The workshops

Hi everybody this is Rand!! At GYV, there are something similar to classes – workshops, and electives. Three of the workshops are Peace Building, Green Your World and Global Issues. Peace Building is mandatory, but you can choose between Green Your World and Global Issues. I chose Global Issues.

In Global Issues, I am learning a lot of important things about the world and the problems that many countries have and how to solve them. In my opinion, it is very important to know more about the world that you live in and during the class we go as two groups to discuss the problems and everyone gives their opinion. I learned more about the organization “UNESCO”, and its job. I also learned that 10% of war adds to worldwide hunger. After that, we have the peace building class, there we can learn about every student’s culture and we play games together, games that allow us to get to know each other more, and that give us the chance to feel comfortable sharing and voicing our opinions.

Theater Games/Cabin Night Meeting

 

Wuz good every1 its ya boy Farhad again…How’s it goin’? Anyways, the second night of GYV was Folktale Night; all of the participants were assembled into groups and each performed various selective random folktale. As a warm up, Matt had all the groups play a game of charades. Eh…it was a tad bit unfair that they were the same cards over and over again though haha…

but they were still enjoyable. Just to name a few of the folktales, they were:

 

The Stubborn Turnip

The Silent Couple

The Fisherman and his Wife

The Lamb with the Golden Fleece

The Three Blind Men & the Elephant

 

Yep, that night revealed some hidden great acting from the participants…Everyone did great, but I remember Humam as the first act, did great work as the man who didn’t want to deal with his annoying neighbors –

 

HILARIOUS!

 

That same night, I dunno bout the girls but I know the boys had cabin meetings and played the question game (everyone writes down a question on a piece of paper, then put into a bowl, then whoever pulls it out has to answer but if anyone else wants to answer they can too). Some of the questions were silly, like “Can we go shopping together sometime?” When Tarek pulled that one out he reminded all of us that the Legacy Store will be open from 3:30PM to 4 each day of the week from then on and the participants were welcome to shop with him there. Another question that was pulled out was “What is your favorite quote?”

 

 

 

Tarek replied with “Actually one of my favorite quotes are posted on the wall – ‘Every man dies. But not every man truly lives…”

 

At first I tried to comprehend the quote, but I did catch on why Tarek liked it. By the way, our Heiwa cabin is pretty damn popular!!

what we learned today…

- men in Iraq greet each other by shaking hands and kiss on the cheek

- “thank you” in Arabic is “shukran”

- how to play air hockey

- that even though we come from different parts of the world, we still value the same traits

Arriving at GYV

My name is Rand. I am Iraqi student and this is the first time for me here at the camp. I was so excited to come here. I arrived to the camp on Saturday, the way to the camp was very long because I came from  Florida. The way from the airport to the camp was about 2 hours by bus, and all the way I was thinking of the students there. I was very afraid because I haven’t done things like these before. So, when we arrived here I was surprised because all the students and the staff were waiting for us. They welcomed us very nicely, we went directly to have dinner, we sat together all the cabins, we began to talk and make friends from the first minute. Then we went to the stage, we payed games and then we went to our cabins where we sat to play games and know more about each other. 

The dining experience at GYV

What it is? I’m Fatima Abdul-Haqq here at the Global Youth Village and I’d just like to express my admiration to everyone of the Chef’s over in the Dining Hall. The food is absolutely AMAZING. So some of the campers might have been thinking things like, “Ok so the food is going to be like school food. Liquidated and micro heated.”  But if you take a step into the place you’d realize that your first thought was totally wrong. A wave of aroma crashes you to the floor as you yell, “YES! FINALLY! FOOD!”. But of course after climbing the 50-foot hill it takes you to get there. ANYTHING tastes fine. 

 

All of the food served at the Global Youth Village is prepared fresh right before you arrive. Halal consumers and vegetarians don’t even worry because everything is VEGETARIAN! Wait, now you’re thinking, “ugh there’s only vegetables?” Don’t be so silly! The recipes consist of eggs, pancakes, falafel, bread, beans, rice, there’s a huge variety at each meal, so don’t limit yourself carnivores!

 

Before eating at the dining hall there is a special tradition called “A moment of silence”. A volunteer comes up to the front and asks everyone for a moment of silence, after about 5 seconds the volunteer will say “thank you” in a different language. So by the end of the day everyone would have learned the word thank you in three different languages.

 

Sports at GYV

What’s poppin’ everybody this is Farhad, the Bengali fella! So I’m gonna tell you a little bit about the latest at Global Youth Village. Particularly, yesterday, many sports were played amongst the Iraqi youths and the American youths as well some of the staff whom joined in to play as well. The Global Youth Village is structured as a valley with two hills to climb. Most of the cabins are over the second hill. And at the very top of the hill, there is a soccer field. Beside it, there is a giant tent where meetings are held, in front of that there is a volleyball court, and on the side a ping-pong table.

 

Yesterday, there was a HUGE game of soccer-sorry, football, for those of you who like me feel that’s the sports true name. So anyways, there was a superb game played yesterday, with over 50 people participating. The game was mostly staff vs. participants. Guess who won!!! Just ask Abdullah, when I asked him he said

 

“Farhad, of course we won!”

 

There was also a great and energetic game of volleyball, and the swim test for the participants was yesterday. It’s great that almost everyone passed – even me, which surprised me because I don’t even know how to swim. From this week on the elective for sports is hosted by Tarek and G.