The morning program is very much the same every day with the cycles of reading buddies, art and planned physical activities/games. All of this was very good again this week. It is the afternoon enrichments (1 to 2:15) that are unique each week. The theme this week was Global Education and Cultural Diversity. This focus is one of our stated programmatic objectives.
• Monday – Haiti
Marion Wagner and Patsy Smart from Resurrection Catholic Church came with many items for the kids to see and talk about. They learned a bit of geography, and talked about life in Haiti. This included housing, schools, roads, climate, poverty, the orphans, etc. The kids were very attentive and asked good questions. Actually, we could have used more time for their program. We have the children divided in to three groups by age. As one group meets with the guest facilitators, the other groups are working with the interns on activities related to the main theme. On this day they had a program about food in Haiti and got to taste foods like plantains. In the third group the kids were making simple kites. This is a popular activity in Haiti. Every 25 minutes the children would rotate to another station. By the end of the program each child had taken part in all three activities. Managing the schedule can be a challenge! It was a very good day and the kids do like the diverse activities.
• Tuesday – Malawi
Pastor Philip Bouknight from Trinity Ecumenical Parish was our facilitator today. Philip has spent a lot of time helping the people of this small African country. Again, the kids were very interactive with Philip as he talked about life in Malawi. As with all the countries we visited, the children learned a few words of the local language. Today it was Chichewa, a language commonly spoken in Malawi along with Swahili. The children could see the contrasts between life in America and life in Malawi. I think the idea that these children have so much less than children in the U.S. makes an impression. You can hear this in their questions.
David Fox, also from TEP, was our facilitator today. He lived in Guatemala with his parents and graduated from high School there. So, David has wonderful first-hand knowledge to share. As with the other countries and cultures we visited, the kids were engaged and curious. In addition to the time with David, the kids sampled Guatemalan food and crafts. One of our interns, Alice Ann, is also fluent in Spanish so she facilitated the station on food. Another rich day!
• Thursday – Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska
Today we stayed in the U.S. but traveled to a small village in the Brooks Range Mountains in the Arctic Circle. Sally Johnston, who currently lives and works there with her husband Keith, sent us video clips and other materials for us to use in telling the kids about life in this remote village of about 300 people including about 100 children. It is hard for any of us to imagine living in a place you can’t drive to or go to a McDonalds for a Big Mac. So the kids had many questions and great curiosity. Angela Massino coordinated this enrichment program using the video clips of interviews with some of the kids from the village. Across the hall, Hannah was using other video clips of Inupiat dances to teach the kids some of the dances. Among her other gifts, Hannah took several years of dance as a child. She did a great job of using 25 minutes to teach the basics to kids 6 to 10 years old. And, in another room, the children heard Inupiat words as the interns read through the alphabet book written by children in Anaktuvuk Pass as they colored pictures of caribou; another fascinating afternoon!
Yes… this is our facilitator for today, Angela Massino. This was also imagination day so the kids and the interns were in costume. The videos are even better
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It is a true pleasure for me to watch and listen to the diverse activities at the camp. As a witness to these things I also hope to share what I have seen and what I have heard. Here are a few from this week.
• The time between 11:45 and lunch at 12 noon has been difficult to program with activities that keep the kids’ engaged. The interns (actually I am told it was Angela’s idea) came up with a simple and effective activity – the one minute story time. The kids volunteer to tell a story to their group in one minute. It can be a true story or something made up. It can be a real whopper. It has been a hit and the kids love it. This is another opportunity for the children to practice their communication skills – this time through speaking.
• This seems to be Angela’s week, but I have to tell a quick story. One of the boys had a meltdown during an activity in the gym. He was taken out of the activity and told to sit with me on the bleachers. He began crying and hitting himself and this went on for 10 or 15 minutes. We ignored him while making certain he wasn’t hurting himself. Finally, I took him (still crying) to the next activity in his classroom and then to the next room where Angela was cleaning up the art supplies. The crying continued and I left for a few minutes to take care of another task. When I returned, he had stopped crying and was actively talking with Angela. She was very focused and working with him on anger management using the things we had learned during peace week. She had him practicing jumping off the anger escalator, taking three steps back, taking a deep breath and practicing what he should say to Miss Nalina (his other intern) about the problem. They went over and over this until she was satisfied that he “got it.” It was wonderful to simply sit quietly and watch all of this unfold. I know that seeds were being sown. He was a fortunate boy that morning.
• Near the end of the week Shearer realized that we were ahead on several of the food items and would not be able to use them by the end of this camp. She made the decision to put much of this food out for families to take at the end of the day on Friday. What followed demonstrated what we don’t ordinarily see – many of these families don’t have enough food at home. So, people gratefully helped themselves to our extra food. Small boxes and bags were filled and nothing was left at the end of the day.
• At church today one of my friends was asking about camp and was especially interested in the duties of the camp director. As I described the dozens of tasks involved in that position she then added “and supervising the interns.” This was a teaching moment for me. So… I explained that we aren’t organized that way, that we work in a collegial manner and the director is part of the team. I then explained that the interns don’t really need to be “supervised.” We recruit the brightest and best young adults we can find who are already committed to service work. We provide them with a week of training, a detailed planning format, the resources they need, and treat them like professionals. The results are easy to observe. Our interns are doing wonderful work and it is a pleasure to work with them as a colleague. All of us are blessed to have them in our community this summer.
Next week is the last week of this camp. The enrichment focus is on healthy living and the Roanoke Children’s Theatre will be with us every afternoon beginning at 12:30. They will be teaching the kids a play – “Cooking It” and on Friday at 2 p.m. they will give us a performance. That will be followed by clowns, ice cream and other fun things as our ending celebration.
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