I have a turtle!

We spent last week doing an English Camp in a village called Duden. Meeting the children and families in Duden was an amazing experience! We went to the village each day for 2-3 hours. The first day when we arrived there were about 12 kids who joined in the lesson. By the end of the week, the Camp had grown to include 20 kids and some adults!

Tyler played soccer with the young men. They set up a court in the road and marked goal posts with stones. One day we learned about body parts and he led the group in singing songs such as "Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes," and the Hokey Pokey!

I played Hopscotch, volleyball, and frisbee with the girls. We used sidewalk chalk to trace outlines of each other on the road. One day I taught the lesson on animals. We learned to say "I have a cat, I have a dog." On that day a 12 year-old girl brought her turtle to the Camp for show-and-tell. She stood up and said, "I have a turtle," and indeed she did, there was the evidence to prove it!

Many families in this particular village have migrated from Eastern Turkey. Some of the families are Kurdish and others are Roma people (commonly referred to as Gypsies). Some of the children appeared malnourished. All of them were so grateful that we came. Each night as we left they followed our van out of their neighborhood. On our final day with them, they asked for our Facebook names and one of the girls looked at me and said, "I love you, Meg." I cannot remember when I have been as touched as I was in that moment.