Breathe out

We have 1 week of training left!  Thank you, God.  Last week our group completed a small Community Project and a 3-day summer camp, which were the last major hurdles in our technical training.

The community project involved us organizing and running a sort of “fun and games” corner for kids attending a regional festival on “International Day for the Protection of Children’s Rights”.  We played some group games like water balloon volleyball, painted faces, and made friendship bracelets.  The kids loved all of it.

The summer camp was just a day camp at school for 20 or so 6th graders.  We snuck some lessons on leadership in between lots of fun activities and games.  The biggest lesson I learned is that kids love water balloons as much as I do.

Now what we are looking forward to this week is the dreaded LPI or Language Proficiency Interview, where we are supposed to get a rating of “Intermediate Mid” in Russian.  Word on the street, though, is that no one flunks out … you may just be required to get extra tutoring and have another interview in 6-months.

Then, as a special treat, I managed to be chosen to give part of a speech – in Russian – at our “Swearing In” ceremony in Kiev next week.  Just in case the precious little Russian I have drops into my stomach at the wrong time, I’m going for rote memorization.  Here’s hoping at least that can survive in front of a crowd.