Bucsoaia Go camp 2006

Last summer I took the opportunity to participate in a children camp as a Go instructor with a friend (Sorin) and my girlfriend (Laura). It was a beautiful experience for me. I hadn't taught Go to anybody but friends (and my girlfriend).

We took the train from Bucharest to Suceava.

"Suceava's throne citadel"

We were prepared with Go equipment (a large 19x19 folding wood board and glass stones) and played Go on the road. It was very nice. We also had about 8 carton boards (9x9) with plastic stones for the kids and problems for beginners.


From Suceava we took a buss to Bucsoaia (Gura Humorului) and arrived at the camp.
Our visit was somehow "unexpected". They seemed to have forgotten about our announced visit. But after a few phone calls and an hour waiting outside we were granted access to our dormitories.



We were to have the children "entertained" with logic games.

They did not know what Go was.



So we scheduled our "lessons" every day after their afternoon sleep. We had a special conference room for the lessons.

But, for some strange reason, they preferred to play Go in any other place than that conference room.

After all, Go is better played in cozy places like bedrooms, sunny fields, playground.



Every day, the kids and teachers had a field trip to either visit an historical place like "Voronet" monastery, or a trip to a sunny field with beautiful view and lot of grass and trees.




Living in Bucharest, this kind of outing is a blessing for me every once in a while.

And I also get to play and teach GO. Cool!



The historical places are great and provide the necessary energy and stress release for another year of work and stress.

The "Voronet" Monastery

My girlfriend and I decide to buy a few souvenirs for home.




One night, after dinner, when we were preparing to go to sleep, we had an unexpected visit. A battalion of kids eager to play more Go.


Not even the 6 hours trip, nor the soccer games could exhaust them. So we started giving them easy problems to solve and decided that for our last day of staying we will organize a Go tournament.



They were thrilled and begun to work hard for the tournament.







All three of us (Laura, Sorin and myself) were very happy that they liked the game and they were coming back for even more every day.




At first, I thought that if we succeed to "corrupt" 5 kids to learn the game, it will be nice.





But from about 60 children that played Go for the first time (that was a huge number for us), 15 of them remained and played the last day tournament.




Each of us had a favorite kiddo.


Mine was Carla, a sweet, red-head little girl with pimples. She was very smart but very emotive and did not finish in the first three places in that tournament. She was very tired and upset.



When we left we gave them all our 9x9 carton boards and plastic go stones as prizes.
I decided to give my folding wood go board and glass stones as a prize to her. She cried.



We started the games at about 10-11PM with cookies and drinks for the kids. The tension was as great as the tension I feel in a real Go tournament.

This is a photo I took at 1AM the night of the tournament.

Nina (center) had just recovered from crying (she had lost her last tournament game). I can't believe that they took this game serious and got so attached to us just in five days of Go.



On my way back to Bucharest I felt a mixture of feelings covering me.
There was the sadness of leaving the camp and the children, there was the happiness of the achievements we had, there was the hope that we shall return some day and see them again.

I can't wait for our next summer holiday!