Last week was a very full week of working at our first SCHOOL summer camp. Unlike the last camp that we had (which was for kids from a specific neighborhood) this camp was for kids all from the same school. This school was in the North side of Kunming pretty close to the area which they call “the village in the city”. As you can imagine the conditions there aren’t favorable. You can tell that it’s not great area from the moment you turn on the only street to the area. The road itself was in poor condition, even at times missing huge chunks, and very narrow. Also there are motorcycles, minivans, and horse carriage like things all at the start of the road waiting to take people “into” the area, of course for a fee. The school itself was in far better condition than I expected. It was not a great school but I think the school that we’ve been doing library work at has less favorable classrooms.
Here’s a view of the school.
The classrooms are on the right side in the 3 story building. 3 classrooms on each level. We used the first and second floors for our classes. We had 5 stations that 5 teams rotated through; English, Story, Craft, Games, and Music. It was a great set-up for allowing 150 kids to get the more “individual” attention that they would need to build relationships with their leaders. All of the kids were on a specific team that had a “homeroom”, which had a “team ‘mom’/leader” and a few volunteers (foreigners and locals). The kids would meet in their homeroom every morning, eat breakfast and lunch together and also work on a team song that they performed on Friday. I think it provided great stability for the kids and opportunities to play with the same leaders everyday. By Friday I could see so many of the kids connecting with a lot of the volunteers but especially their team’s volunteers. Each team of volunteers was in charge of a specific station so they were teaching the same thing basically 5 times, but the team “mom” would follow their team to all the stations. On Friday, and even Thursday, we had a lot of emotional kids not wanting the camp to be over. It was really neat to see how much just spending 4 and a half days with these kids meant to them.
It was really cute after the camp on Friday a lot of the kids found some paper and went around asking for all the volunteers to sign it and write a little something, kinda like a yearbook. While we were in our after camp meeting on Friday, for the leaders, we still had kids lurking around the classroom at the back windows peering in to our meeting… all while sniffling and crying.
All of the volunteers did an amazing job. We were volunteers from 4 countries (China, USA, Sweden, and Singapore) all coming together to just serve the kids. Our message was “You are special” (and no not in the ’short bus’ kind of way). A lot of these kids will never go to Junior High School either because their parents can’t afford it, they can’t test high enough to get into one, or they don’t have the proper documentation (like a birth certificate) to attend a “higher” education school. So it’s easy for these kids to think that they don’t matter or even that they don’t mean anything. This camp hopes to change that for them. We had one girl give her leader a thank you letter stating that before the camp she never felt like she meant anything, but that this camp helped her to realize that she was so much more and that she was special! Such a great blessing to be able to hear stories like that.
I’m sure that you can’t see anything but a blob of people. But here’s everyone (except the photographer… don’t try to find me… someone has to snap the picture!!)
It was a very fun week. I was often surrounded by kids wanting to be photographers. They took some funny pictures. I even had one do a good impression of some “Petrified Forest” footage that I’ve seen (don’t know that story? Ask my parents about that one!). Here’s my favorite shot by the kids.
Hmm I think something is missing from this picture… or maybe it isn’t… maybe this kid didn’t like the volunteer! Hehe.
It was neat to see the volunteers from the States, particularly the men, playing with the kids. On the first day the kids were very cautious and even hesitant to be near them… but all of that changed rather quickly. By the second day the US team was constantly swarmed by the kids. The guys were really busy! They were giving piggyback rides and things of that nature with the kids. It was sooo fun to see the kids have facial expressions of pure joy while it was “their turn”. I was telling the guys that it’s extra neat for the kids because typically the dads here don’t play with their kids, especially these kids. Most of these kids dads are probably very very busy with work and very hard labor like work. So when they get home they probably just want to eat, drink, smoke, watch some tv, and go to bed. Also picking up your kids here is more as a mode of transporting your kids not as a way of playing with them. So a piggy back ride here isn’t full of running or jumping or spinning, it’s just a way to carry your kid from point A to point B. It was also neat to see the local volunteers start to play with the kids the same way as the USA team. The local team was probably raised the same way, where dad or mom didn’t necessarily play with them like that, so it was new to them too!
Over the 5 days I ONLY took 1,300 + pictures. (And that’s after deleting all the “bad” ones). There was just nothing to take pictures of… hahaha!
Alright, I’m sure some of you are wondering where the pictures of me are (and those of you who aren’t just skip ahead)…
There’s my proof that I was there. Haha. I did have one little girl following me around telling me what to take pictures of. We would wander the courtyard and she would drag me around, then tell me to take pictures of this teacher or that student. My own personal director. She never wanted to be in the picture but just wanted me to take the picture. Cute.
I’ll end with some of my favorite shots of the week.
A little note on this picture. This girl was basically “high jumping” over a small rope. You can see the girl in the pink jacket towards the back is holding something about ear height. She holding one end of the string there at her head, while the girl in the air runs and tried to get her feet over the string. In this game you just have to land on the other side of the string and there’s no penalty for touching the string. After this height the string holders go to the top of their heads and then as high as their arms will go… at that point the jumping girl will cartwheel trying to get over the rope. Really neat to watch.
Everyday at the end of the camp the leaders would create a tunnel for the kids to run/walk through. A fun way for the kids to go home!
Hope you enjoyed my recap of the summer camp. This week is an off week, then we start back up again next week!
Here’s a fun picture of my friends. Pam, Phiona (yes with a Ph), Lucy (XiaoLu), Susanna and Ruth! It was Phiona’s birthday so we all went out to dinner!
I hope this post finds you well! I can hardly believe that it’s been 6 months already! This week will be a little tougher for me as I’m missing out on our family camping trip! Maybe I’ll get some people here to play Uno with me so at least I can feel a little like I’m on the trip.
Lup
August 2nd, 2010 at 3:39 am
Aww, you had mentioned how the children cried at the end of camp and that photo says it all! That’s when you know you’ve done a great job!
We’ll miss you at camping!
Love you!
August 2nd, 2010 at 9:45 am
The photo of the kids and the volunteer’s head cut off…I think the kid is just taking the picture according to his/her eye level.
Great photos Lup2 of a great camp!
August 10th, 2010 at 7:40 am
Tortilla making wasn’t the same without you…. :o(
August 15th, 2010 at 10:30 pm
Leigh Ann, Thank you for your hard work and dedication to the kids and the teams. We were/are blessed to have you in “our” corner. I am thankful for every remembrance of you. You made our time there so much easier. I am recovering and back to work. The video is hard to watch as it causes an “allergic reaction” in my eyes. If you have the opportunity to give my email to Pei, please do. I want to thank her also. My wife loved the video and says you have a “good eye”! Hail to you, Oh “Mistress of the Multiple Cameras”.