Relay Races/Team Building/Icebreakers

Icebreaker Activities:

In a circle…

Introductions and Favorite Things:

In a circle, each person stands, states their name, age, hometown, and three things they like (nature, ice cream, tennis).

Pass the ball/hula hoops

Stand, hold hands, introduce a ball or hula hoop to be passed around the circle without hands letting go. Add another ball the other direction.

Run to the center if…

A leader reads phrases (you have brown eyes/you like Fanta better than Coca Cola, etc.). If it’s true, participants run to the center. They return to the circle for the next phrase.

Birthday Lineup

Participants line up according to birthdays. Leader points out January and December, then lets the participants figure it out.

Molecules

This game was new to me and was my favorite Icebreaker from the camp. It begins with the leader calling out a number, for example “4,” and everyone forms groups with 4 people. The number should divide the group evenly to begin. Once groups are formed, the leader calls out: “Molecules, molecules, now we’re in groups of 7.” Everyone must run around and find people to make their group 7. Whoever doesn’t find a group in time, is out. The game continues until there are just a few people left. It is an excellent icebreaker and requires no materials. 

Teambuilding Games:

Square Puzzle

Needed: 2 pieces of construction paper/team

I made these puzzles by cutting construction paper into large squares, then cutting the squares into 10 pieces. Each member of the team was given at least one piece and the team worked together to fit the pieces back into a square shape. This worked very well.

Trolley Walk with Ropes only

Needed: 2 long pieces of rope/team

Because we didn’t have the long boards typically used in team building retreats for the trolley walk, I thought that just tying the kids legs together with rope would work. It sort of did except for when the first person on a team took off at full speed and nearly took off the legs of their teammates. Using only ropes would be fine, but the method of tying the legs together needs to be such that the rope won’t tighten on their ankles if pulled.

Lift the Bucket

Needed: 1 bucket filled with water/team

The idea is that the teams lift the bucket with their feet together—their hands must stay on the ground—and the team that can hold their bucket in the air the longest wins. In practice, this activity was much more tortuous than anticipated. I’d modify this activity by adding different instructions “lift, move as a group to the left, set down, lift;” adding more water; and placing the emphasis on spilling not endurance.

Straw Tower

Needed: 1 pack of straws/team, 1 roll of tape/team

Teams have 10 minutes to build a tower from the straws and tape as high as possible. When time is called, the team must not touch the towers. 30 seconds are called out. The highest tower that stays standing for at least 30 seconds wins. This worked very well.

Relay Races:

Balloon Pop

Lots of balloons, supplies for whatever is written on the instructions. We used 1 apple, 1 spoon, 1 coin, 1 bucket, and 10 balloons per team.

Way more complicated than necessary. Children raced to the bucket, popped a balloon, and followed instructions written on a slip of paper inside. There were 5 variations: walk on your hands and feet like a crab, hop on one foot, spin 5 times and sing the alphabet, balance a coin on your nose, and balance an apple on a spoon. It would have been easier to just choose one of these tasks and have a traditional race, the different instructions made it difficult to monitor and confused the smaller children.

Sponge Race

Needed: 1 bucket/team, 1 sponge/team; 1 “fill” bucket of water

This was super easy and worked very well. Each team was given a sponge and a bucket. At the opposite end of the field was a bucket with water. Like a traditional relay race, team members took turns racing to the fill bucket, filling their sponge with water, racing back and squeezing into their teams bucket. The game ends when there is no more water in the fill bucket. The team bucket with the most water wins.






Useful Websites: 
Herb identification in Bulgaria
Fire Safety for kids in Bulgarian
Games and activities for kids in Bulgarian

Camp Forest Kingdom III

Hiking to the camp

The summer camp in Chiprovtsi--the big project I've been working on with colleagues this summer--was great! 43 children, 5 PCVs, and 10 adults from the local community participated in the camp.

The Day Before…

T. and I went shopping in Sofia for last minute supplies the day before the camp while N. managed the set up of tents and tables at Pilatovets (the name of the camp area). Everything pictured in the garage (2 grills, 39 sleeping bags, sleeping mats, 50 t-shirts, etc.) we managed to fit in a 5 person Skoda…along with three people wearing seatbelts. It was impressive.

Aerial View from Tower

After unloading supplies, I met Neysa, Ben, Amy, and Joe at the bus stop. We made tofu pad thai and salad. It was great to have them here to help with the camp. Though there were lots of local volunteers and colleagues, they helped keep me not crazy. 

At 7 am, we headed to the Municipality to load the laska for its first trip to the camp site. Neysa and Joe stayed up at the top to help unload baggage and assemble the grills. Ben, Amy, and I hiked up with the 43 kids  and two colleagues. The rest of my colleagues and local volunteers were already at the camp. For breaks, we stopped to hang the new signs for the camp.

The kids were divided into 5 teams, each with a leader and assistant leader. Different colored bracelets identified teams. Leaders were chosen from participants in the 3-day leadership camp during the first week of August. In theory, leaders were responsible for keeping track of their teams, especially when it was their turn to serve a meal or gather everyone for a hike.  

After lunch, the teams competed in relay races. We tried to balance traditional relay races with ones geared for teambuilding. Different icebreakers, teambuilding, and relay race activities we used are here.

Narodna Topka, Jump Rope, Tug of war, and Frisbee Drunken Carrot worked best for free time games. So did French braiding, yoga, and variations on Charades. This website as a lot of play-acting games and other group activities for kids in Bulgarian:

Sessions on emergency first aid and camp fire safety were also held on the first day. Here is a link for fire safety in Bulgarian. 

After dinner, we made s’mores, assembly line style with the kids. Yulka, the chef of the camp, taught the kids folk songs and traditional games. At the end of the night, Ben brought out his guitar and sang. It was a very long, but lovely first day.

Hike to Gushovski Monastery. The kids took turns with 3 binoculars and I'd prepared a nature scavenger hunt (the one we used at Matt and Grant's camp in Belasitsa) and mountain herb identification cards. We didn't get to the scavenger hunt, but the herb identification activity worked well. 

The nurse who came on the hike turned out to be something of an expert on the plants and herbs in the Balkan mountains. She helped us find examples of pretty much everything in bloom. I used this website to find some of the common mountain herbs in Bulgaria and information on when they're in bloom, how to find them, and what to use them for. 

Seeing what we found on the herb list. The yellow flowers in the foreground are St. John's Wort. We also gathered Stinging Nettle, Wild Thyme,  Chicory, Coltsfoot, Yarrow, Blackberries, and some I can't translate. 

Other activities: Viktorina: 15 questions about Bulgaria—geography, history, etc.—with small prizes for the first correct answer. Swim in the river. Yoga using sleeping mats as yoga mats. This turned out to be way more popular than I'd expected. 

Treasure Hunt: Ben made 5 maps leading to the treasure. We hid them early in the morning. We had them staggered on opposite ends of the camp so with each map they had to run to the opposite end of the site. It worked okay except that the sheep dogs were out and some of the maps were hidden a little ways from camp. We ran ahead to make sure there weren’t any problems. There weren’t. 

The treasure was hidden at the end of the rock wall on the far end of camp. The rock wall is part of 2nd/3rd century ruins that are around the camp from Roman times. Hence the name: Children’s Forest Kingdom.

Campers with certificates

The mayor of the municipality handed out certificates to the kids and the local press took pictures and video. After lunch we hiked back to Chiprovtsi.

On the community forum, Tsveti posted some great pictures from day 2. I used a few in these posts. Here's the link to the  website. 

Website now на български

Budzludza

I was at a restaurant with other volunteers during MSC, when Neysa comes over and tells me she just met a British woman in the bathroom who will take us to the spaceship on Friday. I nearly fell over laughing. I’ve heard some strange things, but this was an easy top 5. The spaceship she was referring to is actually Buzludzha, an old communist meeting place off the Shipka pass. 


Sitting above tree line on a peak (4,728 ft) in the middle of a nature reserve and shaped like a flying saucer with an unconnected tower, Buzludzha resembles a spaceship. It is not open for visitors, but is also not fenced in nor are there signs forbidding entry. This website has history of the building and more pictures.

Construction of Buzludzha was completed in 1981. It was unveiled on the 1300th anniversary of the creation of the first Bulgarian state. 90 years after the secret meeting that started organized socialist movement in Bulgaria was held on the mountain.

After our last MSC breakfast, we met the British woman and her husband under the clock tower in Tryavna. Buzludzha is about an hour’s drive away. We didn’t realize a road leads directly to it and parked in a turn-off beneath a large monument down the mountain. Then hiked the steep stone path up the mountain.


When we reached the building, there was a herd of horses, blocking the main entrance. We walked around looking for another way in. Not finding one, we returned to the building’s front and tried to think of ways to make the horses move.

Very large herd of horses. The graffiti above the door reads "FORGET YOUR PAST."

We’d been staring and making noises at the horses for about 20 minutes when a car drove up. A young Bulgarian couple with their dog got out. The man had been inside before and told us the entrance was actually through a dark creepy room on one side we’d passed by. He must have though us quite a site, sweating from our hike up the mountain, attempting to move a 40 wild horses from a locked door by clapping and whistling, stumbling back whenever one of the horses turned too look at us. We followed them through a dark room with metal door that had been bent backwards leaving just enough space for a person to climb through.

The passageway we stepped down into led to the downstairs hall of Buzludzha. Red felt hung sporadically from the walls and broken concrete was everywhere. 

Despite being in a pretty sorry state of destruction, the acoustics of the room were perfect. Standing in the middle, you could feel your voice reverberate around the room when speaking.

 The ceiling reads: “Proletariat of every country, unite!”

 The windows are blown out and the exterior murals destroyed.

The interior walls are also covered with murals, many of which have been destroyed. The face of Todor Zhivkov, the communist leader in Bulgaria for 35 year's, has been completely removed in the one below. 

What it used to look like: 

I took the pictures of the old Buzludzha from www.Budludja.com.

Mid Service Conference

After our 4^th of July activities, Charity and I travelled to Tryavna for our Mid-Service Conference. It is the first time since November the entire group of volunteers that arrived and trained with me have been together. It is also the last time we will meet before our Close of Service Conference next year. Strange to think that my time in Bulgaria is already more than halfway over.

Tryavna is a beautiful town in the mountains of central Bulgaria. With a population of about 9,000, it has quite a few restaurants and guest houses. All the food I had was amazing. The town center looks like a postcard and the hotel we stayed at was huge. Even with 80 of us, we hardly filled half of the dining room.

A lot of the conference was spent discussing abstract topics related to our service (usually we spend more time talking about current projects and challenges). I liked the change of themes. It’s easy to get caught up in action plans and deadlines and, after more than year, sessions on what it means to be a volunteer and integrity were helpful to renew a sense of purpose.

Some volunteers also presented legacy projects, like the tourism database we began in April. One of the projects that really impressed me was ‘Camp in a Box.’ Camp in a Box will be a resource for Bulgarians who want to plan camps. It will include day and sleep away varieties with environmental and arts/crafts activities. Each activity/camp will have step-by-step instructions, time estimations, budgets, etc. It will be divided by age groups and translated into Bulgarian. Each volunteer who contributes one or more activity for its creation will receive a copy for their host organization.

The last night of MSC was a talent show and karaoke. Many of the volunteers participated in various songs/dances. Even I sang and played a musical instrument (at the same time!). For anyone who knows me well, this is quite impressive. Granted it was just a maracas and a few lyrics during an ensemble performance of the awful song “Friday,” but still… The show stealer was our staff, which flawlessly rapped an original song. 

Independence Day: Volunteer Assistance

The next day, I took a bus across the country to meet a PCV on the coast. The weather here has been crazy lately-going from proper summer to winter-ish overnight When I arrived for my first view of the Black Sea in Bulgaria, it was FREEZING, super windy, and pouring rain.

C, my friend from training, lives in the far southeast of country, just a few kilometers from the Turkish border. We had dinner in Burgas before the hour ride to her town. It was my first time visiting her site—we live about as far apart as is possible. She works in a culture center in a small border town.  

For the 4^th, she had planned American games and trivia with local youth (I brought patriotic beach balls and paddleballs for prizes—thanks Mom) and a women’s group meeting. Although the rules of capture the flag were never quite followed and we ended up playing Bulgarian dodge ball for last hour, the kids seemed to enjoy it and it was nice to see her community. 

Fireworks for the Fourth on the Second

To celebrate, I met some other volunteers for the AmCham Independence Day Party on July 2nd. Held at the American University in Sofia, ticket price included drinks, concert admission, and random free things, like kites. There was tons of food, way more than anyone could ever eat in a day. For example: from McDonald’s each person received a muffin, a coffee, a cheeseburger, fries, chicken nuggets, and a salad—and that was only one vendor. Jack Daniel’s Whiskey sponsored a BBQ contest emceed by a Bulgarian TV chef, Uti Bachavrov, who let us try amazing grilled eggplant pizzas afterwards. There were also kiddie rides, raffles, Ronald McDonald, and fireworks.

Most of the attendees were Bulgarian families. I hope they don’t think Americans typically eat that much McDonald’s on holidays! There were only 4 of us PCVs who attended, but I’m glad I went. I was surprised by the nostalgia and patriotism I felt during the fireworks. I’ve never been that into fireworks or 4th of July celebrations, but after more than a year without being in the states, it was great way to celebrate. 

PCPP and other updates

Returned to site to some great news: 

PCPP project ‘Camp Forest Kingdom’ has been fully financed! 

Giant THANK YOU!!! to everyone who donated or thought good thoughts about donating! 

I’m also feeling good about my English and fitness classes. I'm still teaching beginner and advanced English groups for 90 minutes twice a week when I'm at site. Attendance is lower--summer is really nice here--but those coming are dedicated to learning. The beginner group asked for more homework and independent study to work on together between lessons. 

The fitness group, despite being relatively new, has some serious adherents. It quickly morphed from a pilates class to a more general fitness class, to include some cardio kickboxing and yoga as well. While I was on vacation, the ladies took turns leading the group with the notes and music I left behind. On Monday, they were ready for a new routine and psyched about their progress. They also told me we'd be meeting three days a week from here out! 

On a personal note, I was able to walk all over Italy with few ankle problems. The first two days in Rome I wore flip flops, this was not a good idea. But after I bought a pair of sneakers, everything was fine. Today, I went for my first run in six weeks. It was slow and short, but didn’t hurt. Success for Athens in November is still looking good. 

Божe, so much to do!

Returning to site feeling slightly overwhelmed with the amount of work that lay ahead. WiFi in Italy was never free and it was nice to have a break from the technology grip for a while. But my to do list now is pretty daunting. With Peace Corps mid-service conference next week, volunteer assistance at summer camps coming up, regular commitments at site, a tourism project, and the need for prep on grad school applications looming, it seems inevitable that the next few months will fly by in a flurry of sweaty train rides, laundry days, and desk time. 

Italia!

Spent the last week and a half on a whirlwind Italy tour with friends. More to come soon-ish. 


Summary: Sights were amazing, wine was excellent, people were beautiful, weather was perfect. 

Congrats to B27s!

The Peace Corps trainees took their official oath on June 10th, becoming to 27th group of Peace Corps Volunteers to serve in Bulgaria! 

Браво на тях!

Kiril and Emi with the three generations of PCVs they hosted.

Host families, current volunteers, and PC staff attended the swearing in ceremony for the 38 volunteers in the Vratsa Municipal building. It was much more enjoyable as an observer; at last year’s ceremony, the July heat, my nervousness towards going to site, and the goodbyes, made it seem like a sweaty, stressful blur.

Darik News Article

The night before the ceremony, I arrived in Kravoder (my host village) with Neysa and Charity. Volunteers from the group before me were also in the village, seeing their host families one last time before returning to the U.S. in a few weeks. This was the third year Kravoder served as a training village, and all three volunteers from my host family were present, as were host family friends and other volunteers. It was a great evening. Emi, my host mom, recently returned from abroad and it was the first time I’d seen her since Christmas. 

After the ceremony, I spent some time with other volunteers, purchased bomba fake raybans for about $7 USD, and had coffee with my host family aunt and uncle in Vratsa.

Pilates/Пилатес

Today I held my first pilates class for women and girls. I was super worried, of course, but it turned out wonderfully. I knew pretty much everyone that showed up and, although I'd practiced all the verbs ahead of time (I don't use "stretch, tighten, еtc. in their plural imperative forms real often...), I was also able to demonstrate and say "okay, like this." This is sooo much easier than explaining grammar or trying to come up with answers to questions like: how do you pronounce "the?" Does it rhyme with 'tea' or 'duh?'

Ever since I arrived at site, having a gym or fitness center for women has been brought up in conversations. Although this isn't quite the same as that, the school has a multi purpose room that is the perfect size for classes, and pilates, yoga, and kickboxing are pretty easy for me to teach. I've been wanting to have a women's fitness group for a while, but hadn't felt comfortable enough to start one until now. I'm glad I did, after class they asked about when we could meet again! We decided, from now on, Chiprovtsi will have a ladies fitness group every Monday and Thursday evening.

Mushroom Hunting

Hizha Yavor

This weekend I went with my friend to Hizha Yavor (Yavor means Sycamore in English). Her family is redoing the mountain ‘hut,’ which has been left unused for the last 10 or so years.  It was built in 1975 with a bar, two floors of sleeping rooms, eating area, bathrooms, kitchens, etc. And, Hizha Yavor has a great location—only a 15 minute walk from Gushovski Monastery, on the way to the Chiprovtsi Waterfall, accessible by two dirt roads, 6 km on foot from the Three Chuki (border peaks).

My friend, her husband, and her father worked all day- replacing glass, cleaning, hooking up water, etc. There is a lot left to do-someone has torn out all the wiring and the interior paint has some damage, but it’s very easy to imagine it functioning similar to the Hizha in Belasitsa. After they finished working for the day, J and I went in search of mushrooms. We spent a good 90 minutes wandering the forest, but only found one edible mushroom, a Manatarka (Boletus).

Comparing the boletus (in J.'s hand) with a non-edible mushroom.

We returned to the hizha, played some ping-pong, and hiked down to the car. On the way down, her husband briefly walked to the edge of the forest returning with a small bags worth of Boletus and Chanterelles. It’s unfortunate that I am such a bad mushroom hunter, but I am very happy to have friends that share. They tasted fantastic.

Boletus and Chanterelles

Kestini Magic

A few weeks ago I hurt my ankle while running. One of my friend’s mothers made this for me to spray on it and accelerate the healing. It’s made from the chestnut tree (kestini in Bulgarian), rakia, and I’m not sure what else. It smells good though and when I googled chestnuts/traditional medicine I found that they are used for a variety of things including increasing blood flow and decreasing swelling. They’re also used for enlarged prostates and hemorrhoids, but these aren’t relevant to me. 

Tourism Website

This is something I've been working on when I have extra time. It still needs more work and to be translated into Bulgarian. I have zero experience with webdesign and would love feedback/advice.

Visit Chiprovtsi

Sustainable Practices: Camp Forest Kingdom

The Peace Corps Partnership Program Project I've been working on with my colleagues is online! 


Camp Forest Kingdom, a three-day camp for 35-40 children ages 7-14 in the Balkan Mountains, encourages children to respect the environment and to use their imagination and creative arts for positive self-discovery. Organized by the municipality and community partners in 2009 and 2010, the camp is a highly anticipated local event. This project will ensure its sustainability for years to come and establish it as a regional leader in outdoor youth activities.

To remove dependency on external sources and raise the camp's environmental and safety standards, project funds will be used to acquire lasting equipment such as an outdoor kitchen and camp toilets. Between camps, the municipality will manage a transparent equipment rental system, using proceeds for camp improvements and scholarships.

Prior to this year's Camp Forest Kingdom, 5-10 older children will be selected to participate in a three-day leadership work camp. They will learn campsite construction and outdoor safety skills from local volunteers and gain hands-on experience marking trails, building a compost bin, and constructing an eco-friendly campsite. During Camp Forest Kingdom, youth leaders will set positive examples for younger children and share their knowledge with peers.

Camp Forest Kingdom is especially important to the community. The camp provides an affordable and safe environment for youth to interact with nature and build outdoor skills while strengthening their special connection with the mountains of their home.


Visit the Peace Corps website to get involved! 

1 year in Bulgaria!!

13 May 2010----13 May 2011

Pamukkale, Hieropolis, and Ephesus

After a flight to Izmir, we drove to Kusadasi, our base for visits to the ancient cities nearby.

Pamukkale and Hieropolis

The ancient city of Hieropolis and the natural mineral formations of Pamukkale, ‘cotton castle,’ are in the Denizli Province, about 3 hours from our hotel in Kusadasi. Created by hot springs that continue to fill warm pools on its surface, Pamukkale is a popular attraction for Russian and Polish tourists who believe its waters have healing and fortifying properties. They are not the first to believe this; it has been used as a spa since the 2nd century BC.

Hieropolis, an ancient city built next to the top of Pamukkale, was a Greek spa town turned into Roman city of a 100,000. Thousands of people visited for the medicinal properties of its hots springs; although, as the tour book I had wittily pointed out, the extensive walkway through sarcophagi makes one wonder how effective these waters were.

I wish these pictures could better show how huge Hieropolis was. The path through the ruins was several kilometers with very few people on them. Most of the tourists seemed more interested in soaking in the pools on Pamukkale and adding to their sunburns. 

Ephesus

Ephesus an ancient city during the Greek and Roman Empires had a population of 250, 000 people in the 1st century BC making it the world’s second biggest city at the time. The area around Ephesus was inhabited as early as 6000BC, but didn’t become a proper city until the Bronze Age.

 

After being attacked by the Goths in 263 AD, the city began declining though it wasn’t fully abandoned until the 15th century. Once a port city on the Aegean Sea, Ephesus now lies 5 kilometers from the coast. The river Küçük Menderes deposited tons of silt in the harbor each year. Despite efforts to dredge the harbor, even as far back as Roman times, the coast continued to retreat from Ephesus. Decline was further hastened by an earthquake in 614 and further attacks by Arabs in 654-655, 700, and 716 AD. 

Unlike Pamukkale, there were tons of tourists at Ephesus.

Ephesus played a big role in the early development of Christianity. The Apostle Paul lived there in the 50s and a house nearby is believed to have been where Mary lived until her death.  It also the site of the story of the Seven Sleepers, considered saints in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. The Seven Sleepers, a story also found in the Quran, describes a group of Christian youths who hid in an Ephesian cave to escape Roman persecution around 250 AD. While praying in the cave, they fell asleep, awaking 150-200 years later and finding Ephesus a Christian city. In the Quranic version, a dog accompanied them to the cave and kept watch while the slept.

House of the Virgin Mary

House of the Virgin Mary, 4 kilometers from the Ephesus ruins, is where people believe Jesus’ mother came to live with John. The Third Ecumenical Council and Second Council of Ephesus were held there in 431 and 449. Today, people write wishes on cloth or napkins and tie them to a prayer wall, light candles, and drink water from the three natural springs which are supposed to help with health, wealth, etc.

Peace and Friendship Square, Kusadasi