LightForce International is a camp ground run by George. A British man who is known for his firm but fair standards. When ever there is a church group, or organization that needs a place to hold a camp they come to George. The camp ground is in a BEAUTIFUL location. We have a view of the mountains in one direction and the beach (Adriatic Sea) is just a three mile walk in the opposite direction. The camp has a pool, an obstacle course, small soccer field, volleyball/basketball court, a climbing wall, and archery field. All surrounded by a wall to keep its visitors safe. We even have some farm friends here at the camp. George has done what he can to make the camp self sustaining. One way of doing that is by having pigs and sheep that bring in a profit, as well as the camps that come.
This month our entire squad is together at the camp to help how ever we can. We are split up into several different teams to make sure that everything is done. This past week we helped host a camp; Outdoor Ambassadors. It was about 80 kids and 15 Peace Corps members. The camp was put on by the Peace Corps and the idea behind it was to encourage the teens to make environmentally conscious choices. They are writing songs about recycling, doing trivia about good environmental choices and many other things. So what was our role in all of this, and what will our roles be for the future camps?
We have our security team, they are responsible for guarding the front gate. They get to make sure the kids don’t try to sneak out of the gate when they aren’t suppose to. They also get to patrol the rest of the area to make sure that the kids don’t go any where on the camp grounds they shouldn’t be
We have our farm girls. This is the lovely crew that gets to work with the animals. Mainly the pigs and chickens. The pig farm is directly located right behind where we sleep, many times we wake up in the morning to the not so lovely smell of the pigs. The girls get to clean out the pig pens, feed them, collect eggs from the chicken coup, help mix the food for the animals, and whatever else is asked of them.
We have our activities team. This is where you will find me. We are a large group and we have several different jobs. We life guard the pool, assist in the game room with multiple table games, we run soccer and volleyball games, teach archery, and help with the rock climbing wall. It has been so fun to get to encourage the campers to try new things and see their joy when they make it to the top of the rock climbing wall when they didn’t think they could.
We have our grounds keepers. This is an area where we get to fill in when our other teams don’t need us. It includes weeding, sweeping the outside area’s, a little painting, some mowing, being “human weed wackers” to help pull everything around the edges the lawn mower didn’t get and once again anything else that George comes up with for us to do.
We have the kitchen staff. These are the people that keep the campers and us fed. They have peeled DOZENS of potatoes this week, washed more cups than they probably thought they ever would, set tables, cleaned up and kept our bellies full.
We have our medical team. The main two members are the two girls on our squad that are nurses. They get to be there to put band aids or bandages on when the campers get blisters, or cuts. The rest of the team is made of us those of us who have first aid/CPR experience and we are on standby ready to respond if an emergency arises.
This next week we will be helping host a three day Family Camp for a Baptist Church and we will get to dive into our jobs again tomorrow morning!
