This week in PST our cluster had to design and run a three
day summer camp for the kids in our village. Our camp is supposed to heavily
focus on the English language. We wrote an announcement flyer and had our LCF
help us translate it into Georgian. Afterwards we made copies and placed our
flyers in various hang out spots around Osiauri. Counting our host brothers and
sisters and their mutual friends, we were only expecting around 20 kids to attend
our camp…..Big mistake. On the first day
of our camp we had not 20, not 30, not 40 not even 50 but 60, that’s right 60
something kids showed up to our summer camp.
Kind of overshot our projected number by a lot. Fortunately we had
considered the possibility of having an insane amount of kids show up (though
we didn't think it was likely) and had planned activities/games that could work
well with large groups.
Day 1:
2:30 Kids start arriving to school to sign their name on to
our sign up list…we run out of paper quickly and have to start doubling up on
our lines. Expected to have a bunch of Giorgis sign up but we surprisingly only
had two…that being said we had something like 10 girls named Mari so we had to write
last names on the name tags too. Kids
ranging from 4 to 17…this might be tricky. Ann, Ana (our LCF/camp translator)
and Brenna man the sign up table….Kirk and Aaron play basketball with some of
the kids while I entertain a large group of girls with my poor volleyball
skills
3:00 summer camp officially begins! We put everyone in a big
circle around the gym and explain the rules to our first game. We tell our kids
that whoever is in the middle of the circle (a.k.a. IT), they will call out
something that other kids might have in common with (Example: I like pizza or I
have a dog) and that those who do like or have the same thing will run across
the circle and sit down before IT steals an open spot. The person who is left
without a spot in the circle is the new IT. Rules explained….whew….and start…chaos ensues.
3:30 Break kids off into various teams. Kids are left to come up with their team names
and make a poster. After much deliberation, Team Spiders, Team Crazy Children,
Team Lions and Team Gangnam Style are created.
After a short name game in our groups, we decide that our groups should
play an arm tangle game in which everyone in the group crosses their arms over
and grabs the hands of two different other people. Once everyone is linked then
the group must untangle themselves without letting their hands go….This last
point was difficult to explain. Note to self…drill this last part
4:00 Take kids and introduce them to kickball.
4:10 Quickly realize how difficult it is to explain the
concept of kickball…start from square one... no you can’t pass your fellow
teammate if they are on second and you are on first…this is the fowl line…
5:00 End of summer camp for the day. Only have thirty kids
by this point but they seem to be in high spirits. We survived.
7:30 Our cluster meets up and decides to revamp our games
and activities for day two…today has served as a trial and error day.
Day 2
2:30 Sign in begins. There are 40 something kids today…lost
a few of the older ones but we have gained some new faces too.
3:00 Decided the easiest and most fun route for our first
game would be to play a huge game of Duck, Duck Goose. Play game and it is a
success!!!!
3:25 Break off into competing teams for scavenger hunt. Have
prepared list before hand and hope that the kids will really get into it. Included
things like, “Find three things that start with the letter “r”, and “Find
someone named Giorgi and sing to them an English song or preform a dance”, Call
Kirk and ask for the password”. Have cameras divided between all of the cluster
mates so as to document some of our tasks/objects that we can take back to the
school (such as a cow).Scavenger hunt is a success!!! Two for two today. And on the
plus side, my team wins scavenger hunt.
4:10 Have two activities simultaneously…hope it works
out. Aaron, Kirk and I help the 20 or so
kids that brought shirts with tie dying them. Ann and Brenna play Sharks and Minnows in the gym with the other kids.
5:00 Both are success and we have tons of dye left over so
made an announcement for kids to bring a shirt tomorrow that didn't get to tie
dye today.
Day 3
2:15!!! The kids are already at school. Warm up with basketball
and volleyball before everyone gets here.
3:00 Camp starts. Start playing lava game in which our four
teams compete with each other. Kids need to correctly read the English word
written on a card and pass it to the next person to read. Once the card has
been passed up to the front person, the front person must make a sentence out
of the word ...if they do then they are able to place the piece of paper on the
ground and use it as stepping stone to
get to the other side of the gym. Hard
to control but fun.
3:25 Play capture the flag and made jail a place where you have to create an English sentence to get out. Didn't foresee that everyone would want to be in jail...Guess that's a good thing...right?
4:30 Grab water balloons for water balloon toss...kids are excited but don't want just one balloon to work with...game goes a little south and kids want more balloons.
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