First Impressions (Were Impressive)

AYF Youth Corps 2016 participant, Haig Messerlian, with campers in Askeran, Artsakh.

BY HAIG MESSERLIAN

On Sunday night, Unger Varak Ghazarian volunteered to wake us up at 7:00am sharp the next morning. But he’s an overachiever and decided to wake up the entire floor of the building we were staying in. Our week of touring had come to an end, which meant our real work was just getting started. It was 8:24 in the morning when we arrived at Askeran’s secondary school. Nobody could have predicted what we were to experience on our first day, let alone the days to come. As soon as we stepped out of our van we were greeted with hugs, kisses, and vibrant smiles.

The first task was to arrange the registration table. There, the young boys and girls would say their names as well as parents’ phone numbers and would be assigned to a color group. By 9:30am, the registration tables were up and ready to go. We organized the children into their age groups in order for us to equally divide them into their color groups, red, blue and orange. There were kids ranging from ages eight to sixteen. Each color group was assigned to a classroom for the following two weeks. The campers were ecstatic and so were we. The young boys and girls claimed their desks like emperors and empresses claiming their land for themselves. Naturally, those who knew each other from past jampars sat next to each other, giddy with excitement.

Each badanee was eager and alert. Each color group had a different activity ready each day. The red group was learning English; this included basic actions, immediate and extended family, places, and emotions. The blue group, my group, made lanyards. I remember how their faces lit up when I walked into the room with assorted lanyard string. The first strong colors to run out were red, blue and orange. The orange group was conducting an activity called “My Dream for Artsakh.”