Summer Camp 2022: Caleb Pipes

Helping lead with HRI was quite an adventure! It was very challenging for me because I didn’t know Armenia, but I quickly picked up valuable words and phrases like “good morning!”, “very delicious!”, “sit down”, and the numbers 1-39. It was taxing and oftentimes frustrating to try to lead rambunctious children who didn’t want to listen, but those frustrations were far outweighed by the joy of watching these kids be kids. Children who, on the first day, wore only somber, sober expressions, smiled and laughed on the last day. Children with joyful faces greeted me every day, teaching me new Armenian words like “mountain”, “cold”, or “to write”. I played with the kids after classes (dodgeball is a universal language), and, somehow, I was able to connect with these kids even though I couldn’t talk to them. I think I’ll be going back next year!