Pictures From Camp

July 21st

So, the middle school and the high school camp:
Even though both of these groups were there during the same week, for the most part we kept them separate during planned activities - this was for safety purposes for the middle schoolers as there have been problems in the past. The groups were together however for lunch and dinner, evening worship music time, and then during afternoon free time they could be together depending on what activity they wanted to do. There were about 35 high schoolers and 45 middle schoolers.
I was with the high school group - myself and another guy had a cabin with the oldest boys - so primarily juniors (most of the seniors who would have attended camp were there as staff/middle school counselors). I had some of the same guys that I had the week before as OFWs, so that made things a little easier as far as learning names and knowing what to expect.
We didn't do a whole lot of games with the high schoolers, we took them on a couple different trips during the morning. Monday morning all of the high schoolers and hgh school counselors took a couple jeepney to a place about a half hour away to go on a hike. We hiked up a mountain for about an hour and a half, and had the option to go further, but when we asked the campers if the wanted to continue, the answer was a resounding "no." Kind of unfortunate, but what we did get to hike was fun!
Then Tuesday morning we loaded up the jeepney again and headed off to a waterfall nearby. We spent a couple hours there jumping off, or for some, watching people jump off. It was about a 30 foot drop, which from the ground didn't look too big, but once at the edge and getting ready to jump, seemed a lot higher. But I think almost everyone who went up with the intentions of jumping followed through and did it, at least once - myself included, I ended up doing it a couple times. I was nervous everytime, but it was quite exhilarating. (I have a picture of this when if I can get those pics onto here.)
Some of you may have seen the picture on facebook of me in girls clothing - not my most masculine moment, but here is the explanation for that: the last night each cabin was to prepare a skit which would be judged against all the others to determine a winner. Our cabin planned on doing a dance to the song "Be a Man," from the movie Mulan. This was a good idea, but what made it great was when we decided to asked the girls cabin to borrow som clothes so that we could dress like girls for it as well. The girls were more than willing to rovide us with a few articles of clothing, primarily just tops, but one guy had a dress. Was it worth it? Well, we won the contest...
Also during skit night, all of the counselors helped EJ, the co-director (and boyfirend) of Miriam for these two weeks of camps with a special dance/skit - at which the end of he proposed to Miriam. So that was fun and exciting to be a part of as well!
This second week of camp seemed to go by a whole lot faster than the first week - I think partially due to the "field trips" we got to go on with the high schoolers.
The campers and almost all of the counselors left that Thursday, and there were only a handful of us left who were planning on going into Tanza to help out and be a part of theministry that Miriam is a part of there. The people who stayed were Miriam and EJ, a group of about a half dozen people that came from Maryland for the three weeks, and myself. A couple them left Friday to help out with a health clinic, the rest of us stayed at RRC until Saturday morning and then we went in as well. But, I will go into more details about that in my next post, probably tomorrow.

July 20th

Week 1 - Elementary Camp
So first of all, the nature of these camps. I was referring to them as international youth camps, which they are in a sense, but more specifically, the majority of the kids are children in missionary families located here in the Philippines. A majority of them were American, though some of them have only spent a year or two of their lives actually in the States, other were Canada, Australia, Korea, China, and there were some Filippinos there as well. So it was fun hearing stories from these kids who have lived all over the world with their parents who do all sorts of mission work. However, just because they were primarily children of missionaries, don't mean that they were perfect angels - some of them were still more than a handful...haha! <br>
There was a detective theme for the two weeks of camp, and each counselor had to pick a detective nickname (either made up or from a tv show/movie/book) - my nickname was Shaggy (to whom I have been told I bear some resemblance). So for those of you who saw the scooby doo picture on facebook, Miriam, the daughter of the directors of the center, and the one in charge of these camps, photoshopped character pictures that all the counselors used to make a character profile. <br>
Anywho, for the elementary camp I had split role. Some of the time I spent with the elementary aged kids, helping to run games, however I did not stay in a cabin with those kids. I stayed in a cabin with a group of high school boys who were there as, what they referred to as OFWs.
Every year during the week of the elementary camp, they have a group of high school guys and girls come stay at the camp and work on different projects/jobs that need to be done around the camp.
So I stayed in a cabin with those guys at night, and tried to spend some of every day helping them with the different projects that they were working on, which included rebuilding a rope bridge, shredding coconut husks, and removing coconut tree stumps (which I might add, can be ridiculously difficult - the root system wasn't a few large roots, but a giant clump of little roots). I was also put in charge of doing morning devotions for the OFW group - so even though I helped some of the time with their projects, between morning devotion and the time at night when they had to be back I need the cabin, they were out of my control, and under the control of Shane, the brother in law of Miriam, but also a police officer from just outside of Baltimore, Maryland - he did a fine job keeping the kids on in order and on task.
Toads in the Philippines are numerous, and huge. I tell you this not only as an fyi, but because during this first week, I was the recipient of the ol' toads in the bed prank. One in pillow case, one in my dirty shorts pants pocket, and one under the sheet. The two were about the size of my palm, and the third, about the size of my entire hand. The guys thought it was pretty funny...
The times when I was not with the high schoolers I was with the elementary kids, usually facilitating a game of some sort. The kids played several smaller games in the morning, and one big game in each the afternoon and the evening. Probably my favorite game was the unplanned sponge war! The camp went from Sunday to Thursday, and Monday into Tuesday it rained for about a day and a half straight. It would let up a little from time to time, but usually for no longer than an hour. So Tuesday afternoon when it had finally stopped, we went out to the soccer field which now consisted of several big puddles, took a trash can full of sponges, and played in the mud and had a sponge war!
Another fun game the kids did was Fear Factor. They had to go around to different stations and do different scary/disgusting things. Some stations involved crawling through mud, at others they had to eat things (such as balut), at my station they had to kiss a snake - a ten foot python...which I got to hold (Stef, you would have been so proud of me!) for the hour or so the game lasted while the different group came to kiss it! I had a sore shoulder afterwards because it was so heavy, and it ate one kid, but other than that it was a lot of fun ;)
Camp started Sunday and ended on Thursday, so after all the campers left, the counselors went into the mall to hang out in the air condition for a little while and to watch the new spider man movie. We got to sleep in on Friday, as long as we were up before lunch at noon, but my body is so used to getting up early I hard to force myself to stay in bed until 7:30 - I woke up pretty disappointed in myself...haha. Friday and Saturday we spent planning for the upcoming middle school and high school camp and had several hours in there to re-energized, which was nice.
I will talk a little about the high school camp next post... </p>

July 19th

Well, hello again everybody! I had a great couple of weeks up north in the Rizal area. The first two weeks were spent at Rizal Re-Creation Center (one week of elementary camp, and one week of high/middle school camp), and much of the third week was spent in Tanza/Antipolo (towns outside of Manilla a little ways).
I'm going to separate the events that have transpired over the last three weeks into a couple different posts over the next couple days when I have time.
This evening, because I am pretty tired, I am just going to upload some pictures of the Rizal Re-Creation center/camp. I took some pictures of the grounds in between the two weeks of camp, but once the kids arrived we were asked not to have our phones out, so I didn't get to take any pictures of the kids or activities - I did buy a thumb drive though and get pictures from one of the adults who was going around taking pictures, I will see if I can borrow a computer so that I can put some of those on here tomorrow.
Anyway here are some pictures of the camp. Many are just of the scenery - it was so green all around, tons of coconut trees, a very nice pool and slide, a koy fish pond, etc. The bunks are inside a cabin obviously, those were where we stayed with the campers. Each cabin held 12 people and had its own bathroom with shower - very nice! They also have nicer guest rooms with air conditioning that retreat groups can stay in. Those of us who stayed after the camps to go into Tanza got to stay in those guest rooms for a couple nights, I forgot to take pictures of those rooms though. As you will be able to tell from the pictures, it was a beautiful place.
Also at this place is the official biggest spinning top in the world - I forget the dimensions exactly, but it is over 10 feet tall and around 8 feet wide. I will explain more about this later as well...stay tuned.

June 27th

One more quick post before I head off to camp tomorrow. In the email sent out to all the counselors we were asked not to bring computers or similar devices, so I will be leaving my tablet here at Sankey which means I won't be posting anything on here or responding to anyone's emails for the next few weeks. I will try to remember to take pictures while at camp so that I have those and some stories to post when I get back.
The last few days here have been fairly routine. I can tell the kids at school are becoming more used to and comfortable around me. The first couple computer classes they were really quiet and attentive, a little timid - that's not so much the case anymore. The first graders on Monday were something special. One of the little girls who I joke with before school and when I see the kids sometimes at recession - she continued the joking right on through computer class. I try to use tagalog words intermittently, just for simple things and to ask if the kids are understanding things, and this little girl everytime I said something in Tagalog would imitate me (fairly well I might add...haha). The other kids joined in soon thereafter - we didn't get a whole lot accomplished, but that's okay.
The last couple nights when I have been down sending emails, some of the kids come down and work on their homework as well. Occasionally I am able to help - one girl had english homework where she had a vocabulary word and had to select the correct definition from three choices. I thought I'd be able to help here no problem - there were some tough words though! Granted my vocabulary is extremely extensive, but I thought for sure be able to help with high school english vocabulary in a non-native English speaking country. Nope - we had to use the dictionary for 75% of the terms. Several words I had never heard of, and am confident most Americans have never used.
Well, that's about it - oh, I did catch bigger and more aggressive gecko to guard my table, but I'm beginning to think geckos have small appetites or just simply don't eat ants.
Anyways, I will post again in a few weeks.

June 24th

The rest of the week went well last week. Thursday was similar to the first three days of last week - devotion in the morning then computer class in the afternoon. We had devotion on Friday also, but no computer classes. Instead, I was in charge of chapel hour and gym class in the afternoon. Chapel hour went alright I think - not sure how much the younger kids retained, but the reactions/interactions with the older kids suggest that they all understood - so that was good. I have a short week at school this week as I will leave Thursday morning after devotion to head to Rizal to be a camp counselor for a couple weeks. I'm looking foward to that!
Yesterday was a long day. I was up and out by 3:30 and went with a group from Bethel to a youth conference in Manila called Campus Revolution. It was a conference for high school and college students from all over Luzon. It was at one of the larger domes here in the Philippines, called the Cuneta Astrodome (a large gymnasium where the PBA plays) - I asked one of the guys what the capacity of the place was, and he thought it was 14,000 - and the place was packed, plus chairs on the floor level! I didn't understand much of what the speakers were saying but the worship music was in english and I enjoyed that! Some of the speakers would use english every now and then, plus the verses they used they said in english, so I got the jest of what the were talking about. It was encouraging the kids to become campus revolutionaries - to change the atmosphere of their campuses for Christ because that generation is the future of the Philippines. Judging by the reactions and the enthusiasm of the crowd, the speakers all did really well. We got back last night shortly before 10, and I went straight to bed. Only woke up once between then and 7:30 this morning (which for me is really good!)
I'm not sure if I will be able to post while I am at camp, so I might try to post something Wednesday night before I leave - we will see how eventful the week goes.
I included a couple pictures from the conference yesterday, as well as one of me and the neighbor kid, John John. A couple times over the past week or so when I have been hanging out outside of the guys house he has come over to the fence and yells, "Americano, parito ka!" which means come here American...haha. So I go over and we talk for a little bit. When he says something I don't understand and I tell him that, he yells it louder thinking that will help - I get a kick out of that. I quizzed him on my name a few times this afternoon, we will see if he remembers it the next time he calls me over, or if it's still "Americano. "

June 20th

Hello everyone!
School has been going well this week. The activity level in my day has come down a few notches, but actually it has been really nice and is allowing me to regain some much needed energy (especially since I will be leaving next week to be a counselor at a camp up in Rizal for 2 weeks, and I'm sure I will need as much energy as possible for that).
Before classes start each day, the kids and teachers and myself have a flag raising ceremony out front of the school (that's what the couple of years picture below are from), and they sing the national anthem, another Filippino pledge, and then pledges to the Bible and the Christian flag (these are in English though). We then have our devotion. One of the kids plays guitar and leads everyone in a song, and then I give the short devotion for the day.
I try to avoid doing a lot of talking, because with all the kids I know that many of the younger ones don't understand as much English as the older kids, so I've tried to make it a little more interactive. This week I am teaching them what I've heard called the 'Roman Road' (the basic Gospel message using all verses from the book of Romans). I think it is going fairly well - I am having them memorize one verse each morning, and then I just give a short meaning of the verse - this seems to be working well.
After devotion I usually head off and I have been working on a PowerPoint presentation for chapel hour on Friday. I will be talking about the fruit of the Spirit - I figured those were concepts that could be broken down into simple enough terms and stories that I should be able to get the point across to most of the kids. It's been somewhat of a challenge, because I usually have a difficult time expressing ideas to children in general, now I not only have that to deal with, but these are children with an even more limited english vocabulary...haha. It'll be alright though.
And then in the afternoons, depending on the day, I teach one or two computer classes. Pretty basic computer stuff, which is good, seeing as how computers are definitely not my strong point! It's good though, it gives me an opportunity to spend time with the kids and get to know their names and talk with them a little.
The couple of other pictures - one is the newest puppy here at Sankey. One of the guys bought it from the neighborhood the other day for 30 pesos (about 75 cents...haha). The reason I put the picture up though, one of the younger boys came up to me and told me that it was an American dog. I looked at him a little confused and asked how he knew that? I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but the puppy has blue eyes - thus making it American! Haha!
The other picture was my latest idea, that didn't work out quite as well as planned. It is a small house gecko on a leash (made of dental floss). Even though I keep it clean, there are several ants in my kitchen upstairs - and the place they really bother me is on the table on which I eat. So I thought...hmm, if only I had something like a watch dog that would eat ants, and that I could keep it on my table. The problem is, dogs don't eat ants, and they're not nearly small enough to keep on a table. But...geckos eat ants, and they would fit on a table. Long story short, Max (that's what I named him - short for Maximus the Enforcer), spent most of the time hiding under a basket that I keep on the table and never ate a single ant. In fact the ants would walk right in front of his face and he was unphased. I only had him for less than a day, and maybe I just wasn't patient enough, but he didn't show much potential, so I released Max back into the wild and am keeping an eye out for a bigger, more energetic and fierce gecko.