World Travelers Camp....oh and it's my one year in country today! eek!

A little while ago, I had what I consider to be my most successful project in site! I had mentioned earlier that I was doing a world traveler camp for kids this summer and it was just suchhhhh a success! Two other G-mates and I, Arianna and Bonna, decided to work on this together and then travel to each other’s sites to help out at their camps. It was so awesome to see other people’s sites and to watch them in action! We started off in Arianna’s site which is a lottt more campo than mine. She lives on a crazy dirt road, and it takes about 45 minutes (even though it’s like 10k…) to get to the nearest pueblo. Most of the people spoke guarani, so I was obviously completely lost the whole time, but it was amazing to see Arianna just killing it with her conversational guarani! We went to Bonna’s site next which is considered to be a large city. It was so interesting to see the differences in how each site’s camp was run. Then we made the 9 hour trek to my site. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, we only had to clean up my school a little bit because the “lindo-factor” is VERYYY important. Wednesday finally showed up and I was a little nervous no one would show up, it being summer and all and considering that that’s happened to me before. My first day had 8 kids, which at first disappointed me but ended up being a blessing in disguise because it was only me and Bonna working the camp in my site and three people are absolutely essential for a larger camp. I was really able to get to know my kids on a more one on one basis and the second and third day everyone camp back plus a few more!!! It was awesome because I was able to meet some new moms in my community and they seem very enthusiastic about working with me more in the future! Many of the kids even begged me to continue the camp after we had finished! What an excellllent feeling!

 

Here’s what we did:

First we made each kid a little homemade passport that they wrote their names on. Each day we would “travel” to 4 different countries around the world. We would start by showing them “where we are leaving” and putting that flag up on the wall and then a “where we are going” spot too for the next countries flag to go. We used a large world map and explained what continents are and what the 7 names are and then started with our countries for the day. One day 2 and 3 we would do a little review of where we traveled the previous days. Next we started our mini-presentations. We had a powerpoint for each country that gave little facts like the name of the capital city, what it’s money looked like, what language they speak, and then a few slides of the notable cultural things of that specific country. After this little lesson we would do either an art project or a physical activity correlating with that country. The kids obviously loved this part the most! Then we would have them line up and we would put a “stamp” (aka little paper squares that said the country name and had a cute little picture on it) in each kid’s passport and then we’d move on to the next country!

Day One:

Egypt – Toilet paper mummy race

Japan – Origami boats  

Iran – we played a game where one person hides 5-10 coins outside and all the kids have to find them (this was a favorite!)

Mexico – colored Day of the Dead sugar skulls

Day Two:

India – They colored a large elephant and then we played pin the tail on the elephant

Kenya – we went on a mini safari throughout the school’s patio! (Thanks Bonna for taking on that one!)

Peru – Llama art project, they colored the llama and then we had them glue on cotton balls for fur

Greece – Olympic games (we did three legged race, egg on the spoon relay race (holding it in your hand and also later in the mouth), wheel barrow races and a relay race using oranges)

Day Three:

China – we taught them how to hold chop sticks and then we made up a game where there were two teams, and each team had a pile of 15 leaves and 2 pine cones (extra points) and they had one minute to use the chop sticks to bring as many leaves over to a bowl that Bonna and I were holding a distance away. At first they thought it would be SO easy but then realized it was pretty tough and ended up loving the challenge. One of the most successful activities!

The Netherlands – Painted handprint tulips

Australia – decorated cardboard boomerangs then had a throwing contest where they had to throw it into a box

USA – Freeze tag and we also made chocolate chip cookies for the kids since it was the last day!

 

This was an amazing project! It was so exhausting but super successful!

 

  
 

Bonna's kids!

Elephant in Arianna's site

 

Sugar skull masks in Arianna's site

 

the LOVED musical chairs

Finished toilet paper mummy!

 

During the mummy race

Lindo origami boat!

 

Leti and Alma came to help on Day 1



egg race concentration!

team work coloring the elephant!

pinning the tail

the group!

Tulip handprints

 

PS. Today is my official one year in country! I CANNOT believe it! 15 months to go. I’m having a weird range of emotions where I’m so shocked I’m already at a year but also like…oh my god, it’s only been a year and I’m technically not even fully half way! Allllll of the feeeelingsss!