Summer camp

Ten days to remember

From 9th to 19th July this year in Ohrid the summer camp for students from schools included in the programme Applied Education of Young Romas took place. The camp covered 76 students and 15 teachers from 15 primary schools.

On the terrace of hotel “Klimetica” on the coast of Ohrid Lake, the shiny children faces are looking at us curiously. Imperceptibly they move their heads to greet us, a small smile at the end of their mouths and they continue where they were going. To lunch. “We came here for one day, to see how it’s going on”, I hear my colleagues Nahida and Vlatko explaining to the teachers and representatives of civil organizations responsible for the implementation of the camp. “It’s good, good”, they answer, “and anyway you’ll see that yourselves, talk to the children, let them tell you about their impressions”.

The summer camp takes place for the fourth time. 80 students from 15 primary schools from 11 cities in Macedonia participate in the camp. It’s a reward for their effort during the school year, reward for their success and their interest to learn more.
 

The camp as a reward

 
“Do you know why you’re here”, I ask the young Omer Hasani from Skopje. “This is a reward for me because I studied well, I was good”, he answers in one breath. Omer finished fourth grade and this is the second time for him to go somewhere outside Skopje without mum and dad. “Once I was on an excursion and now this”, he explains. “I’m a good student at school, I finished the year with B. Next year I’ll be in fifth grade and I’ll have a lot of new teachers, but I’m not afraid, there’s nothing to be afraid of, I’ll study more and that’s it”. When you listen to Omer, it seems that everything is so simple and solvable. “Now I don’t want to go back”, confided Omer, “I like it here. I met a lot of children from different cities, the whole hotel is with my friends. I boasted to my family that I learned to swim”. While he’s eating his ice-cream the 10-year-old Omer is already making the plans for next year, “I’ll try to finish the year with B or to have better success in order to come to the camp again”, he says.

Also Fatos Useinova and Elzina Memedova from Delcevo are already sorry that the hanging out in the camp will come to an end. “Here everything is interesting”, they say. “We got to the camp with a lot of effort, with studying”, says Elzina, “we recommend to all children to study more, to try in order to have an opportunity to come to the camp and to have fun next summer.

The summer camp is not a reward only for the students from the Romany ethnic community. Also children from other ethnic communities from Macedonia participate in it. “It has never bothered me to have a Romany friend, they are also children like us”, says Marijana Atanasovska from Delcevo. “Among them there are better and worse at school, just like the other children. We should all be friends, regardless of the nationality”, she adds. Marijana thinks that she’ll leave the camp as a different person, “now I think in a different way, the camp took me to another direction”, she says, “better, more positive. Especially thanks to the lectures, I think that I'll be different when I go back home, better than before”.

During the camp there was the traditional Knowledge quiz
The quiz
 

During our one-day visit we had a possibility to see one of the regional quizzes. You have a feeling that you go back, to your school days. At the time when you answered the questions what is the biggest river in Africa, when the First World War finished, what is the sign for the chemical element silver and similar. The enthusiasm of the participants in the quiz, the encouragement of the audience in the hall, they simply put you in a “machine”, so you, as well, become a passionate fan of the competing teams. And they, the main actors, members of the competing teams, are seriously dedicated to their aim to win as many points as possible and to place in the next round of competitions.

For Sarije Uho, 15-year-old girl from Gostivar, the quiz was a first experience of that kind. “It was very interesting and it wasn’t difficult, it was great. We had help from the teachers during the preparations. We talked to them about everything that wasn’t clear”, she says. “It’s important for me to learn more than what we regularly learn at school. While I was preparing for the quiz, I learned a lot of new and interesting things”, adds Sardije.

The quiz is not a field where only students can show the knowledge. If you could see just for a moment the faces of their teachers, you’ll know what I’m saying. That competitive spirit is in everyone on that quiz. That whole energy directed towards new knowledge couldn’t have been used in a more positive way.

Dreams
 

At the short break between two parts of the quiz the presenter announced that at the party that was going to happen that night they will elect miss and mister of the camp. All the registered candidates will appear for the first time in front of the audience after the quiz.

Why should all those who have crossed the border of childhood have a need to make a comparison with “their time”? Of course I’m not immune to that. And what was the result of the comparison? The young candidates with their free performance thrilled me, as if they grew up on the catwalk. You get an impression they have just finished a course for models with A.

The representation was complete. Name and surname of the candidate, age (which grade is finished) and what they want to become when they grow up, i.e. what are their dreams.

On the improvised stage thirty shapely and well-dressed girls and boys paraded whose dreams became available to us in a moment. They were future dentists, lawyers, doctors, police officers, actors, singers…

“I want to be an actor”, self-confidently told me Omer, who was also a candidate for mister of the camp. “I know I should learn to be an actor. I want to be like Jet Lee, and to act like him in action movies.”.

Sardije doesn’t hide her pleasure that she did the first step to fulfill her dream. “Now I enrolled at medicine in Gostivar. Since I was a little girl I’ve wanted to be a doctor and this is a step to fulfill that wish”, says the future doctor. For Gultena Memedova the challenge is in the secondary police school. “I want to study for a policewoman as my cousin. He tells me about his job and it seems very interesting. I hope they will accept me next year when I finish eighth grade”, says Gultena.

You can listen to them talking for hours. They knit their dreams, cover you with their enthusiasm, and you have a feeling that you are filling your “batteries” with optimism, such as only children can give you. They deserve much more than what they have. They deserve adults who will support their optimism, who will support their dreams. They deserve conditions in which they will fulfill their dreams and will step towards their nicer and safer future.

 

“My name is Ramce, they call me Dzamce (little window). Why? Because I’m more naked than dressed, I live in a house or better a cottage made of carton, bricks and aluminum…

…I’ll tell you a secret, in the soil I buried a jar and I hide money in it. I want to collect a lot of money to buy a wheelchair for my sister…

…After eighth grade I really don’t know what I’ll do. I want to be a house painter and to paint everything white, so that I can be white. Sometimes I think that people don’t like me because I’m black. But what can I do about it, my grandma says that our God is black…

“…My name is Ramce, more correctly Dzamce. Through my little window I look at my future.”

(Extract from the awarded essay by Elena Nakova from Stip under the title: “What’s it like to be a Romany person at school, at home and in the society”)

Sakine Dzeladinovska
Pop-singer and participant in the camp in 2002

“I remember more things that are very dear to me. It was the summer when I finished the seventh grade. When my former pedagogue Valentina told me the news I was extremely happy because that was the first time to have that kind of experience to hang out with friends from the whole country about 90% of whom were from my nationality, i.e. Romas. I was waiting impatiently for that day, I had a presentiment that the summer will be quite interesting. The bus we were traveling with was full of children from the whole country. We didn’t need a lot of time to make the first contacts. We were accommodated in hotel Beton on the beach Slavija. I was in one room with Milena and Azra, my co-students from the primary school “Gjorgi Sugare”, who are my very close friends even today thanks to the camp. Every day was full with different kinds of activities. We were incited to understand that education is very important for our further life. We talked about how things are done in all cities with Romany population and I concluded that everyone is interested for the Romany people to go further ahead with regards to culture, education…

I liked this action a lot because I got closer with a lot of children with different characters, abilities, opinions and ideas. I met a very cute child, I remember his name was Fidan from Gostivar. I also remember that Azra learned how to swim with the help of the pedagogue Valentina, for whom I must say that is a remarkable person in who we didn’t see just a teacher, but our friend with whom you can talk on any subject.

Those ten days we were like one big family. We visited many important places in Ohrid: the monastery St. “Naum Ohridski”, the Samuil fortress and others about which we studied at history. They organized a fancy party for us, and on the dancing competition Azra won the first place. There wasn’t a singing competition, but I entertained them by singing for hours. They were all sure that one day I’d have a more serious musical experience.

I would really like this unforgettable experience to repeat once again.

Every student who has a wish to study will be rewarded not only with camping, but also life itself will reward his effort and wish. Education is the most important thing for me, I want to become an important person who will have something to be proud of in front of the public, because there is nothing more important than to move forward in life. I want everyone, especially my nation, which has some kind of increase in education lately, to have a clear aim and to follow their dream, not to be negative and not to become close with the vices of the present time, but to help all those who will ask for help and support in any way, because they will certainly feel much better and more pleasant.

Gonce Jakovleska