AaPPLE Camp in Chemal

After beautiful Mongolia we were looking forward to our second Workaway experience after leaving Brisbane. A few months ago we were contacted by lovely Polina, a member of the AaPPLE language school team in Barnaul who invited us to take part in one of their youth camps in Chemal and we couldn’t resist.
The camp took place in a sports hotel with amazing facilities right next to the breathtaking Katun river. We were greeted by 100 enthusiastic kids and just as enthusiastic staff. Frankly, after weeks of solitude it was a bit overwhelming at first but this feeling subsided as soon as the fun activities with the kids started!
Sports, singing, dancing, English classes, arts and crafts, you name it! A full schedule from 10am to 11:00pm kept both kids and ourselves busy. We even got the chance to give a presentation about Australia and teach English and German to the (mostly) super well behaved and interested kids.
In addition to getting to know the main staff we also feel very lucky to have met the other volunteers from around the globe (Columbia, Belgium, France, Spain, Ireland, Egypt and Indonesia). It was great to exchange experiences over breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner and second dinner 😁 (Despite of my love for cooking, I (Jo) was super happy not to have to think about food for a while. I even got vegetarian meals (fish is considered vegetarian). The only thing i couldn’t get used to was the dollop of butter on our morning porridge...)! What an inspiring bunch of Globetrotters.
However, the stars of the show were the kids. Literally and figuratively. The first day without any introduction 12 year old Leonid approached me to ask who I was and where I’m from in perfect English! Thinking back to 12 old me, I neither would have had the courage nor the language skills. We got to spend time with an amazingly bright and extroverted group of 7 to 17 year olds, learn about their regular routine, play fun games, exchange language skills and move much more than during our driving days.
These 8 days ended up being a very rewarding and super fun experience we’ll never forget.

Thanks AaPPLE camp for the opportunity!
(Tom)Read more