This week was the first of two "Makeshift Summer Camps" I'm doing this month. My students had such a BLAST in June at summer camp that it made me happy and really want to do more with them this summer. This week was full of art and sports. The first day a meager 4 kids showed up but I told them to call their friends and the rest of the week I had close to 20 everyday! Next week I think I may even have more... which is not easy when you are the only teacher, but I think its awesome how many kids want to come participate. The whole week was a whirlwind of fun and exhaustion, but there was one day in particular that I will remember forever.
On Tuesday I had a group of mainly girls and I took them outside to teach them how to play frisbee. They caught on so fast and just couldn't stop laughing they were having so much fun. Something about the way they were playing took me out of my "teacher shell" I usually wear everywhere I go here and put into "normal, childlike, Jessi shell," something I think they had never fully experienced before. Being loud and silly after the age of 10 (10 is not a real cut off-but you get the idea, once you are not a small child you are a quiet, respectable adult) here is highly frowned upon, much less being loud and silly in public. You can imagine their initial shock at me acting like just another child with them while playing frisbee, but that shocked turned into pure fun. I felt a bond with the kids that were there that day that I haven't felt yet with my students here, and all we were doing was play frisbee. That day goes down in my top 5 favorite times over the past 23 months of living in Azerbaijan so I just wanted to share it.
Sorry there are no pictures! Its really hard to be a photographer when you are the sole teacher :).
