The next three days of camp started in roughly the same fashion; waking up and meandering into the dining room to help set out breakfast. This involved everything from helping the ladies in the kitchen (who spoke only Taiwanese. We managed to work with them fairly well, however) carry vast pots of rice, to setting out little bowls of condiments for the mountains of toast we helped prepare from numerous loaves of bread. Feeding 153 plus staff meant putting out vast quantities of food, and even then a few mornings we and the Chinese staff had to snatch what little was left after the kids had gotten theirs.
Breakfast consisted of toast some mornings, with available toppings including peanut butter, jelly, scrambled eggs, cucumbers, and a shredded pork substance rather like what's left over in a pencil sharpener. Other mornings it was a bowl of watered-down rice, with available condiments including the eggs, cucumbers and pork stuff, and also some spicy pickled flour dumplings, and a few other odd dishes. We either had soy milk or passion fruit juice to drink, both of which were excellent. I don't know the secret to their soy milk, but whatever the serve at camp is much better than the stuff you get there.
After breakfast there was a brief clean up time, which gave us a chance to finish eating and quickly discuss our plans for the next chapel period, which began directly afterward.
This morning, we led the kids in a song, Father Abraham (the girl's suggestion, since it involved simple words and "fun" motions), which went pretty well. The Chinese staff had them sing a song or two and then performed the next installment of the drama. After this, Erica gave her testimony, and a female pastor (male pastors are often in short supply in Taiwan, for both cultural and practical reasons) named Lydia spoke to the kids for a while. The kids then left for their cabin times, and we started preparing for the classes we would teach that day. Due to the extreme number of kids, Ron asked us to split up and teach two classes, even though there were only five of us. Caleb and Jacob taught Aussie rules football, continuing from the last camp, and Erica, Rebecca and I taught the English class. Caleb and Jacob apparently had a decent time of it, except when it rained briefly and the staff ordered everyone inside until it stopped. (because everyone knows that a little bit of rain makes kids sick. Or at least that seemed to be their reasoning.) For our part, we had mostly girls, which was expected, and for the most part they were very well-behaved, albeit very quiet. (Except for one girl, who was apparently spoiled cock-eyed.) We played welcome games to get everyone to speak up, and Erica drew pictures on the board and had everyone say the English name. Some girls knew more english than others, and so we tried not to let them answer all the questions unless no one else could.
I then played hangman with them, which they had fun with but were hesitant in guessing.
We also had them help us make lemonade. Several of the girls liked it so much that they asked us if they could fill their water bottles with it, while others made hilarious faces and pronounced it very sour. After their snack break, we played Go Fish, teaching them the english phrases that go along with it. "Do you have any ___ ?" "No, Go Fish!" etc
We also had to use class time to prepare a presentation that they would perform at the end of the camp. This was difficult for us, because while the kids like to perform up front, they liked to do this in Chinese. English was another matter entirely, and they were shy about using it.
Nevertheless, we planned out a short skit where the kids would be going to church, and then would sing a song at the end. One class would have a few lines of dialogue, and the other class would have responses. We later found out that this would be more difficult than we thought to organize, because due to scheduling conflicts the two classes never had a chance to practice together! After we had practiced with them for a while, we played Duck Duck Goose, which they enjoyed except when one girl slipped and fell. The floors are mostly all concrete there, but fortunately she only bruised and scared herself. After class was over, there was a short break, and then it was time for lunch. This worked similarly to breakfast, we stood behind the tables and handed out food until the kids were all through the line, then got our own. This year, due to the sheer number of kids, we sat at our own table instead of interspersing among them. It was good in one sense, as we had a little bit of space this way, but I also felt a little segregated, sitting at "the foreigner's table" as it were.
After lunch, the kids assembled in the chapel, and then broke up into groups and went to different station games. We each worked a station the first and second periods. The first period for me was floor hockey, in the top floor of the dormitories. It was the fourth story, a totally open room with windows all down two sides, with a spectacular view of the surrounding area and mountains beyond. I had felt sick and somewhat depressed earlier, but now my spirits began to rise. I was coming to this beautiful country to spend a year. I opened all the windows, and the room cooled down to a reasonable level. Mark Heinsman had been sent out after drinks for all of us, and I drank mine (a peach green tea) as I waited there for the kids to start arriving. This took longer than I expected, so I had some welcome solitude for a few moments. These were spent somewhat in just getting a breather and cooling down, and also in talking to God for a while. Eventually the kids started to arrive. They didn't speak much english that would be helpful in floor hockey, but little was necessary. I divided the kids up onto even teams when they didn't do it by themselves, and managed the flow of kids coming in and out. Some epic battles raged, and I could mostly watch and restart the matches after each goal. Since I was little, I have always appreciated situations where the adults or people in charge let us have fun with minimal interference, and thus try to take this approach when the situation calls for it.
In this case, the kids were having fun, and so a furious floor hockey war raged largely unabated for the whole first period. Any number from 4 to at least 14 kids were involved at various points, and my job was largely to referee if necessary, and as previously stated, restart the match after the goal. (this was done with enough anticipation as possible. I would set the ball down, carefully center it, act as if I were going to back up, then as the kids started to jump forward, reach back down and adjust the ball. Then, turning to each side and asking "ready?" I would jump out of the way and shout "go!" at which point both sides converged upon the ball and chaos ensued) The points quickly became irrelevant as kids were continually coming and going, what mattered was the scrimmage. After spending the first period this way, the time for swapping out came, and a huge influx of kids who spoke nearly no english arrived, indicating that they expected to practice archery there. I had no idea which of the Chinese staff was teaching archery, so I headed back downstairs, followed by a large crowd of children. Eventually they saw the archery guy carrying the bows upstairs, and ran to follow him.
After the activities wrapped up, there was a "world wide buffet" which also spanned dinner time. A variety of dishes, mostly altered from their original context, were set up on trays and tables outside, and the kids filed through and picked what they wanted. I was starting to feel overheated and sick, and so I ate little. This did not improve matters, and by the time showtime in the chapel rolled around, I was in a cold sweat. Our presentation about America and Alabama that Caleb had put together was first, and I advanced the slides while he narrated and Erica and Rebecca acted out each slide. (football and baseball, for example) Once that was over, Starcey and Janet came out and explained the next event, which was the kids' cabin group presentations. For this, they introduced a panel of three "judges" (complete with upbeat techno intro music) who would award prizes to the best presentations. The group presentations are usually the most opaque part of the camp to we Americans, and this time was no exception.
Not only are the presentations completely in Chinese, but they reference popular Taiwanese TV shows, or other things which the costumes and actions do not clearly convey to us without an understanding of the language. They are usually entertaining, though, and some of the groups did a very good job. When this was over, the kids went to their cabin time, and I went to bed shortly afterwards. I felt better in the morning, there is always one night during the first camp when the heat and exhaustion take a toll on my body, but having recovered I'm usually ok.
I also had heat rash this year, though less severely than in previous years, but decided afterwards that it was actually due totally or primarily to the new, unwashed camp shirts. (either from the dye, or from the fact that the shirts did not breath at all until washed. Judging from the placement of the rash on my arms, it was from the dye.)
This was a happy revelation for me, since it means that I don't just automatically get heat rash from being over there during the summer. Some powder I borrowed from the Heinsmans helped dry the rash up, and so the story has a happy ending. Which is just as well, as you doubtless are not interested in hearing any more about it.
At this point, the camp was half over. We were still tired, but getting into the swing of things.
The next day would be similar to this one until lunch, but we would have the water war after that, and then the campfire and gospel presentation, the most important night of the camp...
would the clear weather hold? Find out in the next installment....
Next Time: Water war and CampFire II
-Joseph
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