Roma Camp! One last time BABY!

Last year I had my first real experience working with roma children in the small town of Minjir when we put on a summer camp for them! That experience deeply impacted me, and solidified my role as a Roma advocate for the rest of my life. This year I had one more opportunity to do the same with another one of my partner organizations "Ograda Noastra" and my fellow RISE members: Josh Boissevain, Kim Davis, Ryne Peterson, and Holly Walker.

Last week I got to work along side one of my most favorite colleagues Ruslan Stanga on a Roma camp. We had about 18 children from the village Zinernesti in Cahul! Our two days in the woods were filled with society building activities such as communication training through social theater and civic education through camp elections! Our days were also filled with plenty of fun games, bonding and arm tattoos! Scorpions, roses and dragons were particular favorites!

It always shocks me how far classic games like "Steal the bacon" and a good "ol" water balloon toss will go with kids no matter where you are in the world!

But my favorite part was definitely our section on teaching children how to show non-verbal communication through film (something I have gotten quite accustomed to over these past two years of film ahem! :P) It was wonderful to be able to play back their scenes and see their reactions to their work, they were fascinated!

And after every single day I was exhausted, barely able to lift my glass to celebrate our teams awesome successes, I was pretty sleep deprived, and being on the road takes a toll on you, ( I hadn't been home for a whole week!). I was actually just wearing "loot me" clothes by that point (loot me is a section in our Peace Corps lounge where PCVs can leave/donate clothes for other PCVs to take) and shoes that were killing me for days! But the team pulled together, Ryan let me wear his sandals most of the time, I was really broke at the time and wasn't able to purchase any shoes of my own (long story didn't prepare to well for this trip down south AGAIN! LIFE ON THE ROAD). Thanks RYAN!

BUT that's the theme of my Peace Corps service: stress, discomfort, not enough sleep and then ultimate satisfying gratification and joy!I had an amazing time! So this is how my final days in Moldova are winding down with my colleagues and friends next to me, doing the work I love to do, RISE work! I couldn't ask for a better way to spend my summer!