International Mini-Village Set Up in Chestnut Hill

The 11-year-old French girl is crying—weeping actually.

“We just finished a ‘Rich and Poor” exercise,’ said Jordan Rivkin.  “I think it’s starting to hit them that camp’s almost over.”

For the past four weeks 47 11-year-olds from 12 different countries have been participating in a mini-global village headquartered at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy.

“The Rich and Poor exercise was hard and sad,” said Bella Thornley.  Thornley hails from Finland, just outside of Helsinki.  “It made a lot of people cry.”

“We picked eight kids for the exercise,” Rivkin said.  “They got preferential treatment all day.”

Rivkin added, “For breakfast they had bacon and eggs, while everyone else had cereal.  We would let them slide on activities, while we were a lot harder on everyone else.”

The camp is part of CISV, Children International Summer Villages, an international program that promotes cross cultural friendship and cooperation.

Rivkin is the camp’s director, and she participated in the program herself when she travelled to Brazil when she was 11.

“We try to teach that they are the beginning of a better future,” Rivkin said.  “At 11-years-old your mature enough to begin knowing that this is the beginning of your interaction with a larger world.”

The camp uses exercises like the Rich and Poor to teach kids about the realities of not just adult life, but a global adult life.

“We had handicap day,” Thornley said.  “We got to have the experience of what it’s like to be handicapped.”

Thornley added, “We had national nights where people got to tell us about the country they came from.”

“A lot of these kids are totally out of their comfort zone when they come here,” Rivkin said.  “We have kids here who hardly know any English.”

Rivkin added, “There’s a lot of cultural differences that people have to get over in the first week.  It can be something as simple as personal space.”

These 11-year-olds also have to deal with being away from home, in a foreign country, with a foreign language for four weeks.

“This is the longest I’ve ever been away from home,” Thornley said.  “But, I also like to get more friends.”

After the Rich and Poor exercise ended, camp leaders started a hug train where everyone in the camp—hugged.

“It’s good for the kids that we can get them crying,” Rivkin said.  “It shows that they they’re a group.”