2010 CATHY'S VISIT TO ALBANIA: A Day at Camp

Travel with me to Albania

Where is Albania you ask? Officially known as The Republic of Albania, the nation is located in South Eastern Europe. The country sits across the Adriatic Sea from the heel of Italy with Greece as its south and southeastern neighbor. Albania is about the size of the state of Maryland with a population of 3.1 million people. Its per capita income is approximately $2,580 and more than a quarter of the population lives below the poverty level, making Albania one of the poorest countries in Europe. Often family members will work in neighboring Greece and send money home to provide for their families.

In 1967 the communist government created the world's first officially atheistic country when it outlawed all religions. It was ruled by the most repressive and isolated regime in Europe until 1991, when it became the last country to emerge from the communist regime. Since then the nation has struggled through years of political instability and ecomonic collapse. An outbreak of civil disorder erupted in 1997, followed by an influx of 460,000 Kosovar refugees in 1998. This increased the burden on the already deteriorating political, ecomonic, and social infrastructures. Today Albanians enjoy full religous freedom. and while the government is an "emerging democracy" maintaining infrastructure is extremely difficult, especially in rural areas.

Alongside Ministries International hosts the Crossroads Christian Camp in Erseke in southern Albania. The children and youth are introduced to Jesus Christ and loved on by Christians in a one-week camp enviroment that includes crafts, games, bible lessons, and a ropes course (don't we all love camp!). I feel very priviledged to be part of bringing Christ into the lives of these young people.

Excerpts borrowed from World Vision http://www.worldvision.org/

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

A Day at Camp

It's Tuesday late afternoon as I write this. I have been at camp all day which has really been a wonderful change. It was hot today, I'm guessing mid 80s, and I was able to spend the entire day outside. After breakfast the campers have a devotional time, a little down time to run around, and some singing before they go to their morning stations. This week's camp is 135 children aged 12-14 years old and they are broken into groups for the week. Each morning the groups spend 2 hours at a different station - ropes course/crafts; swimming; canoeing; archery; games in the walnut grove - so that by the end of the week they've been to all the stations. I worked in the crafts area which was really fun - I had forgotten how glitter goes everywhere!

For the first time this year the camp has an above ground swimming pool which they are very excited about. Many children have never been in a pool so the experience is a especially unique and somewhat scary one. Albanians equate wet and cold to getting sick so the children are afraid to get into a cold pool. Albanians don't drink cold liquids (a challenge when kids are running a fever at camp), they don't splash in rain puddles, or even go out in the rain. To help reduce the children's fear they are allowed in the pool in 15 minute intervals so they don't get chilled and warm up between turns. After lunch the children have 1.5 hours of quiet time and then for 2 hours they have free time where they can choose the craft station (where I was), swimming, playing cards, soccer, or just hanging out with their friends. Then, the next two hours they have the option of the rock wall and ropes course or organized games. Dinner at 7:00 p.m. then an evening program of singing, skits, and speaker time. Here are a few pictures I thought you'd enjoy from camp today (oops, got a picture in there of the playground at Mark's house and I can't figure out out to delete it.)