Brazil Camp - Photo update by Stella Helterbrand

The location of camp was in Maloca de Moscou, Brazil; a rural tribal area about two hours from Boa Vista. This camp was different then camps I had been to in the United States, and took place in a small area that included only the necessary structures. Three thatch roof shelters (two of which served as boys dorms), a church hall that doubled as a girls dorm, a bath house with two girls and two boys stalls, and a dinning hall with kitchen. There was also a large field cleared for playing sports.

The girls dorm! Yes, we did sleep in hammocks; and yes, it was amazing! This small room held eight hammocks and 14 girls. There were 10 girls and 4 staff; the girls that were related shared hammocks. We had two ceiling fans and an oscillating fan, it was basically the penthouse in the woods!

The campers and staff! 16 boys and 11 girls from ranged in age from 10 to 18, they were all excited to be part of camp and we all had a wonderful week together!

American football! One of the six games that we taught and played during camp. Other games included kickball, ultimate Frisbee, baseball, speed-a-way and capture the flag. The kids caught on quickly to throwing a football, but playing was a bit difficult. Trying to teach them all the rules and getting them to understand, without prior knowledge of the game, is what created the challenge.

There was also baseball! The majority of the campers did a really good job hitting the ball and caught on to the rules very quickly. All the campers participated and really enjoyed playing the game.

Speed-a-way was one of the games the kids caught on to quickly and there was little need for rules and instructions. Since, soccer is such a huge sport they were excited to play this new version of their favorite. The older campers did really well, the younger ones lost interest quickly with everyone running all over the field. When the younger campers lost interest we threw Frisbees’s or tossed footballs with them.

English class was a great benefit to all of us! Those fluent in Portuguese were able to learn some basic English and those of us fluent in English learned a little Portuguese.  It was a nice afternoon activity “indoors” so we weren't in the hot sun during the hottest part of the day.

Another activity we played with the younger campers when the team games were too intense was badminton. They didn’t necessarily need a net for this job, they enjoyed hitting the birdie back and forth!

Every evening we had an activity and finished the week with a dance! We also did minute-to-win-it games, and card games & ping pong.

Isaac Nelson, Stella Helterbrand, Courtney Horvath, and David Rains are the four United Youth Corp and Good Works volunteers that worked primarily as activity staff for the Brazil Youth Camp.

“The Good Works Program is a mechanism by which local congregations, through fund raising activities, can help provide financial assistance in the event of special needs that affect Church members, but fall outside of the Church's annual operating budget. The program will primarily focus on needs in the international areas, but there may occasionally be projects in the United States.”

“The United International Youth Corps is designed to help motivated and desirous young adults connect with the work of the Church through service.”

Our final gathering, Sabbath afternoon we had a Bible Study before beginning our journey back to the States.  What a wonderful Sabbath and week we all had together! I had many exciting firsts on this trip; from going to Brazil, to eating mangos fresh from the tree, to sleeping in a hammock all week,. The most exciting was meeting, helping, and serving our brethren in Brazil.