Dream Teen Camp

I got the opportunity to work with a summer camp within Kyiv for the last couple days. The kids in this camp ranged from about 5 to 13 years old. When I first got there it was funny and cute how polite they all were. Each of them would come up to me and say 'Hello my name is _______' and would extend their hand for a handshake. It was obvious that they practiced these exact words and were told to shake my hand as that is how westerners greet eachother, as opposed to the hug or kiss on the cheek that I usually see here. I have noticed this with much of the aiesecers as well, perhaps hugs are only for good friends but I think a lot of people shake my hand around here and it almost makes me feel impersonal in comparison.

Getting back to the camp though, the first day I gave a presentation about Canada and let them tell me what they know about Canada and let them ask me questions. It was quite interesting because there was a wide range of english ability among the students....some who couldn't speak any and some who acted as translators for me. I also taught them an aiesec dance and some canadian games.

On my second day at the camp we made a field trip out to a horse stable where the kids got to learn about horses and got a short lesson on horse-riding. I myself got onto a horse for about ten minutes, unfortunately no pictures....but I have more respect for people who can ride horses, that was more difficult than I thought it would be.

Overall, it was good preparation for my camp in L'viv because I got a short introduction to working with Ukrainian children. The language barrier is always tough. Even the kids who know english are not keen on speaking it and it's hard for me to talk with the children. So, I'll need to come up with a plan if I face the same thing in L'viv.

I've been experiencing this since I got here though. Not just the language barrier for stuff like using public transport and buying food...but even when hanging out with aiesecers who speak english. They much prefer to speak russian/ukrainian and it's really easy for me to just stand by myself and not get involved with conversations. Thankfully there are always friendly people who usually come up and start talking to me, but it's something I'd like to work on as well. It's hard to meet new people because I'm never really sure how much english they speak, and I have conversations that end really quickly because we don't understand eachother. I think this will be a good experience as I have issues with starting conversations back home, even when people speak native english...so hopefully dealing with this will help me back home as well.