beach on the Albanian coast.
WHEN? July 9 to July 17th
WHY? For fun, activities, relaxing, building relationships, boosting our energy, sharing laughs, circle dancing, eating great food, and spending time with the kids.
WHAT? The list of activities planned by the Holland girls was incredible. They planned an activity every morning and every late afternoon. Here is a list of things we did:
Tuesday PM: Arrival day- Free play at beach.
Wednesday AM: Decorate picture frames for memento of beach. PM: Face painting/photos.
Thursday AM: Build sand pyramid. PM: Carnival games, beach volleyball.
Friday AM: Beach Games, relays, water balloons. PM: Capture the flag (in the forest).
Saturday: A Day in Durres. Rode fair rides, played games, 6D cinema, ate at restaurant.
Sunday AM: Relax at Beach. PM: Game stations.
Monday AM: Beach Play or long walk to General Beach). PM: Treasure hunt in forest for games.
Tuesday AM: Slippery slide at beach. PM: Bomb fire on beach with singing.
Wednesday- Leave for Elbasan.
Some of the rules of camp included:
Respect time for activities.
Drink lots of water and wear a hat.
NEVER go to the beach without staff.
Take care in the sea and don't go out far.
Speak quietly in the corridors.
Don't use offensive words with each other.
Keep personal hygiene.
Keep you room clean.
Don't fight or yell in public.
These rules and our daily schedule was posted on the door where every child and adult could see them. The camp was so well done and we had so much fun. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.
Back to the young ladies from Holland. Eight young ladies from Holland came together for one purpose; to raise money to fund the summer vacation of an orphanage in Albania. They raised even more money than expected and gave in many other ways! No expense was shared as they paid for staff drinks at night, added a day out in the city for the kids, took the kids to a restaurant and let them order ANYTHING they wanted to eat, and even donated $4,000 to the completion of the bakery (more on that later). I have never been so impressed with a group of youth such as these girls. It was such a great blessing to my life to meet them, get to know and love them.
To sum it all up, the last two weeks have been full of such adventure and excitement. I am being placed in the path of amazing people who are improving my life and making it better and better. For this, I am grateful.
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