The 3 C's - Camp, Cold, and Craziness

1/3/2010 Winter Camp

After New Year's, I ran my first solo project at the orphanage. I organized a camp that took place during winter vacation at the orphanage. This being my first project, I did a lot of planning and worrying about how it would turn out. I had dreams of grandeur and wrote out some elaborate plans for the three days of my camp. My plans even included an outdoor scavenger hunt that was dependent on the weather being tolerable.

Well, the weather didn't cooperate, and some of my games were too complex or just didn't hold their interest. However, there were several Peace Corps Volunteers who helped me with my camp and came to my rescue. We had fun for three days playing "duck, duck, goose", dragon tag and other games. Three local friends also provided much needed translation help further contributing to the camp's success. In the end, the kids had a lot of fun and so did we.

It was good that the kids enjoyed themselves, even if things didn't go exactly as planned. It gave me the confidence needed to try other projects in the future. Of course, it didn't go perfectly and I learned a lot about what I would change for the next time. Still, the kids seemed to enjoy it and the director and my counterpart gave me positive feedback, so that was nice to hear.

Enjoy some photos of camp.

My language tutor, Anya, explaining one game to the kids:

A crazy game called "dragon tag". Super chaotic, but lots of fun!

A group of us doing "group juggle".

Some of the volunteers played basketball with the older boys and one girl one day after camp.

1/19/2010 Kreshenya

Every January 19^th is a holiday called kreshenya for the people of the Russian Orthodox faith. During this holiday in Petropavlovsk, priests say blessings over the Ishim River, and the water is considered holy on this day. Some people take the water from the river and use it throughout the year to sprinkle on sick children, sprinkle in their houses, or use in their tea to keep them healthy. Still, other people jump into the river on this day, and it is said to be a sort of “re- baptism”. The word kreshenya means baptism in Russian (aren't you glad I looked it up?)People who do the jump swear that it keeps them healthy for the whole year.

As Peace Corps Volunteers, we are encouraged to observe cultural traditions that are important to the people we live with. Some volunteers take it a step further and actually participate in such traditions. My counterpart gave me the day off so that I could go to the river and see what this was all about. Some volunteers came to visit our region so they could also see and/or take part in this annual observance. Here we are trudging down to the river. That's me in the back of the line with my giant blue coat.Here are some photos of the frozen river. You can see the giant ice cross that was erected specially for this day.

Thought you might enjoy photo of tent erected on forzen river, and bridge suspended over frozen river. The tents were were people could change after jumping. They also had holes where you could dip in the river in the privacy of the tent. There was one for men and one for women.

Some volunteers jumped in the river last year, although it was an unseasonably warm winter. They say this is the coldest winter they've had in a few years. This year it was about -31 Celsius, which is approximately -24 Fahrenheit. To give you an idea of how cold this is, I took one glove off for about 1 minute to take some pictures. After that minute I had to put my glove on because my hand hurt so bad, I thought it would fall off. Having said that, imagine being out in that cold in your bathing suit! So here are some pictures of that fateful day and some very brave and possibly crazy volunteers.

Sagar's in the water, with Michael lined up right behind him.

Katie and Jennie looking like they're in pain.

So that's Kreshenya. No, I didn't jump I just couldn't fathom it. It was cool to watch and I hope they do stay healthy for one year because of it!