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SUMMER
IS ALMOST OVER
17
August, 2006
 I
found inspiration for my report today from the school. Today (on
Thursday) in the morning hours I went to the Technical Secondary
School, where we run the Moonlight
Club 1. The members of the teaching staff were gathering for
the first staff meeting. It is a big school with a large number
of staff working in it. And the teachers (my former colleagues)
were just arriving, and seeing them I was a little confused: I
could hardly recognise any of them.
As if everyone has changed since I last saw them! They
greeted each other exuberantly, looking happy and youthful, with
beaming smiles, with the pleasant days of the holiday, free from
school problems, behind them. Even the air that surrounded them
had some kind of a special, “esoteric” feeling,
which was caused by the joy resulting from the challenge of
starting again. This is a special state of mind which can only
be experienced when meeting these all heart and soul
“summer end” teachers – it is only typical of
them. Forgetting about all the worries and troubles of the
previous school year they set about “cultivating”
the body and spirit of children again with great enthusiasm.
My
report today on our web page, if you allow me, is going to be a
tribute to every teacher of
every school that has ever existed.
The
“moonlighters” have been active during the summer
too, but in smaller number. This was our first summer, and in
the beginning we didn’t know exactly how ours plans would
turn out. By now we know more. From the many summer experiences
the most important is the fact that when the school year ends
the number of visitors to the Clubs decreases. Our trainer, Ćoćo,
was right when he said that table tennis is a winter sport. In
summer kids like swimming, where they become tired out by the
water and the sun, and by the time evening comes they are too
exhausted to do any other sports. Besides, those who read the
press know that in summer recently the different camps are
literally fighting with each other to “lure”
children to take part in their more or less (quite often less)
useful programmes. In summer there is simply a
“shortage” of youngsters. Nevertheless, in the Moonlight
Club 1 a persistent group of 15-20 kids remained. They
regularly visited the Club on the club nights, but they, too,
liked to be out in the open. They often sat out in the park
opposite the school, talking or just looking at the starry sky.
After a while they came back into the Club, played a little, and
then went outside again – any this went on all through the
summer. We realized that we had to introduce some changes into
our summer programme: we had to go out from the Club and
organize outings, perhaps even camps, or something of this sort.
It is no accident that our partner organization in
Hungary, MÉSE invited our Clubs to a weekend camping to Leányfalu,
a village outside Szentendre. Our Club in Subotica
couldn’t organize the trip for kids, but the Moonlight Club 3 in Bajša – lead by Béla Námesztovszki
– could. They deserve a special acknowledgement for this.
I hope he will give detailed account of the camping in the
“neighbourhood” with a lot of photos on our
wep-page.
We in
Subotica could only manage to organize a one-day outing for the
youngsters of the two clubs to the Fox Farm next to the Lake
Ludaš. If not unforgettable, but it was surely a memorable
experience for us. Biologist István Hulló as the President of
the Richárd Csornai Ecological Society talked to the kids about
the flora and fauna of the lake and its surroundings and the
harms done to them by civilization, and as the Curator of the
Museum of Subotica he spoke about the past customs and
traditions of the locals.
Since
at the same time there was also the programme of a
tradition-preservation camp taking place on the farm, the
children had a change to familiarize in practice with making
various handicrafts. Apart from the discussions about these
crafts and the fieldwork, they could not only watch how an
apricot cake is made in a summer open oven, but could also taste
it.
 The
traditional table tennis competition of the Moonlight Programme
was also the integral part of the outing, since the camp also
provided the conditions for this on the site. The weather was
also beautiful, so the kids could swim, row boats, fish and play
football. The outing of the members of the two Moonlight Clubs was made possible by the donation of the Rotary Club
of Subotica.
Dezső
Kiss
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