I will start this report as Daniela (my camp director) did before every conversation, ‘Dear Ladies and Gentlemen’, it is hard for me to put into words how much this trip meant to me. It all started on June 28th when I left Canada. After 13 hours of traveling I arrived at Bologna. I was then sent to a wonderful host family in Modena for 3 days. They were really nice and showed me their beautiful town. They also took me to see their horses and I was able to meet a lot of their friends. They took time to show me old architecture and showed me lots of old churches. After this host family, I was sent to another one for 11 days which I didn’t do much with. I luckily was placed with another girl from Norway who was going to Campo Emilia with me. We spent a lot of time together and got to know each other really well. They did send me to Venice for a day, which was a really cool experience.

After two weeks with host families, I was sent to Campo Emilia.
Campo Emilia was an wonderful experience, which I am forever grateful for. The people I met and the things I did were amazing! Since Campo Emilia, I have made many new friends from around the world. With them I was able to experience what it’s like to be visually impaired. My mother and her two brothers are  visually impaired and I do admit that I have gotten frustrated with them in the past. Campo Emilia allowed me to experience what it’s like to be blind. After this experience, I have a lot more respect for my mother. I also will have much more patience for her in the future. I have a better understanding of the struggles my mother faces every day.

Camp was not only a learning experience, but a fun experience. Some of my favourite experiences are when Laurits from Denmark, Tomer from Israel, Jooonathon from Finland, Raquel from Spain, Sandra from Holland, Amelia from America and myself all went on a ‘walk’ during freetime. This ‘walk’ was in reality all of us climbing rocks and sliding down the hill of Rossena Castle (the camp’s home base). Nonetheless, it was a very funny, crazy adventure which created a lot of inside jokes. Some of my other favourite experiences were the treasure hunt in Parma and visiting a guide dog training center.

I really can’t thank Campo Emilia enough for this amazing experience!
Since leaving I have planned a trip to see my friends in France, Holland and Denmark. And there have been many late night facetime’s with my friend in different countries.
I also can’t thank the leaders and the director at the camp enough for helping me better understand my mother’s daily struggle.
I hope that with the information I’ve gotten from the camp I can educate others and be more supportive to the people who need it most.