Camp Time

It’s somehow the first Friday in August.  I once wrote a blog called “Time Passages”; how time is a paradox.  I titled the post with Al Stewart’s song in mind.  The lyrics go like this:

“Well I’m not the kind to live in the past

The years run too short and the days too fast

The things you lean on are the things that don’t last

Well it’s just now and then my line gets cast into these

Time passages”

As I mentioned in my earlier blog, which was also a “first Friday”, time moves differently at camp.  One minute it’s day one and the campers are excitedly arriving looking for familiar faces and scanning the crowd to take in the new ones.  Staff are anxiously waiting and bursting with great ideas for activities and lessons.  Suddenly, “BAM”, ← (nice use of onomatopoeia, it is an English Camp after all) we’re wrapping up week 5.  We’ve moved beyond the halfway point and the above lyrics could read, “ The weeks run too short and the days too fast”.

After a hearty breakfast, most camp mornings start with a trip to the beach or once in a while we may just hang out at the pool.  Today happens to be one of those days.  My idea for today’s blog was to spice it up a bit and link you to some music to help you visualize our day.  Even though today is a pool day, I want you to imagine a sandy beach on the Bulgarian Black Sea with the waves rolling ashore and kids playing in the sand or frolicking in the waves.  When you have that vision in your mind, you can click this link to the Beach Boys’, “Catch a Wave”. I hope you enjoy your morning at the beach as much as we do.

After the beach/pool, it’s time for an English lesson. Mind you, we have 25 hours of English classes and English immersion activities per week.  Each week has a theme and I’ll get to that in a minute.  I’m probably going to show my age here, but I was taken back to the mid-80s and the American Rock Band Timbuk 3.  You’re probably asking yourself what could this possibly have to do with Zenira Camp and English.   Well, when you have a group of kids coming to summer camp to learn or improve their English and the camp is located at the seaside of the Bulgarian Coast, their “Future’s So Bright I (They) Gotta Wear Shades”.

After a late morning English class, it’s off to lunch followed by the ever-popular “Buba Bank”.  This is when kids can get some cash to purchase some pre-approved snacks.  When Buba Bank closes for the day, it is time for an afternoon of English classes.

As I mentioned above, each week of camp has a theme.  Coinciding with the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France, this week’s theme is the Olympics.  Because tonight is “Project Night” we spend much of the afternoon working on our projects.  You might think that if we are working on projects we aren’t as focused on English, but you would be wrong.  This gives us a chance to use our imagination, be creative, and still work on our English.  Let me explain, for tonight’s project we will hold a Zenira Olympics.  Camper’s invented their own countries and designed a flag which they will present to the whole camp during “Opening Ceremonies”.  For the younger, less advanced campers this was a great opportunity to teach vocabulary such as population and currency.  They also invented games to be played during the Project Olympics.  Campers will present their countries and games to the rest of the camp, all done in English.  It’s a huge breakthrough for a young child who was basically a non-English speaker when they arrived at camp to get in front of a group of kids, introduce themselves, and give 4 or 5 sentences of information.  It’s also a great time for more advanced campers to increase their vocabulary and work on their pronunciation and delivery. Project night always seems to fly by with lots of laughter and fun.  Then it’s off to bed and the best we can hope for is that the kids are not only having fun while learning English, but they are also making memories that last a lifetime.

In conclusion, I am writing this blog for Roscoe who had to leave camp early.  Since it was his day, I asked for his input.  He asked me to add a quote about time from T.S. Elliot, “Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future, and time future contained in time past.”

Happy Camping!

Playlist:

Time Passages – Al Stewart

Catch a Wave – The Beach Boys

The Future’s so Bright I Gotta Wear Shades – Timbuk 3

Money – Pink Floyd

Olympic Fanfare – John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra

Theme from Chariots of Fire – Vangelis

Photograph – Nickelback