Camp Hope 2013 Staff Training

It is in the books! Yesterday we had our closing with 23 wonderful, super energetic staff and on Sunday we will all welcome the campers! The days were long (yet it flew by) and the staff learned a lot of new concepts, but their energy never let up. They were all appreciative of the new techniques they learned for working with children and many shared this during nightly colour group chats. The local Leadership team members did really well taking the lead on the training sessions with our support planning and co-facilitating. A solid foundation has been laid and will continue to be built up over the next two weeks!

The food at camp is so-so, nothing to write home about though, which is why we were really craving western food last night. The whole week we were looking forward to the Mugg & Bean and it certainly satisfied, especially the chocolate cake at the end :)

Photos below include the packed camp van, all of our flip charts showing all that we accomplished during the ST week, and the cake!

Stay cool,
Mary

Camp Hope Leadership Team training

Hi all,
We just finished a fabulous training week with our leadership team in Botswana! This is our first year partnering here and we have really set off on the right foot together, connecting quickly and discovering the best ways to support each other to make camp magic happen. The team had done so much work leading up to this past week, recruiting 24 staff and over 100 campers for 2 sessions. On Monday morning they brought so much energy and enthusiasm to our little apartment 'training center' aka the living room! That first morning set the tone for the entire week and hopefully for all of camp programming. We are all aware that bumps in the road will happen and we are prepared to get through them together. The theme we have taken on is Botho, which essentially means 'I am because we are.' The idea is that no man is an island and we are a person through the people around us. This theme was the first instance of the Camp Hope team infusing their culture and they continued to do this all week with songs and cheers (kilos), making this program theirs!

Our little SeriousFun team is getting on great, too. It's not always a joy dealing with things like no hot water, confusing washing machines, funky tasting ketchup, unfriendly locals, and the smell of burning trash, but with these 3 it's so entertaining and we laugh together like its our one and only job! Below are a few pictures including our team (Melissa, Hilary, Zac) and our camp director here, B2.

Hope everyone is well back in the states, happy solstice!!
Mary

PS Friday night dinner included an absolutely amazing DJ by our table (maybe a bit too close)--he was gooood! Picture below..

Camp Hope Botswana

Hi all,
The Epic Afrasian Adventure is underway! This afternoon our little SeriousFun team met up at JFK and had a great time getting to know each other. Sadly, we had to split at 4:30, three going to terminal 4 and myself heading to terminal 8. My itinerary starts later but I actually arrive in Botswana first--silly flight paths!

Spending more than enough hours in JFK int'l airport, I've realized 3 things about the place:
1. Food is crazy expensive! $10 for a pretzel dog and soda (no worries, I didn't get this)
2. The water bubblers have zero water pressure
3. No wifi

Fortunately I have a really good book and don't mind having lots of thinking time :)

First stop, Qatar,
Mary