daily life.

Days in English Camp are anything but routine. However, considering that camp is officially halfway done after today, it only seemed right to try and give an insight into what a day of camp is like for me.


We start early, with a morning devotion around the pool at 8 am. Some days, like today's water balloon fight, require more preparation early in the morning. We started filling balloons at 6:30 am today. Usually though we have a short devotion and then have time to collect our stuff, fill water bottles, and grab breakfast before we start letting kids in at 8:40. We serve each kid a breakfast of an egg, a banana, and water that comes in a little pouch. Then morning assembly starts at 9 am, where we gather around the pool and have the kids stretch, do jumping jacks, sing songs, and hear a Bible story that's usually acted out by us. Almost every story can somehow incorporate one of us falling into the pool because the kids love that. 


Meanwhile, it's important to remember that camp involves 290 kids, plus 60 preschoolers who stay at the house all day. So there are 350 kids that come to the compound every day. After assembly, the kids get dismissed to their first class. So for me that means I bring my yellow girls (7-9 year olds) to an abandoned field where we have P.E. We play a lot of games, but their favorites are sharks and minnows and any kind of relay race. My translator, Emmanuel, is literally my savior. The kids all love him and he knows all the games we play so half of the time I don't even need to explain it to him, he just sets them up to play whatever activity we have for the day. Sometimes he even comes up with games they'd like whenever they get bored of what we're playing.


After forty-five minutes, we switch and I get my next group, the 7-9 year old brown boys! They're crazy and energetic and wild. They make me exhausted after every day but they can also be fun when they're not trying to beat each other up. Their favorite game, like most Haitian boys, is soccer. They love whenever they get to play, but they also get really into any kind of tag game. The hardest thing is getting them to listen and obey but Emmanuel is usually really good about knowing how to get through to them.


After brown, we go to lunch! For lunch and free time, as well as assembly, I stick with my first class - yellow. The Haitian ladies who work in the kitchen make lunch for the 350 kids plus volunteers every day - I don't know how they do it! But depending on the day, we have different things - rice and chicken, egg sandwiches, Haitian spaghetti (pasta with ketchup, mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato), or even hot dogs on Friday! We spend most of lunch making sure each kid has food, drinks, and a cookie for dessert, so I always end up eating pretty fast.


Then it's off to free time! We rent an unfinished house that's used for 5 classrooms and that's also where we usually have free time. Each day comes with a different activity. My girls love 7-up and they'd probably play every day if I let them, but they also play 4 corners, play-doh, charades, etc. Luckily I keep Emmanuel with me all day and they love playing with him during free time. 


After that, I have white group - 4-6 year old boys. They're by far the most rambunctious, uncontrollable, frustrating group I have, but they're also adorable and a joy to play with every day. They run around and don't really get any kind of organized game, but they never lack energy. What's tough is trying to control them enough to do anything.


My last class of the day is orange - 4-6 year old girls. Again, like white they don't really have any interest in organized games, but they could play duck duck goose all day long! They also love jump rope, and yesterday I spent most of their class teaching five little girls to play soccer. In Haiti girls aren't supposed or allowed to play soccer, so teaching them was so much fun. For both white and orange, I run P.E. more like recess than a class.


After orange, it's time for closing assembly. We walk back from the field to the pool and the kids get to sing another song, hear announcements about the day, and most importantly (to them, at least) hear how many points they earned. We use points to motivate classes to behave well, and they can earn up to 5 points in every class for good behavior. We give them a point each for being orderly and on time to class, listening, obeying, getting along with others, and participating. The group with the most points at the end of the week wins a pool party! It's a lot of fun to see how into it they get. Blue group (12-14 year old boys) won the first two weeks, but my girls beat them this week and they just finished their pool party. It was so much fun to watch them enjoy themselves.


After assembly ends a little after 2, the kids are dismissed and they usually hang out in the carport for awhile, so we play with them until their parents come pick them up or until they leave to walk home. There's also a man outside the gate who sells ice cream, and sometimes my kids will buy me a popsicle, which is always great. It's only 5 hours, but I'm exhausted at the end of every day, usually because I've been running around in the 100 degree heat all day long. However, even then, I usually stay after camp to help run activities for junior counselors. 


Junior counselors are kids that are too old for camp (15 and up) but they've usually been to camp before and act as mini leaders for whichever group they're placed with. There's often 1 or 2 junior counselors that are placed with each group to help with crowd control and make sure the kids are doing what they should be. Since they don't get paid like translators do, we feed them and let them do fun things after camp, like swim or play basketball or soccer at the house. They're all so funny and entertaining and full of life that I love being around them. 


After junior counselor activities are over, I usually either start helping with dinner or just take a nap until dinner! Once we make dinner (there's 30 of us when teams don't come in to volunteer, and last week there were 56 for dinner each night!) and clean up, we have a nightly devotion out around the pool and then free time until we go to bed. Days are full and busy and hectic, but 100% worth it and I wouldn't trade what I'm doing here for anything! I can't imagine any place I would rather be.