Thursday, 11 July, Z CAMP 2019
Today we had a change in morning activities to the usual routine because of a change in the weather. Instead of going to the beach and swimming in the sea, the Z-campers had the opportunity to swim in the hotel pool, which many of them had not previously done. Staying on hotel campus also meant we could use the hotel football field and play team games, most of which were new to the campers, including British bulldog, the Octopus game, and Fruit salad. Everyone had a lot of fun, and we were all glad for the change in plans.
For the day: English classes and Sports
In the afternoon, after music oriented English lessons, the Z-campers had afternoon sports activities which they had signed up for. My colleague Owain and I ran football at the stadium in Tsarevo, and enjoyed a very successful training session, where the football campers first worked on passing and controlling drills and taking throw-ins, before moving onto dribbling and defending drills, and finally five-a-side games at the end, which everyone enjoyed and the campers agreed were ideal team sizes for the playing fields we set out.
For the evening Talent Show
Last but certainly not least, after dinner we had our evening activity and the highlight of the day: the Z-camp talent show. Over the last two days we (the staff members) had told the campers about the talent show, and asked them to prepare something for it, be it a dance, a song played on the guitar or sung by a group, a poem or a drawing to present - anything at all. The performances we got were amazing, and the talent show ended up being something truly special. Some of the campers came to the camp already having special talents to present, but many didn’t, and in staying at the camp they were able to discover these new talents, interests and passions that they did not know they had previously. For example, we had some campers who had not picked up a guitar before when they first arrived on site, but when it came to the talent show they were able to play a song in front of all their peers, and almost every camper sang one of the two most popular songs at the camp this year: ‘Yellow Submarine’ by the Beatles, and ‘Old Town Road’ by Lil Nas X.
