VIAȚA, week one.

Well readers, it's high time that Kelly wasn't the only one posting here. I've had a very full month, and I want to let you know how my work has been going.

I've been the newbie at camp. VIATA has been going since 1999, and the director, Ilie Popescu, has been involved, in various positions, since 2000. And he's really good at his job. He oversees and maintains the ropes course, figures out camp finances, extends grace to camp leaders, tells leaders to grow up, is mean when he has to be, is soft and gentle when he has to be, and is a great dad and husband. To work with him is a joy.

Valters Melderis is the other assistant director, more in charge of programming and on-the-ground fun things. He leads large group games, plays with fire, performs in most of the ridiculous skits, provides inter-personal advice, makes people laugh, and provides a small word of caution to Ilie. He's from Latvia, lives in Bucharest, and is planning on this summer being his last at VIATA.

I am the American assistant director. I am the "mom" to American interns here for the summer, "mom" for the camp storage room (I organize the place, hand things out, and demand their return), put participants into groups, and keep track of meals and accommodation for our participants during the week. Also, wonderfully, Ilie has been training me in ropes course set-up and maintenance, so I get to be high up in the trees three days a week on Romania's first ropes course.

Our first week went from June 30-July 5. I was so nervous about all my responsibilities that I didn't want to get out of bed and go up the mountain on Sunday. Fortunately, I had no say in that matter. Ilie picked me up at 10 (after eating pancakes with Kelly!), and we started our preparations for the week. When we got up to the FNO cabana, we learned that the coil on our water heater had melted, so there was no hot water for us and it was 45 and rainy on the mountain. The bus bearing the kids rolled in around 8:30pm (they usually arrive around 2 or 3), and we greeted them with cheers and smiles. They were mostly from a poor community around Cluj, and as such were used to warmer weather in June and hadn't brought a whole lot of clothes anyways. They were almost silent at dinner, and seemed to not really understand the camp rules presentation (we learned the next day that very few of them could read). Everyone went to bed early, and hoped that Monday would go well.

When we woke up and it was just as cold and cloudy, we decided that taking our poorly-clad group to the ropes course wouldn't be a good idea. The course is about 2.5 km from the cabanas (very uphill for half the way), and there's a lot of wind and little sun in the woods. The groups decided to play games and hike and do other things around the cabana. By 4pm, the kids wouldn't circle up for any more games or listen to any more order from the leaders, so we got some balls and hula hoops out and played with them until dinner at 7. A few of the leaders were disappointed that their teambuilding games hadn't been enough to capture the kids' attention, but as we watched them play with balls, we noticed other barriers. The younger kids (8-10) were happy to play together or snuggle for warmth on their leaders' laps, but the older kids (10-14) would either play with their own ball or hula hoop or go around and try to take them from those who were playing. It seemed that we never had quite enough balls to satisfy their individual desires, and the constant comment to me was, "Hey! He took my ball!" Every time I asked, "Why don't you play together?" a small back would turn to me and I would hear, "No!" How could we play teambuilding games (in many ways, the basis of what VIATA is all about) with kids who wouldn't even share a ball with each other? Ilie had said beforehand that our goal with these kids was to give them a really good week of life with good memories and a lot of love, because it seemed like they wouldn't be too receptive to ideas like social capital and societal change. We were prepared to mainly try to show them some love, but it was really hard to watch their own love for each other be so conditional and temporary.

The next two days, we went to the ropes course and had, for the most part, a really good time. The younger kids were very brave and responsible with the high elements they got to do, albeit forgetful of safety rules at times. The older kids had a hard time taking things seriously, but they had their moments when they were totally invested in getting everyone across a cable without touching the ground. At every free moment, the kids begged for balls, and we indulged them. They just had to play and it was good to spend that fun, though somewhat nerve-wracking time with them.

On Thursday, we realized that many of the fights over balls revolved around a red and a yellow ball, and who was in control of either. We decided to not bring those ones out anymore, which caused a lot of whining and pleading and standing in the corner with arms crossed. After almost non-stop asking, we decided to bring out only the yellow ball and the hula hoops, and we said they would either have to play together or do something else. Wonderfully, it worked, and the boy who usually bullied the others led them in passing the ball to each other. The hope that I had been holding for them all week had become apparent, even if just for 15 minutes before dinner.

On Friday, as everyone was leaving, no one cried, but many of the kids asked, "Are you coming back with us?" or shared how sorry they were that they had to leave. Even the ones who had said awful things about the camp leaders or had fought every decision to do something that week were obviously sad to leave. We had done our job, and loved those kids well in ways that mattered to them. Few of the carefully crafted teambuilding games worked like we thought, and I doubt anyone mentioned social capital, but something important happened to a bunch of underprivileged kids, and we had the privilege of being a big part of that week of their lives. We left that week feeling more confident as a team, knowing more of our own weaknesses, and remembering that there's hope even for the ones who seem the most twisted and lost from the goodness that we want to share with everyone that comes to VIATA.