summer camp!

Sunday, July 13, 2008:
This morning I was able to attend a church service here in Debrecen. It is a bilingual church, so I could understand everything, which was really nice. The sermon was part of a series on Hebrews, which I expected to be fairly dry, but it was actually a very good sermon. I really enjoyed it, and it lined up nicely with my recent devotions and meditations.
As we were at church, which was held outside, the temperature rose and rose, as did the humidity. It was disgusting. When we left on a bus for English Camp, the heat was nearly hellish. We rode a little outside of Debrecen to a nice, shady campground, with a pool and green grass and gardens and bushes and basketball, volleyball, and soccer courts/fields and cabins and a little open-air cafeteria type place. We ate a lunch of pizza out on the lawn, then I took a long nap for the afternoon. I went to a meeting and learned exactly what this camp would be like. It is a fairly typical summer camp, but with the added dimension of language. All of the kids here know at least some English, but they don't get much practice speaking it. It is our job, as American or English-speaking volunteers, to help them with their English. Through us they will hear American English spoken, and will be able to practice their own English skills. In order to emphasize the language aspect of the camp, every morning we are to have three hours of 'classes.' The theme for the camp is the Olympics, and each small group of 6 or so students will represent a different English-speaking country that is going to the Olympic games. The students are going to learn, in English, about their group's country--its population, location, climate, economy, government, and religion. They will also learn about the history of the Olympic games, and about the sports of which it consists today. I am going to be one of the leaders for a group of students. My country is Jamaica, my teaching partner is a 27-year old American girl, and we were to be in charge of a group of 7 girls. They are at an intermediate English level, and are all age 15-17.
After the informational meeting, I really understand how difficult it is to put on a summer camp. There were several college youth groups that came to this camp to serve on a mission trip. There were volunteers from Iowa, Montana, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Germany, and Hungary, all of which had to be coordinated and instructed in addition to keeping track of the 100+ campers. As a kid attending a camp, I never thought about those things. And one more addendum for today… After dinner we played a crazy Hungarian game that involved running and screaming and laughing in a mad scramble in the twilight. Then the bird-sized biting bugs came out, and I headed inside, swatting constantly at the vile creatures wanting to suck my blood.

Monday, July 14, 2008:
This morning I awoke to roll out of bed for devotions, followed by breakfast. Breakfast was simply two rolls with a honey glaze on the top. I gazed at the rolls in sleepy disbelief. This was it? Unfortunately these doll-size portions of mostly bread were to be typical of the week. Fortunately this morning there was nutella, so I managed. Nutella is very widespread over here, and I tried it for the first time late last week. Anyway, after breakfast I met the 7 girls I will be teaching this week. As class started, I found that all of the girls were very, very shy, so we struggled to get them talking to us about their country, or about anything really. Today the only answer to our questions was an averted gaze and absolute silence. I finally am able to sympathize with my teachers. My senior class was like this every Monday morning, I'm afraid, and the phenomenon became more and more quotidian near the end of the year. To all my teachers, I apologize.
Here at camp, we struggled to fill our three hours of class time with such a quiet group, but we managed as best we could. Finally, after the long morning, it was time for lunch: soup, chicken, rice, and an ice cream bar. Lunch is the big meal of the day here. After lunch, I took another long nap. I don’t know why I’m so tired lately!
When I woke up, I set off to listen to two testimonies, one of an American and one of a Hungarian. There will be two or three testimonies every night, and I am really looking forward to hearing all of them. After dinner tonight, there was supposed to be a bonfire, but it was postponed due to the constant lightning flickers that started up near dark. I walked away as I talked with a Hungarian guy my age, but then it began to rain. He dashed one way and I sprinted the other, and we both tumbled under some shelter as the storm really broke loose. All day I had felt a storm approaching (can everyone feel that, or is it just me being special?), and now it was here. The rain fell in torrents, sheets, buckets, cats, and dogs. The lightning was constantly flashing, and the thunder was always rumbling. Not like storms back home at all. As the storm moved closer, the lightning began striking very nearby, and the thunder cracked so loudly that it hurt my ears. Fortunately I had finished dancing in the rain before I got electrocuted. Finally, the electricity flickered out (I heard a few girls scream), and the storm seemed even more impressive in the dark. I finally crawled in bed as the storm blew itself out, but I must say it was a pretty fantastic evening.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008:
This morning I got up early to take my shower, something I wisely decided to postpone last night. As I walked to devotions in shorts and with wet hair, I realized how truly cold it was today. The veritable sauna of Sunday afternoon had been blown away by the storm, I guess. I changed into the only warm clothes I brought to camp and ate some breakfast. Today it was a cheese croissant with butter and hot tea. The tea was very welcome on such a cold morning, especially as we eat essentially outside, though under a roof of sorts. Next came morning classes. Today we had a new Hungarian helper, who really was an answer to prayer. She suggested and facilitated discussions in which the girls would be interested, e.g. the differences between American and Hungarian cultures. Near the end of class the girls taught us a Hungarian card game called solo. It is similar to our uno, except much crazier. Then came lunch, followed by yet another nap and some quiet reading. I set out into the still-rainy afternoon to watch the first Chronicles of Narnia movie and listen to another set of testimonies. After dinner was a very moving pantomime. I set it all down in my journal, and it took two and a half pages, so I will spare you that now.
PS- my trip is halfway over today. Sad? Cool? Good? Bad? Who knows…

Wednesday, July 16, 2008:
Today in my journal I wrote down over a page before I even recorded getting out of bed. I’ll spare you that too. =) After devotions we had breakfast, as usual. This morning it was sandwiches (which are actually a very common breakfast food in Hungary), hot tea, and bread with nutella. Mmmm. Before this trip is over I am pretty sure that I will be an official nutella addict.
After breakfast was… more lessons! Today my partner left halfway through with the charge to present all the information on Jamaica that we hadn’t covered yet. So, I got to explain Jamaica’s geographical location and government system. Have you ever tried to explain “constitutional parliamentary democracy” to a group of girls who speak English as a second language? It was… interesting, for sure. But I was so very grateful for my fantastic civics teachers this year. Without that class and their teaching, I would have been unsure of what a constitutional parliamentary democracy was myself, and I certainly would not have been able to present the information in a way these girls could understand. When my partner got back, she decided the girls would like to discuss the economy, the European Union, and the difference between a president and a prime minister. Yikes! At any rate, we made it through the morning classes, however uninteresting the girls might have found them.
Then came lunch, a walk around the nearby ponds in the afternoon, some more testimonies, dinner, and in the evening a staff/camper volleyball game. It was rough. We won the first game easily against the younger campers, but we actually lost to the older campers. I learned later that that particular team had been practicing together all week, while our team of like 15 just got thrown together and couldn’t even figure out our rotations. I feel a little better now, but the shame is still there. Finally it got too dark to play anymore. No one could actually see the ball, and I even got hit in the face with it (that’s how dark it was), so we lit up our postponed campfire from Monday night. I roasted some marshmallows as the Texas leader improvised songs about his marshmallow distribution efforts. It was hilarious. Then a couple of Texas guys pulled out a guitar and a drum. They were very good and very funny. We sang lots of Disney songs, from Robin Hood, Lion King, and some others, then some folk songs, some Mexican songs, some Christmas songs, some praise songs, and then some just songs. The guitarist was really amazing, and he started singing Jack Johnson, Rascal Flatts’ “Life is a Highway,” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.” It was so much fun.

Thursday, July 17, 2008:
This morning was devotions and then breakfast, which was a sort of dense, spiraled roll. I ate it with butter, plain, and with nutella, all of which were scrumptious. For part of class this morning, we watched part of the movie Cool Runnings, which is about an Olympic Jamaican bobsled team. The girls also taught us another game, called “the village is sleeping.” We would call it “mafia.” I was the first one killed, so apparently someone in our class has some hard feelings against me… Just joking. I think all the girls like me.
After lunch today, I hung out and digested, then decided that it was high time to start working out for volleyball this fall. I stood fiercely in front of a mirror. “Kimberlee,” I began sternly… and then I just stopped. I’m not much good at pep talks anyway and giving them to yourself is kind of silly, so I settled for a rousing pep think. Then I quickly donned shorts, a T-shirt, ankle support, and shoes, and set off to enjoy the beautiful weather in a run around the lake. It was probably just under half a mile. Running here seems effortless. Because of the low elevation, breathing is not a struggle at all, it is purely a muscle workout. I think I might be a little discouraged to come back home, and realize that I'm not in as good of shape as I thought I was. =) After running I did some muscle building stuff, then wiped down my perspiring face, checked email, photographed a frog, and tried my hand at pinwheel making. After dinner there was a Hungarian rock concert, which was pretty cool. Of course I had no idea what they were singing, but I could enjoy the music nonetheless. Even though the songs were very loud, they were musically complex, musical themes were developed, and the songs were extremely pleasing to the ear. During the music I enjoyed watching the band members, and had time to decide that I am going to marry the lead guitarist type of guy. So we’ll see. =)

Friday, July 19, 2008:
This morning I ate two breakfasts. Each person was served three half-slices of kalacs, or “sweet bread” (though it wasn’t exactly sweet). So I drank some hot tea and ate one half-slice with apricot jelly, two plain, and three with nutella. Yes, that’s a mark of an addict if I ever saw one.
In class today we finished watching Cool Runnings. We started a discussion about religion: what the girls knew about it, if they were ‘religious,’ the roles of religion in Hungary and the US, etc. Unfortunately, my teaching partner and a Hungarian translator got in a debate about theology, and I’m not sure what sort of impression that made on the girls. It wasn’t even a good debate, I’m afraid. Not at all like what I’m used to in my Bible classes. One of their views was heretical, whether they realized it or not. It was a heresy I had read about, and knew how to refute biblically, but I didn’t think this was the time or place to do it. It was a tiring situation altogether, and I’m glad we were interrupted in the middle of it.
For lunch, I had HUNGARIAN GOULASH!! On the one hand, every time I hear this, I think of rain boots. On the other hand, I think of one of my favorite classical songs. And now, added to the mix of connotations, I get to add a thin soup dotted with meat, kohlrabi, potatoes, and globs of cooked pasta dough. Of course, we had bread with our soup, as we do with every meal. It was quite delicious.
In the afternoon I ran and worked out (which was a little painful this time). Then my afternoon putterings were interrupted by a welcome invitation to play Dutch blitz. This time we played with actual Dutch blitz cards, which I had never seen before. Wow, I forgot how intense that game is! It was fun. We also played with partners, which I really liked. There’s not so much to keep track of that way.
Tonight, instead of testimonies, there were some baptisms in the campground pool. This was enough to make my reformed theological self very uncomfortable. Two of the people were a little older than me, and gave nice speeches and stuff before their baptisms. That was fine. They were baptized while a woman played praise songs on her guitar and sang aloud. It was definitely enough to give anyone an emotional religious rush. Two more younger kids were next, and their testimonies were a little suspicious. One boy’s testimony ended with, “and sometimes we [my friends and I] pray.” Now baptism is a big deal. I, as a pastor, would be hesitant to baptize that young man unless I was sure he knew what baptism signified and that he was ready to be baptized. (Of course, I am speaking as one who was baptized as an infant, so that adds a little irony to this whole situation, but I am working on that in my own mind. I don’t believe that what I am saying and my being baptized as a baby are incompatible.) And then the youth pastor asked if anyone in the audience was moved to be baptized themselves. I nearly choked on my tongue. I watched as four individuals stepped forth, tears in their eyes, to be baptized. One girl chose to be baptized by her two closest friends (both were older, in their twenties, but still…) I actually felt a little sick. Like I said, baptism is really a big deal. I am suspicious of Christian camp conversions, because all too often they are simply a result of religious emotion. If I am nervous with conversions, I am even more uneasy when it comes to Christian camp baptisms. I do take theological issue with them. Anyway, that is my theological rant of the day…
After the baptisms we all filed in to eat a late dinner—wiener schnitzel!! It was pretty good in itself, but the fact that I ate Hungarian goulash and wiener schnitzel in the same day made me pretty excited. My list of foreign foods that I’ve eaten is pretty impressive today!
After dinner was an end-of-the-week talent show. It was good, as far as talent shows go. There were some very creative entries. My favorite was a synchronized swimming show. On stage. It was very original and well-done, but who thinks of these sorts of things?! After the talent show was a campfire and some praise songs with the same amazing guitar player. We talked and sang until 1 AM, which was crazy late, but it was good.

Saturday, July 19, 2008:
Today was the day that everyone left camp. I rolled out of bed at 6:45 for a morning jog. Wow, I was so sore. I walked like an old lady all day long. It was very misty and almost surreal outside. I at least, was thankful for the mist because I literally jogged right out of bed. I truly looked like someone who had just woken up. Maybe if I met anyone, I thought, my bleary features would be somewhat obscured by the mist. I met more people that morning than on all the other jogs put together. =P I got back in time for a very quick shower before devotions and breakfast (bread, hot tea, and nutella). Then we packed up and waited for the bus that would take us back to Debrecen. While waiting, I helped myself to some birthday cake, and started talking to an enormous German redhead about breakfast. When I began speaking, he looked a little startled, then said faintly, “I think that’s the longest sentence I’ve ever seen you say, much less to me.” He actually thought that I just didn’t talk. I laughed. I think most of my close friends usually long for a time when I stop talking... (Rochelle) But I did push myself to be outgoing this week, something I’m not naturally very good at. I became about as good of friends as I could become in one week with a red-headed college-age girl from Kansas. So there. I do talk.
And that is essentially a summary of my week at English Camp 2008. I say a summary because my journal entries were 20 pages long, and you really do get the Reader’s Digest version. Thanks for all your prayers for me during this week!