We Lead You Follow - YMLP 2011 Camp

I do not command
I use democracy now
I am a leader
- Marko

The haiku above was written during a poetry elective at the 2011 Young Men's Leadership Project summer camp and that teenage boys would voluntarily choose to learn poetry tells a great deal about the caliber of guys attending this year's camp. One thing that made camp this summer even better than the last was that with only 40 campers in attendance, I could really get to know the guys on a personal level. Around the campfire in the evenings, we could discuss everything from the music of Kid Rock to which of the 6 languages a camper speaks is the easiest and which the hardest. Relaxation time around the campfire was well earned by campers, instructors, and counselors alike because we jammed a ton into each and every day...

The boys would line up at 8:00 for breakfast, including any teams who camped out the night before. Two of the 5 teams would sleep out every night, camping with our volunteers from the West Kent YMCA in England. The Brits drove 3 days straight to be there and run the camping out, not to mention the extremely popular archery range. Then classes started at 9:00, with subjects in democracy, health, film-making (taught by my super YMCA Bitola colleague Jovce), project design and management, and of course the best, my environment class. As if that weren't enough for a full day, then we had electives, dinner, and more electives. Electives covered everything from languages like German, Korean, and Spanish to fun topics like American Slang, the Evolution of Rock Music, and origami to sports like baseball, flag football, and ultimate Frisbee.

At times, I was afraid that the environmental lessons were not sinking in but then on the last day of camp we had a sort-of mock United Nations where each team represented a country and negotiated a set of protocols for managing a lake bordered by all the countries. Suddenly the guys were objecting to the use of dynamite for fishing because the lake was an ecosystem and damaging one part affected the rest of the lake. They were worried about sustainable fishing practices to ensure their livelihoods and wanted measures to protect water quality so tourism would continue to flourish on the lake. I was all smiles because they got, it they really got it!

I have a hard time putting the whole week into a few simple paragraphs, there were just too many great things--like how the guys started pointing out to me every cool beetle and butterfly they saw; how one camper, upon trying a smore for the first time, declared it "the best American food ever"; how another camper taught an elective on the local sport of handball, patiently teaching us what turns out to be a really fun sport combining elements of water polo, basketball, and floor hockey; how we had to take traffic breaks during 4 Square because we played on the road and tractors kept driving by; how we celebrated 4th of July by singing the American anthem and lighting sparklers (and teasing the Brits about how we would go dump some tea in the river); how everyone at camp, including the lunch ladies, learned how to dance the Bernie (for those unfamiliar with the Bernie, you can watch the campers Bernie-ing here).

To get the full effect, please check out these photos. They show lots of grinning guys, learning and playing together. It may be surprising for my friends from home, but it is a rarity to have young men from the various ethnic groups here interacting like that. Generally, students are educated in their native tongue (be it Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish, etc) and they socialize mostly with people from their own ethnic groups. Seeing inter-ethnic friendships form and grow at camp definitely feeds my optimism about Macedonia becoming a more stable and successful country as these teens become national leaders. Already, through the project design class at camp, the campers made plans to lead projects to improve their hometowns. I cannot wait to see what they all do next. Thank you to again to everyone who donated money for camp and made such strides possible. Here's one more haiku about what you imparted to the boys...

Teamwork always makes
Dreamwork. Good leaders include
followers' ideas.
- Georgi

Rants and Raves

Back in my America days, I was a big peruser of the website Craigslist and I seemingly utilized every category on the site save one: rants and raves. As the name implies, it's a section where people can expound on what's driving them crazy, bad or good. But since I have my own blog, I'm going to post my first rant and rave here instead.

First the rant: what is going on with American leadership?! I read the news and yes, I know the federal budget is in a bad way but the extreme tightening of the purse-strings is starting to be felt on my side of the planet. First, my group of Peace Corps volunteers who are finishing up our 2 years of service were told that, due to budget cutbacks, only a few people could do a yearlong extension. Yearlong extensions are optional but hugely beneficial--you have people who are already trained and integrated into their communities voluntarily choosing to give another year of their lives to work practically for free. My group being full of extremely dedicated and bighearted people has many would-be extendees who will be literally turned away. The annual cost of a Peace Corps volunteer is less than $50,000; the annual cost of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan: $425,000-$1 million, depending on whose figures you use. By cutting one soldier, all the extendees could be paid for and then some. I'm not trying to pick on the military but since both have corps serving overseas, it seems like not an entirely unfair comparison.

The money troubles continued when the U.S. Embassy declined to fund the Boys Leadership Camp that Peace Corps runs every summer with the Red Cross and YMCA. Oh, and did I mention we learned this less than 2 weeks before the camp is scheduled to start? In this case, for with 0.0001% of the Federal Treasury money spent on bank bailouts, we could have taught 80 young men how to be leaders in their communities and foster positive change from within. It brought me to the verge of tears to think that the boys I've been mentoring since March might be denied this capstone to their leadership training. Enough messing around, American leaders--it's time to step up and get our funding priorities in proper order.

Luckily, there's a rave: no matter what the American government does, the American people are AMAZING. Learning that the embassy funds fell through, we quickly posted a request for funds online. The call went out from me and the other volunteers here, looking to raise almost $5,000 in less than 10 days. And you know what? IT HAPPENED, and in under a week at that. I want to personally thank everyone who dug deep and made a contribution. Particular thanks to my friends who forwarded the fundraising request on to their friends--I was humbled by the generosity of people who are complete strangers and may have never heard of Macedonia before that message reached their inbox. You all represent the nation that I'm glad to call home.

We'll only be able to have half as many boys at camp as planned but I'm looking forward to meeting and working with the best and brightest from all around Macedonia. Expect more raves about these future leaders soon!