Summer Vacation...

Well, the final week of my first year of school is upon me. Like almost every teacher and student on the planet, my dominating emotion is YAHOOOOO!!!!! The old kids' rhyme, “no more teachers, no more books, no more teachers dirty looks” has been running through my head for the past few weeks. Even when I was a kid who really like school, there was just something about getting to that last day and having the prospect of summer stretching before you. Ahhhhh.

Originally, I had a very lazy summer planned. I feel like I've earned it. I'm traveling in June – which will be awesome. Outside of that, I was just gonna hang out, continue some of my regular clubs, maybe go help some of the other volunteers with projects. Spend a lot of time in the direct line of my fan to survive the heat, maybe do a little sunbathing in Tom or Ashley's yard. Sounds like a great plan, right? Like every teacher a student, I worked hard during the school year. I deserve a break. And, I was definitely looking forward to my lazy summer. Until I had the idea.

One day a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in one of my lessons, honestly, bored out of my skull. I started thinking about all of the ideas that I have had of projects and things to do. Originally, my thought path was for clubs and things next school year. And then I thought about the 3 months looming ahead of me. And I decided.

The idea is an English Summer Day Camp. It is 4 weeks long, 5 days a week, 4 hours a day. Here's the part that I love about my camp – each week is going to have a different theme. The first week is just English language. Get the kids comfortable(ish) is English, get them prepped for some of the stuff they'll do in the following weeks, get them to have fun with learning. The second week is Arts and Crafts. The third week is Sports and Games, and the fourth week is Drama and Theatre. (That's kinda the selfish one – I actually get to kinda use my lovely theatre degree that has been sitting idle for the past few years.)

It took a bit of work to turn the idea of the camp into something that is really going to happen. I am enlisting the help of my PCV friends – each week 5 to 9 different volunteers are coming down to help. I had to get permission from my school director (essentially the school principal – you don't do anything without getting his approval). I had to prepare information for him in English and Azeri. Luckily, my director is awesome and he is really into the idea. I had to explain it to the other English teachers so they can help me explain it to the kids. I had to hope that kids would actually be interested in coming.

The response has been awesome. My friends are really into coming to help. The kid response is even better – if a little overwhelming. I expected to get 30 – 50 kids who wanted to come. I had a moment of panic on Friday when I was counting the applications in so far and I already have over 75 students signed up. And the deadline is Tuesday. I still think I might be in over my head, but it is also so completely awesome that so many kids are into it and excited about it – it kind of inspires me.

So, here is the shameless plea part of this blog... I need supplies. I certainly don't have the funds on my Peace Corps living allowance to get much and, in a lot of cases, the stuff just isn't available here. I can't ask the kids to pay – kind of defeats some of the purpose. So, I'm asking you. Or, rather, I am offering you an amazing opportunity to support a really cool Peace Corps project, and help provide something for these kids and this community.

The Flegal family is heading up the donations part of this. If you are interested, please email my mom at suzflegal@verizon.net or sflegal@theprdgroup.com. She has a list of the things I really need – things like paint and chalk and yarn and jump ropes. There is a time constraint – to get stuff to Azerbaijan in time, she needs to mail it by mid to late June.

I want to thank the people who are already helping and those of you who will! It is really amazing for me to see and feel the support from everyone at home. This experience is going to mean so much for my kids, I love that you all are enthused about helping me and helping them.