After visiting English Camp last month, the youth group team and leaders invited me to come back for their VBS style Camp with the little kids! I was very excited and happy to join them for putting on this event. The theme was Pirates and Sailors - the leaders being the pirates and the students always referred to as "My Dear Sailors." We "traveled" around the world on our ship and completed different team challenges in each country we stopped at. It was so fun getting to know these kids and working together with the youth group team again as they led this camp.
The kids had no idea why I kept laughing each time they greeted me saying "Ahoj." This is the Czech word for "Hi" and pronounced "Ahoy." After eleven years of visiting/living in this land-locked country, I have finally heard the greeting used in a sense that makes sense to English-ears!
During the morning activities, we were divided up into teams. I enjoyed getting to know the kids on my team and seeing their determination. They were creative in completing the challenges and worked together to get the tasks done. We escaped the massive spiderweb in the jungle, constructed part of the Great-Wall of China, created a sandcastle masterpiece in the desert, and helped the Eskimos unfreeze their forgotten laundry. Each day was definitely full of laughter and bright ideas!
On the last day of camp, we found the ultimate treasure map that led us on a trip around the village to search for clues that would reveal the final location of the hidden treasure! The students set off in their groups, and we followed the trail until eventually all the teams were assembled together to locate the treasure. As we were waiting for the all the teams to join together, some of the kids passed the time by catching grasshoppers in the field. A couple of the boys called over to me saying, "Kendra! Look at this cool grasshopper we found!" As I came closer, I was suddenly surprised, for these boys had actually caught a Praying Mantis! Even as we made our way down the hill to finally reach our treasure, we had little girls spinning and dancing as they descended the hill and one little girl pausing every couple steps to try catching grasshoppers. When we finally convinced this little girl to come to find the treasure, she asked if after we find the treasure we could go back to catching grasshoppers. Well, for some, the treasure isn't so interesting, and an open field of grasshoppers was a bigger treasure than a bag of sweets!
There were many hours during the week of the daily free-time that the kids spent creating tall block towers or crafting. One afternoon, a couple kids and I set out to create a MEGA block tower consisting of all the blocks. The stool for our littlest builder became too short for her to continue working on the tower, so another leader and I took turns with her up on our shoulders to reach the top of the tower. For the first couple minutes on my shoulders, this little girl didn't get any work done on the tower as she couldn't stop giggling!
Gerald and Piggie went on vacation to camp too! I had mentioned to the leader at camp before how Piggie seemed to cure any problems the kids had at City Camp, and she said "Bring Piggie and Gerald! We need them too!" Each day after lunch, I read a Gerald and Piggie story to the kids. They instantly fell in love with the stuffed animal mascots too! I often found the kids dressing up Gerald in a Pirate hat and Piggie was frequently brought to the coloring table or found when someone needed an extra "buddy." Most impressively, a couple of the boys at camp made it their mission to dance with Gerald and Piggie during our camp dance! Gerald and Piggie were even introduced to parents at our "Parent Party" at the end of the week since they had become such an important part of the kids' week. Even the leaders enjoyed Piggie and Gerald, and Piggie has since ended up in one of the leaders' Facebook profile picture. She's becoming a famous little pig!
In the afternoons, the kids completed a series of challenges for individual points. The challenges were themed each day to relate to our daily Bible Story as the kids learned about the life of King David. Their challenges included bravery, memory, skills, and patience. It was so much fun to see the kids try the activities and earn sticker points. Bravery was maybe the most enjoyed by the kids and included challenges with rats, worms, and cockroaches! These kids are fearless! I was walking around to all the challenges with a darling little 6-year-old who asked to "pet the cockroach" (when the challenge was only to take out an object from their jar) and further asked to repeat the challenge with putting her hand in a jar of worms saying she liked how the worms felt as they crawled between her fingers! Somehow, the 6-year-old convinced me to complete these challenges too... because when the cute little girl asks if you're also brave enough to hold the rat, pet the cockroach, and put your hand in a jar of worms, it's suddenly impossible to say "no."
During the skills challenges, the kids were asked to wrap my hand to show their doctor-caring skills; the key being they needed to figure out how to tuck the end of the wrap so the wrap wound hold. As two other leaders and I sat there for the challenge and the kids came up to ask what they had to do to complete the challenge, I decided to make it a little more exciting. We created a story where all three of us leaders had broken our wrists the previous evening involving a silly fight and very dramatic high-five! As the challenge time was coming to a close, three girls came to me saying they liked the wrap challenge the best, but now that they were already good at wrapping my hand, they thought they had better try to wrap my head! With much giggling, they successfully wrapped my head mummy-like.
With the last week of summer, I enjoyed many days of biking and reading. Though the weather was a bit rainy (and the forecast showed nonstop rain for the week), there was still a couple hours of sunlight each day. I'd watch the weather and then hop on my bike or grab the hammock and enjoy the sunshine. Even in the rainy weather, I was able to go on a hike with three friends (and a total of eight children). The kids and I liked watching the rain come in from the look-out tower and then hiding-out in the tower until the rain passed before we made our way back down the hill.
This week, we're getting ready to open up regular activities for the school year. Next week, we hope to start English Classes, Clubs, Youth Group, Bible Studies, as well as opening a new club location and possibly new activities!