This year was bitter-sweet. I've now done this camp three years in a row in Azerbaijan, and am always surprised at just how different each group is. This year we held two camps back to back (the same as last year) but divided the groups by age. The first camp had younger students, and the second group was older.
Do you remember the days of summer camp? Your room mates? Staying up late, talking until 4am hoping the counselors wouldn’t notice, group meal times, kitchen patrol chores, playing silly games, capture the flag, nature hikes, and singing songs? Well, kids in Azerbaijan don’t have summer camp. Unless a kid here knows a Peace Corps volunteer, the chance that they even understand the word camp is minimal.
The ideas of being free, close to nature, and having fun are so much more limited than what Americans know. For starters, Azerbaijani kids don’t get dirty. Sitting on the ground is “olmaz” (not allowed) as it’s believed to allow your body to absorb cold from the ground. And everyone in Azerbaijan knows that cold kills. So no sitting on the ground. Sports make you dirty. So girls don’t mind watching, but actually playing the sports? That gets you a look like you’re a silly American. Also, boys don’t wash dishes. That’s girls work. So when you assign a group of kids to do kitchen patrol, set up, tear down, and wash up, the girls are often not assertive enough to call out the boys when they don’t pull their own weight. Evening times in Azerbaijan always include a cup of tea. Even if it’s 100 degrees outside, tea is still a must. Could you imagine what would happen if you gave an American kid a cup of hot tea before bed at camp? They’d probably look at you like you were insane.
BUT, our camp was not an Azerbaijani camp. Nor was it an American camp… we’ll just call it “Azerican” a hybrid of two cultures fused together. Our kids got dirty. They played sports. They sat on the ground (sort of, more like a squatting position close to the ground), boys washed dishes (and even learned to like it, as one boy said “I like playing with the water”) and yes, we still drank tea. Our camp was really the kind were we just went with the flow.
For 11 days, we played games, we held classes, we had discussions, we did yoga, we hiked, we played mafia, and we ate. Boy did we eat. I have to give special thanks here to my site mate Vivian. She’s an amazing woman, and she has a special gift with her hands. She has the ability to make gourmet cuisine out of practically nothing. We ate like kings and queens for the entire camp. The kids ate all different kinds of food, and realized in true American fashion that American food means food infused with other cultures from around the world. (French toast is a hit in Azerbaijan by the way.)
Our first group consisted of 14 campers, and 7 counselors. Most of the kids in this group were under the age of 18. They were energetic, fun loving, and adventurous in every way. When we gave them something new and unknown, they jumped in head first, and never questioned our logic. We asked them to do some strange things, like dropping eggs off the balcony, act out survival strategies for nuclear fallout, and tracing their body onto giant poster papers and filling themselves in with how they see themselves. As this camp was funded by the US Democracy Commission through the US Embassy we elected a camp president and vice president. We even watched “Cool Runnings” in order to promote hard work and teamwork in the face of adversity. The final night held a talent show, with talents of being double jointed, comedy routines, dancing, singing, and knitting. When the first group left, I was so tired, and I missed them the moment they got on the bus!
Our second group was older. All of them were in the 18-25 age group, and we had 8 teachers. Now, have you ever tried to convince college aged students to play duck duck goose? It’s a lot harder than you would think. But by the end of the week, these kids learned to be silly too. They learned to really laugh at themselves, and really acted like a small family. The second group was a bit more obsessed with having free time to prepare their talents, and they were hesitant to do chores (aren’t all kids?) but they always made us laugh. Their energy was overflowing at times, playing cross the river they became more competitive than any other group I’ve ever played with before. Not to mention, teaching assertiveness to already assertive young adults can make for some pretty funny interactions later on. I believe one of the students successfully argued why they shouldn’t have to set the table, and it was a clear step in showing his assertiveness (he believed that he had contributed more than the other members of his team at previous meals, and that he deserved lighter duty that day as a reward.) Camp was exhausting, but fun. I loved it, and can’t believe this may be the last time I do a camp of this caliber. I feel very grateful that I had the chance to do it twice this year!
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