I served at an English Camp in Subotica, Serbia. It was a small town at an even smaller church with an elderly congregation desperate for youth to fill its walls. During the week of camp, I interacted with the 13 students who attended by playing games, challenging them in sports, dodging water balloons, crafting friendship bracelets, and being a safe space for them to practice English while I butchered their beautiful Hungarian language. One of the girls hugged me every morning when she arrived, bringing her tiny owl toy and using it as a way to communicate across the language barrier. Another pair of girls who were sisters seemed rather quiet. I wrote them both encouraging notes on the second day of camp and that shifted things. They would sit closer to me in English class, laugh with me at the squishy toys they won as prizes, and share their candy, but we still didn't talk very much.
