Camp Life

The camp is beautiful! It was begun in the 1950’s a few years after the war between Russian and Finland in 1939 just prior to World War II. This area used to be part of Finland until a treaty was signed with Russia giving this slice of land to the Russian’s.

The history is interesting. While exploring the camp, we were shown an old mansion owned by a former Russian General who escaped from Russian as Stalin was coming into power during the great purge of the Red Army in 1937. During that time up to 50% of the Army officers were executed including the vast majority of those with the highest rank. This General escaped this purge and built this huge home in what was then Finland. He was living a good life until the war between Russia and Finland. His home became part of Russia after the treaty and he was discovered and executed. The home was grand and it was a shame that it was in ruins 80 years later. However, it was interesting to explore!

The camp is near a couple of lakes, but it takes about 20 minutes to walk to them, so daily swimming was not part of the camp activities. The lakes are part of the national park system here and the camp property borders these public access areas. Other citizens from the community would come out on the weekends and build a campfire, cooks some “shasleek” (Shis-Kabob), and eat some watermelon that had been placed in the lake to cool.

The buildings around camp are mostly from the 1950’s and appear to have the architecture and styling from that era. We were housed in the main Administration Building on the second floor across from the infirmary. So we got to see many of the kids during the two sick calls every day. Other “cabins” that would hold two groups of kids composing of about 60 campers, were clapboard one story buildings with rooms that would hold 4-6 kids in bunk beds. They had bathrooms, but showers were in another building. This other building was a four story building that resembled some of the orphanage buildings I’ve been in before. Each floor has a sitting area in the middle and this is where we would meet groups and do our activities for the groups of kids in this building. The camp is surrounded by tall pine trees and sandy soil that would wick away any overnight rains.

The camp has a major athletic field with bleachers and areas for Volleyball and other games. It also has a smaller dirt soccer field near the center of camp with a wooden basketball court on one end that often would be used as a stage. Most of the camp could be accessed by one paved walkway that went from one end of camp to the other.

The cafeteria was in the middle of camp and we were schedule for when to show up for meals. Breakfast was at 9:30am, lunch at 2:30pm, and dinner at 7:30pm. We also had a snack time at 4:30pm. The meals were good, but by the end of camp we all were tired of eating buckwheat and rice! It was more of a pleasure follow the lead of the kids and pick berries in the forest and eat these! These berries red and black berries about the size of peas were sweet to eat!

The camp would also put on a Disco every other night at a pavilion near the main athletic field. They had a small stage, a portable sound system, and lively dancing every night. The kids have a LOT of energy! We watched the kids at the disco, but most of our trip participants and translators liked to play a card game called “Phase 10”. So, after a long day of activities, some still had the stamina to play cards until the sun went down. Of course, the sun doesn’t go down here until after midnight!