What an awesome week. I am completely exhausted and completely happy right now.
Attendence at the camp swung up to 15 and back down to 13 by the end of the week, but this turned out to be just the right amount of kids to have everyone climbing and belaying simultaneously.
The whole week was nothing but competitions and games and lectures and climbing and all the kids were loving it and begging to do it again next year. We played ultimate Frisbie, we built a web out of junk rope that the kids had to work as a team to get through, Jon and I strung up a rope across a 40 foot wide river and the kids had to clip in and pull themselves across hand over hand. In a flash of "why didn't I think of that sooner" insight I figured out how to make our four ropes into eight routes, each 25 feet high. We had a ton of stickers and on the last day we said that every route finished meant you got a sticker and these kids attacked the routes. One kid, Misha, finished five routes in 45 minutes! It was great. Got pretty good news coverage, too: one local television station and two newspapers sent reporters and cameras.
The package from Rock + Ice arrived and I decided it was time to take care of the troops, presenting my instructors with magazines, posters, patches and stickers in a small ceremony on Thursday (it kinda made sense since the magazines are in English). The tee-shirts arrived on the last day and the company that had made them had botched the order (the symbol on the front was smaller than ordered and the symbol on the back for the company sponsoring us was on its side; luckily its abstract and you'd have to know that), so I talked them into a 60% discount, which meant I saved some money because the original price had been misquoted and we didn't get enough from the sponsor. I decided to cover the difference ($23), but because of the discount actually gave money BACK to our sponsor. Also, the cost of printing the completion certificates was cheaper than expected, so we gave even more money back to our sponsor (the Center for Youth Initiatives, a Ukrainian NGO). Yesterday the kids got their tee-shirts and their certificates and I have a great photo of the whole group together wearing/holding them.
It was just a great time. The week as a whole was the most exersise I've had in a while. Possibly Tuesday-Wednesday was the best example: climbing during the day (someone has to lead up those eight routes), going to the club that night (yes, on a Tuesday) and dancing for three hours, climbing the next day, carrying a bed a mile from Steve's apartment to my apartment (the matress balanced on top of Mike's head and mine), and then going for a four mile jog that night. This was pretty normal. Jon and Sean, made a point of running every day. All of this was fueled by Sean's cooking, which was nothing but huge pots of spicy carbs and protein (nothing had a name; Sean's dream job, he told us repeatedly this week, would be to be the cook for an army living off the land, throwing together huge portions of spicy carbs and protien that have no names). It was good exercise, food and companionship.
Last night was the best of them. The entire staff went out to a club, along with a few more friends. Here were all my American guy friends and all my Ukrainian female friends all dancing together and having a great time and after I wore myself out on the floor I just sat (somewhat drunk) at our table on the second floor overlooking the throbbing mob and smiling contentedly.
I thought: "I did this. I put this together and now there's all these happy kids and happy friends and that's 'cause I followed through on this idea and didn't give up." It wasn't an ego thing, I just felt happily surprised that it all worked out and I found that I was really proud of myself.
Hopefully pics will be up tomorrow.