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After 5 very hectic weeks of planning we finally reached Midsummer and our alcohol and drug free midsummer camp took place. I must say that it was a success! As mentioned before the promotion of the camp took more energy and resources than we could ever imagine! And, it took long before youth started to sign up for the camp and we got worried that only a few would join. But as we came closer to the camp more and more people signed up and in the end we had 30 participants (15 boys and 15 girls) in the ages 13-21, the last participants signed up only the day before Midsummer. The night before the camp we were all a bit nervous and really hoped that everything would work out well! Two things worried us the most; the schedule (that we would manage to stick to it, cause it was jammed!) and the big differences in ages. The schedule for the camp was as follows;

First day: 9 am departure from Umeå to Campsite at Norrbyskär, bus and then boat

Midsummer lunch Activities (Raft building, Teambuilding exercises and tree top trail(climbing in the trees))

Midsummer cakes Midsummer Games Cambodian Games Dinner Activities (Raft building, Teambuilding exercises and tree top trail(climbing in the trees))

Midsummer dancing (around Midsummer pole) ,Tricky question walk about HIV/Aids, Food tasting; of Zambian and Cambodian Food, Bonfire/ time to pose questions to our foreign participants

Second day: Breakfast, Activities (Raft building, Teambuilding exercises and tree top trail(climbing in the trees))

Lunch ,Zambian Games

Departure from Norrbyskär

Luckily everything worked out very well. We could stick to the schedule almost all the time. At lunch time on the second day we took the opportunity to let the participants fill in an evaluation form. This is a summary of what was said in the evaluation:

Midsummer Camp Evaluation (done by participants)

1. How do you know about the camp? -through a friend (4 people) -fliers at school (4 people) -through YMCA (6 people) -Internet (4 people) -poster ( 2 people) -teacher (2 people) -badminton E-mail

2. Expectations -to meet new people -to have fun -to have good food -interaction with Cambodians and Zambians -to have special midsummer -to have fun activities

3. What was the best at the camp? -motivation from leaders -good schedule (2 people) -friends -leaders (3 people) -bonfire (magic box) (3 people) -food (4 people) -tree top trail (10 people) -all activities (9 people) -water rafting (2 people) -swimming (2 people)

4. What can be improved? -have a longer camp (7 People) -everything was good (6 people) -sleep longer (2 people) -day two of the camp was disorganized (2 people) -have more music -encourage team work among participants

5. Food -good (23 people) -enough (3 people) -ok -fruits should be provided during meals.

6. Target age group -it was good (19 people) -there was a big gap in the age group 13-18 was too much (3 people)

7. What the leader can do better -nothing (everything was good) 23 people -divide participants in a better way -give equal attention to participants -start magic box earlier -make participants stay up longer

8. Have you learn anything new? What? -learnt about Zambia and Cambodia (5 people) -learnt to interact with new people (3 people) -practice English (2 people) -where Cambodia located -learnt that you can be sober and have fun during midsummer -to be brave -learnt about HIV/Aids

9. General comments “Good venue and the camp was awesome!” “The age group was good and I was surprised, I did not feel much age difference between 13-18 year olds” “The one day camp was a lot better than my expectation hence, the leaders could not do anything better”. “I’ve learnt that I can have fun at midsummer without alcohol “ “Thank you for the best midsummer, I have not had this fun since I was 14” (20 years old) “Please organize other camp next year. It doesn’t even have to be midsummer”

The YPD program is now over. I would like to say that I am very pleased with the work that me and my colleagues have done during the past six months. The two different projects that we’ve carried out were both very successful (latest news from Cambodia about the chickens are positive, a few chickens have now been born!). I have been very interesting for me to work with these questions in two totally different contexts; Battambang, Cambodia and Umeå Sweden.

Jonna- tired and content

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