My Lessons

I've started teaching lessons to the children of the camp. For my lessons, each kid creates a business idea which they will develop for the next week and a half...and importantly, will be presenting ideas to the group (I teach 3 groups of 8-10 kids each) to work on their public speaking skills.

I expected, and told them, to come up with silly ideas that they could have fun with. Instead, I was surprised by how they came up with ideas to make souveniers shops to sell local artists work, open an AIDS clinic, open a food mall with restaurants from around the world, and solve the problem of lack of connectivity in the mountains.

My favourite moment was when one girl justified why AIDS needed to be treated after one of the other kids called her on it. She simply replies: 'Freddie Mercury, need I say more?'

Today I'm getting each of them to give a 5-minute presentation on whatever topic they choose. One of the main goals of the camp is to improve the kids english language abilities. Despite having an English Only rule in the camp, most kids speak Russian which is trouble for me, especially at night when I have to get them into their rooms by 11:00.

I also help out with a lot of games to help their english, and team building activities. Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised at how these kids want to have fun but also are here to learn. I still feel weird being a counselor and having to enforce rules, but I also feel like I'm contributing to the growth of these kids and at the end of the day I'm really glad I came here.