MIDDLE EAST, SOUTH ASIA, UNITED STATES/UNITED KINGDOM
Arrivals! | July 7
Today, we welcomed campers to the 33rd summer of the Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine. For a week, the staff has been preparing to host the 89 young people from the Middle East, South Asia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The new staff and the experienced staff have spent quality time getting to know one another so they can work together to support the campers.
The living quarters, dining hall, dialogue spaces, and auditorium have been organized to allow the campers to feel comfortable and safe. The new staff and the experienced staff have spent quality time getting to know one another, so they can work together to support the campers from both sides of their respective disputes.
Tim is back as the Camp Director, this time with our Assistant Director from Ireland, Paul. The Seeds of Peace country directors also hold senior positions. Eric is directing communications. Our nursing staff members from previous summers are also with us. Our Executive director, Eva, and our Chief Operating Officer, Vishnu, have also been here, working tirelessly as ever.
We are at a lovely facility with ample facilities, including a large sports fieldhouse, a fantastic ropes course, a well-equipped medical center, and a beautiful kitchen.
One of the best things about this place is the kitchen staff who feed us royally every day, despite the religious dietary restrictions. Tonight, when the largest delegations rolled into Camp on two big busses, the kitchen staff was able to serve them a very late dinner.
All of the campers have given us their cell phones and other valuables for safe-keeping. They will have the chance to phone home twice a week, but otherwise, cell phones will be stored away. For the next three weeks, the campers will focus on the “here and now” in this place.
Settling In | July 8
This is the second day of Camp. Yesterday was devoted to getting everyone settled here, with campers checking in with the nurses, receiving their Seeds of Peace t-shirts and sweatshirts, learning the rules of the dining hall, designing name buttons, creating welcoming homes in the dormitories, and learning where everything is located and getting to know the other people here.
Getting used to the normal Camp schedule takes a few days. We still begin each day with lineup and we still have a musical weather prediction for the day. We also have some body stretches and artistic sharing along with “bunk” cheers, even though everyone is living in small dormitories.
Jet lag is starting to wear off for all the campers and educators who flew for many hours to another time zone far different from their homes. No doubt, by tomorrow, almost everyone will begin to feel more at home.
Between dialogue time and dinner, we have unstructured time all together near the soccer field. There are rocks to climb on and sit with fellow campers, musical instruments and plenty of space to run around. This 40-minute time slot is a welcome change from the rest of the day, which is structured for the entire camp. Each day, the campers take part in sports, arts, dialogue and meals together. The rest hour following lunch is a time to catch up on sleep, if needed, and it offers a chance to get to know their bunkmates.
At dinner time, the second-year campers (Peer Support campers) led the whole Camp in our traditional chant before each meal. Everyone in the room stands up and says, “For Friendship, Health, Love and Opportunity, we are thankful!”
The evening activity, was an energetic Staff Show. It is a fun way to showcase all the different departments at Camp. Our talented staff used songs, dances, and skits to preview all the ways we incorporate mutual activities and “stretch zones” into our days.
On a sad note, Eva, Seeds of Peace executive director, and Antwan, Palestinian country director, announced to the Camp that our efforts to get US visas for the new Palestinian campers were in vain. We have two returning Palestinian campers here, along with one who is living in the UK, two new Palestinian campers from Gaza, and four Palestinians who are citizens of Israel.
In a tribute to the Palestinians who were unsuccessful in coming to Camp this summer, many of the staff members and campers danced and sang a song called, “Some Day” at the end of the staff show.
Special Activities | July 10
On this fourth day of Camp, most of the campers are feeling comfortable in this unusual setting. One of the reasons people relax fairly quickly is because the food is familiar to them, although they are sometimes treated to food that is unusual for them, such as Mexican cuisine. The kitchen staff has a good idea of what teenagers like to eat and they also enjoy preparing the type of food that is normally served in South Asia or the Middle East.
Our dining room is set up the same way for all meals and campers eat with the same group of people every time so that they can develop relationships with this intimate group. There are two other such groups, one for dialogue and one for living together in a part of the small dorms on this campus. Most of their activities are organized by dialogue groups, so the campers can get to know one another in more ways than one.
Counselors create “special activities” based upon their own interests. The campers have a chance to choose among these, normally getting their first or second choice. Each week, these choices change. Today they had book-making, cheerleading with tumbling, volleyball, and Ultimate Frisbee.
Dialogue groups are made up of campers from all the parts of the world present at this session of Camp. Today, Tim Wilson and Bobbie Gottschalk visited the dialogue group for the returning PS campers. They used examples from their own lives to talk about leadership skills they relied on to create the programs at Seeds of Peace.
Two alumni from Maine, Sophie and Boni, were invited to the evening lineup to talk about their Seeds of Peace experiences and the impact it has had on their adult lives. Their talk was just what we needed to hear.
At night, after dinner, we had a lip-sync contest. The music was chosen from popular repertoire. Each group competed on the basis of knowledge, enthusiasm and artistry. Working together on fun projects is a wonderful way to pull our temporary community together. Campers showed off their dance moves and confidence, making for a loud and enjoyable evening.
Indigenous Day | July 11
This was a special day because Corey, a Seed from an indigenous Maine tribe, spoke at our evening lineup.
He described the roles the indigenous tribes have played in this country’s history and the abuses they have suffered over the past 400 years since the European settlers began taking over their land. The tribes have been cut off from their food supplies and forced to live on prescribed land, limiting their ability to live in their traditional ways. They were not allowed to use their Wabanake language in public or in the government-run schools. Even today, the indigenous people who make a living by catching fish which they sell to others often cannot afford to eat it themselves.
Corey was able to make the connection between what his people have suffered and what other groups all around the world are going through currently. This resonated with the campers listening to him.
Corey is now a lawyer in Maine who represents indigenous people all across the United States. Two years ago, he was given a well-deserved award by the Holocaust and Human Rights Center at the University of Maine. In attendance at the award ceremony were 25 members of Seeds of Peace!
On Fridays, we hold religious services for both Muslims and Jewish campers and staff. These services are open to all who wish to observe them. Most people are not familiar with the religious practices of people in other religious groups.
The weather in Maine varies by the hour. It can be sunny and warm in the morning and cold and rainy in the afternoon. So, to prepare for this, we have a musical weather prediction presented by some of the staff at the morning lineup. We call this report the WAM!, the “weather appreciation moment.”
Poetry | July 12
One of the special activities, created by counselors, is poetry writing. The counselor who created the activity is Matt, a Seed who has personal experience with the life-changing impact of poetry. A small group of campers offered to read out loud the poems they had written this past week. Amazingly, they all chose to reflect on the deep loss of a parent, through indifference, substance abuse, or early death.
As each one recited their poem, you could feel their strength build as they spoke. Following this recitation, the counselor who taught Matt, as a camper, about poetry, was gleaming with pride. It was a full-circle Seeds of Peace moment.
Tomorrow, the campers are having a day off from dialogue. This is a planned break which happens once a week. It is a good time for the delegations to meet in their separate groups and allow all the campers an opportunity to call their families.
Last night was one of our traditional all-Camp activities we call the Trash Bag Fashion Show Contest. The campers were divided into six groups. Each group was given time to fashion two costumes out of trash bags and other materials, such as ribbons and aluminum foil. A panel of judges decided which groups won the contest. The backbone of this activity is working cooperatively toward a shared goal. The planning and humor they share help the campers see one another as partners. This makes future cooperative activities more likely to succeed.
The weather report in Maine is a lot like the ones in London: foggy, damp, and cool. Perhaps the sun will return tomorrow.