ABLE Camp

Well, the 2^nd Annual ABLE (Azeri Boys Leadership Experience) Camp was a success. We had 9 PCVs, 36 campers, 5 junior counselors, 5 Azeri counterparts from six different towns/villages all go up to a “resort” type place in the mountains near Qebele in northernAzerbaijan. We were just a few miles from the listening station that GWB wanted to use with Russia for a missile defense base-I could see if from my room’s window. We had daily sessions on leadership, teamwork, community project design and management, and responsibility to name a few. We played American football, baseball, went on hikes, had bonfires (with Smoores), had team work challenge courses, Tom taught them to sing the same Bon Jovi song we sang at Thanksgiving last year, tie died t-shirts and had a disco. We had guest speakers come give presentations on American school exchange programs as well as someone from the US Embassy spoke about leadership and the camping experience. I took Lyka with us since I had no one to take care of her for a week and I also thought she would be fun out in the woods. Turns out I was WRONG! Azeris in general are scared crapless of dogs, so the kids would freak out when she would run around and jump on them (not one of her better characteristics Terah let her keep throughout her early days that I haven’t fixed yet). I had to tie her up to a tree way up in the forest all day and night so you couldn’t hear her constant barking 24/7. I’d go take her on walks and feed her a few times a day, but other than that she had to sit out there solo and bark her brains out for no reason. That was the last trip I think I’ll be taking Lyka on until I can get her in some way calm around people. She is really going to be a test to my patience for the next year. Speaking of next year, later this week will be our one year anniversary at site and the mid way point of our service. The kids had a blast and so did all of us old guys! It was by far one of my best experiences so far in the PC, and I can’t wait to do the camp again next summer before I leave AZ.

I went straight from camp to Baku to hang out for a day and then off to my first host family’s house for two nights. We had a big dinner on Monday night with about 15 trainees and my self at my old café with my favorite fried chicken and French fries meal. It was really fun to go back and see the old host family. They have an AZ5 staying with them now, Tom, so I crashed with him both nights. Our host mom kept getting our names wrong and would hit her head every time-it was pretty funny. I gave a presentation on Monday to all of the new volunteers about the grant committee I’m on. It was fun to finally meet the entire new group and get to actually hang out with them. They all basically new me already because every one of them I talked to had read my blog every week before coming to AZ. I can’t believe they knew there was someone like me here and still decided to come. They swear in as volunteers tomorrow so we are excited to have about 50 PCVs around to hang out with. Jane and Joyce will move to Lankaran on Thursday-just in time for Jane to go to the first day of school Saturday.

I’m going to leave you all with a bunch of pictures from camp today and a short blog. I’ll have a pretty long one next week talking about our 1 year anniversary.

The pictures are of: tom with a bear in a cage at a road side tea house on the way, the mountains where the camp was, me and Rasheed presenting, the big gang on a hike, the lankaran guys and Charlie on the hike, me, Jason and some kids, the rug game, the lava walk, the spider walk, me with Charlie and a jr. counselor, my fellow AZ4s and our tie died shirts, Tom with the Bon Jovi singing group, kids tie dying, kids making the hemp necklaces I taught them to make, mike with some egg drop contestants, the disco, the entire group at a learning session, me presenting to them about community work, me, Carlo and Tom at football, the kids with the Deputy Ambassador, the bon fire, me and Tom in the paddle boat, and finally us doing some hard night work in our room.