Young Men’s Leadership Project Camp 2014

From June 16 to 24, a bunch of volunteers helped with the Young Men’s Leadership Project, or YMLP.  During these ten days, young men from high school from around Macedonia were invited to attend a camp.  At the camp, they learned about topics and participated in activities that are not always offered in their local schools.  For example, each morning the campers participated in classes the revolved around four topics- Democracy, Civil Responsibility, Personal Development, and Leadership.  In the afternoon, they participated in various activities that pertained to topics such as the Artist, the Athlete, Presentation, and the Naturalist.  Finally, each night the majority of the campers slept in tents, an activity that seems to be rare for most Macedonian youths.

Each year, the camp is usually hosted in Tajmishte, an area located in the mountains near Kicevo.  However, our coordinators for YMLP were required to move the site since the electricity supply to the camp was tampered only weeks before the camp would take place.   Scrambling to find an ideal site, the coordinators first chose a site near Recen, only to realize that the site was a monastery and would probably not be appropriate for the Albanian/ Muslim campers.  Thus Shula Mina, a camp with elements preserved from the 80s, was chosen for the site for YMLP. 

Luckily for me, Shula Mina is located only a few minutes stroll from Krushevo, and Krushevo is only a 40-minute kombi ride away from Prilep.  Therefore, I had all of my weekend between Language and Cultural IST and YMLP Camp to relax at home and prepare for the camp.  Preparations for the camp began on Monday, so many of the volunteers who were facilitators, counselors, or support staff stayed the preceding night at my place before we embarked for the camp.  Upon arriving to Shula Mina, I was stunned to discover that a beautiful deciduous forest existed so close to Prilep.  Outside of mountainous areas, Macedonia lacks large, gorgeous forests, probably due to hundreds of years of civilization extracting these forests for building and kindling material.  Many forests were replanted during the Tito years, but most of these are coniferous.  Therefore, I was elated to discover that we would camp in a place that reminded me of the beautiful forests I was used to in Michigan.  Invigorated by the natural beauty of the area, absence of internet access, and the promise of an active lifestyle for the next week, I spent most of the first day hiking through the forests and running on the nearby paths. 

Arriving in Krushevo

Arriving at Shula Mina

Such an amazing forest

What we termed as the "Valley of Death", White team rough-camped on the other side

On the first day, a few of us decided to take a walk to the nearby lake, and we happened upon a cute little puppy that we named Trevor.  After petting Trevor for some time along the path to the lake, it managed to crawl under the gate of its home, and it continued to follow us to the park.  At first we were happy that this little guy was fond of us.  However, it eventually followed a different group of pedestrians as we were sitting near the lake, and we became somewhat relieved that we were no longer responsible for the puppy.  That is, until that group picked up Trevor and threw him in the lake.  I do not understand the sadistic way that many host country nationals treat domestic animals in this country, but another volunteer and I quickly caught up to the group in order to come to Trevor’s rescue.  Since we were not returning to camp the original way, we allowed Trevor to follow us to Shula Mina as it began to rain.  I could not consciously leave the puppy at the park just to have another group throw him into the lake so that he could drown.  Wet and tired, Trevor was shivering and whimpering the whole walk back.  When we finally returned, many of the volunteers were happy to have his company, dried him off, and gave him some sustenance.  Later that evening, some of the volunteers returned him to his rightful home during their walk to the Krushevo center.

Trevor!!!

Monday and Tuesday were designated for setting up the campsites around Shula Mina.  However, we soon discovered that rain would hamper our efforts for the first few days of the camp.  I knew that we would be seriously challenged when I was awoken early on Tuesday morning by a squall.  Since this site was new for the coordinators, much of Monday was spent in confusion as they were busy adapting to the new venue and calculating inventory.  Since I was accepted as the Financial and Logistics coordinator for YMLP for next year, I was obligated to stay behind the first night to help with inventory while most others walked into Krushevo to watch the USA-Ghana game.  At first I did not mind, since trends over the past eight years suggested that meeting the crew in town for the game would just leave me depressed and tired the next day.  However, even though I have yet to watch a win by the USA National team, I was able to start the next day fresh and ready to work.  As the other volunteers spent most of Tuesday napping due to their long night, a few of us walked through the torrential downpour to clean some of the paths between camp sites and to set up the rough camp sites.  After about an hour of setting up, Aaron, Brittany, Britt, Christy, and I were soaked completely.  By this point, most of my clothes were not suitable for wearing, so I hoped that we would have sunnier weather once the campers arrived.

Setting up rough camps in the rain

Wednesday was the start of the camp, and many of the campers began to arrive as early as 10AM.  Since changing locations for the camp disrupted the plans for transportation, many of these students were required to pay for their own way to Shula Mina, and thus many of the campers did not show up.  Therefore, as we were expecting about 80 campers in total, only about 55 showed up for the camp.  The most disappointing aspect was that YMLP strives to create a multi-ethnic atmosphere, but most of the Albanian campers were accepted from Struga, and since many of them decided not to attend the camp, we only had two Albanian campers during the whole camp.  Unfortunately for me, both my original Junior Counselor (a camper who assumes some responsibility and helps the counselor on his team) from Makedonska Kamenica and the back-up JC from Tetovo cancelled, so I was finally given a JC last-minute just before camp began.

Campers arriving at Shula Mina

My team, the White Tigers

All of the campers were divided into eight teams, each containing a counselor and a JC.  Seven of the counselors were PCVs, and one was an HCN.  We were all assigned colors, and the first three hours of camp were dedicated for our team to acclimate ourselves with each other and to develop our own team names, chants, and flags.  Our team decided to call ourselves the “White Tigers”, and we decided to use the standard military call as the tune of our chant. Since it rained horribly on Wednesday as well, it was decided that all teams would sleep in the cabins for the first night.

Now if I went through every day of this camp, you would surely become bored by this post.  Let’s just say that through the classes and activities, all of the campers experienced some sort of personal development, etc. etc.  Personally, there were two highlights for me during the whole camp.  Even though I was a counselor, I had the opportunity to teach two sets of classes.  On Saturday, I taught first aid with Dave to all of the campers.  Since we were both lifeguards years before becoming PCVs, we used our knowledge and skills to train the campers in basic first aid.  We ran through a series of scenarios where we cut our arms, sprained our ankles, or burned our hands.  Our skits were supposedly so grotesque (and maybe well acted!) that we made a kid faint during one session.  Luckily, the second half of our class was taught by the camp doctor, so in response he sprang into action once he discovered that the camper was about to faint.  All ended well.  The second class I taught was “US College Preparedness”, and it was somewhat surprising to see a group of about 7-8 ambitious students who had dreams to go to many of the top colleges in the USA.

The doctor teaching CPR

My team’s favorite night of camp was sleeping in rough camp.  Once the weather cleared from Friday on, conditions were dry enough for the eight teams to sleep up the hill within the forest.  There, each team was responsible for starting their fire, building their tents, and cooking their own food.  I put my campers in charge of starting the fire, since many Macedonians are used to using wood stoves in the winter.  It seemed that the wood was still a bit too wet to light correctly, so my campers decided that it would be best to start the fire by using their spray deodorant as a flamethrower.  I mentally opposed this tactic since it was not very “rough camp”, but since they all decided upon this method as a team, I let it fly.  As they all collected more wood for the fire, I took charge of preparing the dinner.  My campers were satisfied by the peppers, carrots, potatoes, and ground beef cooked in aluminum foil wraps over the open fire.  After dinner, we broke out the materials for s’mores, and it seemed that my campers experienced so many essential parts of the American childhood that many Macedonians do not get to experience.  As the night progressed, our camp was invaded by the Black team, and we all bonded around the fire playing Mafia.  After, both my team and the Black team decided to join the Blue team to wander through the forest and continue their late-night shenanigans. 

White Tigers preparing rough camp

Rough Camp Dinner

Enjoying S'mores for the first time

Black and White teams chilling 

Overall, this YMLP camp was a major success.  I was able to spend quality time in nature and outdoors.  It was also a great break from my daily schedule at site.  Despite the logistical challenges that the coordinators faced last minute, the camp won great acclaim from some reputable sources.  The US Ambassador to Macedonia visited on Thursday and only had great feedback regarding the camp.  Also, ten national media outlets published reports about the camp in their newspapers or broadcasted them on the evening news (see below for one of the links).

http://a1on.mk/wordpress/archives/347838

I really enjoyed my experience over the ten days I spent at the camp.  While it was great to spend over a week in such a serene environment, I appreciated the challenges I faced as well.  Based on my experiences with this camp, I have two major worries that I expect to face in the next year.  First, much of this camp was funded by a two-year grant that just finished, so much of my duties throughout the next year will include finding funding for this camp.  Second, while I really enjoyed my team, much of my energy was wasted on a 2-3 campers from my group of seven.  This camp marks my first time as a counselor, so maybe what I experienced is not so rare.  But I felt that for high school students who were aware of what “camping” was, some of them complained a bit too much.  Many nights they complained that they did not want to drink the tap water, or that their backs hurt from camping, or that they wanted access to their cell phones.   Instead of trying to solve these problems on their own, many of them expected me or other staff members on the staff to take care of these issues.  In many ways, I hope that this is not a precursor to what I can expect when working with college students who are interested in embarking on an AIESEC internship this year.

But overall, most of the campers were great, and it really attests to the future of Macedonian leaders (at least on the male side, a similar camp called camp GLOW will take place in August).  I really enjoyed meeting many of these students and watching them develop over such a short time, and I cannot wait until next year.

The whole YMLP Camp