I recently returned from my first work camp, it was held in the lovely city of Oulainen. But first things first, what exactly is a work camp? I will just put some video links here so you can get the general idea. : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPxxlb3zBFI&index=6&list=PLJCO4UALNgycmAtP7MLZdpwjEP-lwS9CXn
I had the luck to be a camp leader to 19 teenagers from all over Europe, from the following countries : Finland, Italy, Germany, Denmark, France, Turkey,Russia. The camp took place in a small city named Oulainen 100 km from Oulu, the purpose of this camp was to prepare the festival named WeteraanimoottorikerhoWanhaWoima (http://www.wanhawoima.fi/). We cleaned the space there, prepared the grills, the tables, chairs, tents and divided the tasks so that everyone will know what to do during the three days festival. It was hard work but building up the team spirit we made it and had lot’s of fun in the process. After work every day we had activities including : swamp football (!!!) that was created in Finland, Olympic games, relaxing time and games at the nuorisotalo (youth house), a day at the Amusement Park, fishing and barbecuing by the lake, visiting the famous Kalajoki beach.
During the three days festival around 20000 people attended, I worked at the main coffee place making and selling coffee, selling other beverages, sweets, ice creams etc, this gave me the opportunity to practice my Finnish language skills and my customer services. We were dressed with traditional Finnish outfits which was quite interesting 🙂 Also I had the opportunity to visit the festival and see the old machines and car and the different events that took place, it was so intriguing to see this kind of events.
Oulainen is a beautiful small city with 8000 residents , it has a beautiful river and the time I spent there will be unforgettable, I interacted with teenagers and we got along so well, also with the other camp leaders we had so much fun and new friendships were created, I would definitely go back one day to visit and who knows ?maybe next year I can go again as a camp leader 🙂 The bonding that we all had and the tears of goodbye on the last day will laways have a special place in my heart….