Sports Camp

Welcome back! Since I last posted some pretty cool things have happened, but this post is focusing on Talas sports camp. Sports camp is by far one of my favorite things. Last year I was able to assist every day, and even lead basketball day. It was a great way to get to know the youth of Talas and my fellow volunteers, 22s and 23s alike. It made me kind of sad that the timing didn’t work out this year for the 24s to get to participate, but I’m sure we’ll have lots of other projects they’ll get roped into. This year Andy and I headed up camp. The coolest part of this camp, in my opinion, is that it is designed to be smaller. We had an average of 7 to 8 students a day (some days we had more, some days we had fewer) with 4 out of 5 days being all girls. Don’t let the group size fool you, though. This was a successful project! When the numbers are small like this it is so much easier to forge personal connections and really give each participant personalized attention. These girls were so committed to learning these sports. They never stopped playing, never said a drill was too difficult, and just never complained. I can’t put into word how proud I am of these awesome girls. Also, we definitely saw some raw athletic ability that I hope they keep developing.

The camp was Monday though Friday. The sports covered were soccer, volleyball, basketball, kickball, and Frisbee. Due to meetings I had scheduled, I was only able to attend camp MWF. Fortunately, Andy and I had a great group of PCVs who helped us out. Shout out to Chris who came every single day, and helped in anyway we asked. We also had a PCV come all the was from Issyk Kul oblast to help the middle three days. It is always great to have friends visit our little oblast, and even better when they can help with a project. Thank you, Sarah. LeAnne, Leah, and Hännah were also huge parts of making this camp possible. I can’t leave out our great translator either. Bektersun came every single day and help us translate for the participants.

Things like this camp are the reason I joined Peace Corps. I really hope that next year the 24s keep this little camp alive. Maybe even grow it.