It has been 2 exhausting weeks. World Vision organized 4 summer camps in 2 weeks. That means we had 2 camps going on at the same time Monday-Friday. The camps started at some point around 9 a.m. and finished at some point around 1 p.m. One camp a week was held here in Shkoder at a Kolping center. Kolping is a organization affiliated with the Catholic Church and has guest houses around the world. The other was held in the villages. The first week in Drobrac, the second in Stoj. I helped to organize the camps here, but volunteered in the villages two days a week. Tiffany and our site mate Jessi also volunteered a day or two each week as well, mostly at Kolping but each made it out to Dobrac as well. I have never felt as terrible about my level of Albanian as I have with the kids. They spoke so fast and I realized even having simple conversations with people in the office they are slowing their speech down so that I am able to understand. The kids don't do that for me, they speak their fast high pitched kids speak and leave me looking around for someone to translate. Fortunately I had Adi, the games coordinator at the camp who also served as my translator, and after he learned how the game or activity worked, he pretty much took over to let me take notes or time the kids, whichever was needed. Without Adi the kids would still be staring blankly at me waiting for directions in a language they understood. Instead of explaining he rest of the camp I thought I would share a few of the pictures.
