Adventures in Moldova - Camp GLOWTOBE (Part 1)

Camps are some of the best parts of our service as PCVs. I had a great time at Camp Sky earlier this year in Malawi. So what better way to spend the first week of my Moldovan holiday than as a Counselor at Camp GLOWTOBE Moldova?  Each year PC Moldova puts on this co-ed camp for students aged 14-18 to teach them about leadership, gender equality and volunteering in their communities. (GLOWTOBE is an acronym, but I can’t remember what it stands for at the moment.) Here is a photo of the whole camp, wearing their GLOWTOBE sunglasses.

"Super Pumped" was sort of the unofficial theme of the camp. Everytime someone said it, Liz (one of the co-coordinators) would jump up in the air. The kids loved shouting it at random moments throughout the week!

Camp was a blast! Each team of campers had two PCV Counselors plus a Moldovan All-Star, which is a former camper that was asked to return and help facilitate the camp this year.  Each team was assigned a particular color of sunglasses too. Here is a picture of the Moldavians Team sporting their coral shades.

Unfortunately, Colii got really sick and had to leave camp the day after we arrived : (    I stayed behind at camp, and ended up filling in for another PCV that also got sick (with something different though). That’s how I ended up becoming a PCV Counselor for the Dacian Team. Here they are sporting their red sunglasses.

Throughout the week the campers attended a number of sessions on topics including career planning, developing community projects, healthy relationships and gender equality. There were guest speakers including the US Ambassador to Moldova, local youth empowerment group representatives, PC staff and Moldovan community members. The sessions were mostly conducted in Romanian so I didn’t get all the information, but I could tell by the kids reactions that they really enjoyed them.

As part of the sessions each team chose an issue that they wanted to address in their local communities, and presented it to the whole camp. The Dacians did an awareness campaign about human trafficking, which is a big problem in Moldova.

During the middle of the week the campers were split up into their teams and picked up trash in different areas of the community. I was with the group that picked up trash near the sports field. The campers had the grounds all clean in no time.

More Camp GLOWTOBE Moldova in the next post...