People, nature and in mosquitoes in Latvia

Place: Skujene, northern part of Latvia (close to Cesis) Time: 5th - 18th of July 2004

My experience of Latvia started with my arrival to the beautiful city of Riga the day before the start of the camp. This was to be my first camp and I was a bit nervous when I arrived only to become calm again after meeting Patrick from Switzerland. For me it was a kind of relief only to meet one of the other camp-participants at first; when we finally met the others the next day I felt that whatever would happened at I had one friend in the camp. Our camp group consisted of Lena (Germany), Günther (Austria), Geraldine (England), Masha (Russia), Armand ( Netherlands), Frederik (Belgium), Patrick, I and Ilze, the Latvian camp leader. Together were we going to teach English/German to the children of Skujenes pamatskola; a small village school in the Cesis district (northern part of Latvia).

Latvia is country in great change. It has begun a path leading towards becoming a part of Western Europe but still it has the breath of East. The country is said to be the poorest country in the Union and when seeing how worn out many of the house out in the countryside are this is not hard to believe. This gives an air of hopelessness but still there is something – a spirit! All the people I met in Latvia were so friendly so ready to do their best. For example the headmaster of the school, a really wonderful person, drove us everywhere and I could really feel that she wanted us to have a great time. It could be seen in this school that they have not the same resources as the Swedish schools have but it is still going forward. They are developing and I hope that through the EU-membership we will be able to help them more.

Communicating with the children was hard at first. They were shy and didn’t speak so much English but through playing games we got them to relax and start talking. I got very good contact with the group I had most, the 6th class. The organisation of our lessons would’ve been better if we had gotten (or made together in the group) a scheme for the two weeks. We could’ve done more well-planned lessons but we did not get any information about that we were going to have ‘real’ lessons alone with the children – something which should’ve been in the info sheet. It’s hard to say, though, whether it was our responsibility or the camp leader’s as we just arrived without much knowledge about what we were supposed to do. The leader did not seem to know either and it was her first time as camp leader so I think that we are not to blame her for this. I think that if we all would have tried to plan from the beginning it would’ve been better. However the children seemed to enjoy what we did; at the end they were crying because they were so sad that we were going to leave them. It makes me happy that we were able to give them a good experience although we were not at all professional teachers and spend a big part of the time playing games with them.

We learned beautiful Latvian folksongs and the children together with their dance-teacher taught us a folkdance. Singing is really something that can bring people together and as I love it this part of the camp was such an enjoyment for me. We sung a Latvian medley (made up especially for us) at a kind of a singing/dancing feast/presentation in a village. This was a very nice experience. We also made national presentations for the children and at the end of the camp we, together with the children, made a kind of a presentation/show for the people in the local community. We had taught them songs, my group sang ‘Clementine’, and we danced our folkdance. I was really nervous, but they loved it and we had to repeat it! Experiences like this give hope for the future. To be able to learn from each other and to have fun together in ‘cultural’ project is something very valuable. The children at our school were all very good at singing and dancing and this, as well as making sports (which they were also good at) opened a way for us to communicate with them. When we started practising the singing I thought that we should’ve done it earlier, maybe from the beginning.

The school was out in the countryside far away from the city; even outside the small village. The nature surrounding it was very beautiful and we had good opportunities to see things around. (Always with help from the nice headmaster!) I have many good memories from sitting around the campfire, although we got completely eaten by the mosquitoes! We lived in classrooms of the school and it worked well except for that the water in the showers was cold and the toilets got flooded some times. However on the whole it was satisfactory. The food in the camp was vegan which arouse some complaining among the participants. In the beginning it was also not sufficient to keep all over stomachs full – the food was to light. For me it was ok with vegan food as I’m a vegetarian and my organisation prepared me that the food would be simple. However, the first days I felt a bit hungry but the amount of food increased (probably due to the complaining) and in the end I was completely satisfied. However, one of the participants, Armand, went home probably for lots of reasons. It was sad that he ‘gave up’ but the remaining group could handle that in a good way.

The time at the camp was very intense with a small amount of sleep but that’s a part of the fun; to live close to new people. Together we made campfires, bathed in rain and did a lot of excursions. We visited castles and historical places and saw a lot of the nature of the area. Crawling into a very small cave on one of the excursion is an unforgettable memory from this summer! We saw so many things in those two weeks; it would be impossible to tell about them all and even though I did not come close to all the participants I feel that I have some friends out in Europe. This is, I believe, one of the goals SCI has for the camps. We are all to feel as a part of the world and gain new friends at the same time we’re doing something good for a project. This thought is one of the reasons of why I first wished to attend a camp and now after doing it I feel even more that this is something very valuable.

To summarise what we did I can feel that even though we maybe didn’t teach them so much English we came there, from different countries, and showed them that you can go wherever you like. My hope is that we left them with a happy memory and a strong belief in themselves. I have learned that to work together with children that speak a different language can sometimes be hard and that a camp like this needs a scheme from the beginning to be fully effective but also that you can have great fun together if you have a positive attitude. When I left the camp I felt that this was on the whole a very positive experience and it’s not going to be my last camp! I am already looking forward to next summer! I hope I’ve been able to transform a bit of my feelings around this camp to you as readers and that this tale will inspire you to become even more involved in your organisations just as I have gotten renewed inspiration through this experience!

— Josefin Lindgren 2007-05-15 13:35