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hello muddah, hello faddahOct 19, 2006
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Running Wild
Kate's Green Team
Too much fun with a ping pong ball before college
| Here we are at... English Camp in Thailand? So after a few days in Thung Song we went with our new school to work at the 5th annual Thung Song English Camp. We weren't sure what to expect when we showed up at the office. We loaded into the pickup and followed the party bus (more on that later) to the beach at Trang about 1.5 hours away. When we got there, we found that English camp is not so much about learning English as it is about insanely ridiculous relays on the beach to exhaust 50 plus children (think run, drink a bottle of water, cover yourself in powder, eat an uneatable biscuit about 1000 times harder than your average saltine to chew and swallow, chug a warm coke, then thread a sand covered needle). We each led our own group of about 10-12 kids (I was the blue captain, Kate was the green). In general we were never really sure who won anything, but color competition seemed to be the organizing principle. After the beach relays and swimming (70 people in all of their clothing), we had our first school meal where we discovered that in Thailand 70 people sit down and eat and clear their plates within 15 minutes. After dinner we had an opening night dance party with the kids then the counselors took off to hang out at our bungalow. The next day we got up around 8 and did some more somewhat absurb organized games with the kids. We have found that if school is anything like camp, about 1/2 the proposed activities actually happen, but that they can get more entertainment out of ping pong balls and empty beer bottles than your average college kid. For example, Kate and I led each group in a game where the teams have a rubber bankd ring and each kid holds a string atttached to the ring. They work together to pick a ping pong ball off a beer bottle and place it on the ground without dropping it or knocking over the bottle. Most successful placements in 30 minutes wins. We think this game could entertain American kids for about 5. We led 5 groups for 30 minutes for a total of 2.5 hours of riveting fun. When not with us, the kids participated in other activites such as the human chain where the kids got the idea to take off all clothing that was appropriate including necklaces, shirts for boys, shoes... and lay them in a long line on the beach. Longest chain wins. In the states, you would be arrested for leading a game that encouraged children to take off their clothes, but we're not in Kansas anymore, todo. After the morning activity, the counselors snuck away to swim in actual bathing suits far from the children. The water feels like a warm bath, and we enjoyed lazing around afer all the "hard work". That night, we had a Halloween party. Yes, Halloween. We were the only adults to dress up, but we think it won us points with the kids. Anyway, we were psyched to celebrate it. After that, there was an award ceremony, and we led the halloween rap. We taught it complete with gangster moves and a backbeat, but it didn't come out that well in public. At least the first two times... The award ceremony lasted longer than Kate's rutgers graduation with 2000 people. We know who won Mr. and Mrs. Halloween, that is all we got. We left the next morning and headed back to Thung Song. It was really fun and quite a good lesson in cultural differences to attend English Camp. Stay tuned, we may be going again for the next one after this school term. The theme... Fashion Show! Love, Carla and Kate |
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