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| Exhibit A |
While
students in the US are gearing up for the final push until the winter holidays,
MPI Guatemala has commenced summer camp. This is the second year of summer
camp, which runs three mornings a week for 5 weeks. With only 2 PDs and a Country Director, the weeks leading up
to camp were a flurry of successful recruitment that produced: Brendan, our new
month-long housemate; and Roberto, a Guatemalan involved in our leadership course. We also recruited
some part time help from Jared, an old PD; his girlfriend Sarah; and Jose, our favorite local English teacher. Feeling more confident with 8
counselors, we began to plan themes and subjects for camp. Each week we are in
a different ecosystem: desert, rainforest, ocean, urban, and artic. Every
Tuesday the kids have science and art class. Wednesdays are then English and
sports, and each Thursday is an all-camp activity.
Roberto
asked to teach English, Cameron quickly claimed sports and Brendan was assigned
science. Dana asked me if I wanted to teach art. This was definitely not because I was the only person left, but because she
probably sensed my artistic creativity. I call your attention to Exhibit A. Entitled Pu Pu Platter of Desserts,
I made brought this masterpiece home in 3rd grade, and it has been featured prominently in my parents' house since. My mother, referencing the
many layers of meaning in the piece, lovingly refers to it as the “PooPoo
Platter.” Clearly I was up to the challenge.
After
an intense brainstorming session, I decided to get all my arts and crafts
projects off the Internet. Why recreate the wheel when there are perfectly nice
ones online? So during desert week, my first project was making binoculars, an
essential desert tool that allows you to see some sand that’s far away as
opposed to the sand that’s right under your feet.
I
also got to lead the first Thursday all-camp activity last week. I made a
treasure hunt for the kids that took them all over their community. The idea
was that they were lost on a desert island without food or water and to get
food and water (nutritious and filling candy and juice boxes) they had to
follow all the clues back to the treasure. There were a few things that I had
failed to anticipate for this hunt: 1) these kids obviously knew
their community and all of its “shortcuts” like the back of their hands where
as I was only familiar with the main road. 2) children run very fast and
don’t like to be told to, “WAIT UP!” by the gringa wheezing 30ft behind them. I
wish I could say I handled everything with grace like when we were running
through a cornfield and the kids, matter-of-factly, told me, “Don’t speak or
the dogs will get you.” However, I cannot. There was a moderate amount of
panicking on my part throughout the entire race, which none of my male
counterparts seemed to share. I don’t know why that was. The one thing keeping
me going was my conviction that we were going to win. I had designed the hunt
myself and there was no way that Roberto and Brendan’s team was going to beat
Cameron and my team. Much to my dismay and consternation, we did not win. How
did my team lose the game that I had designed you might ask? Well, it wasn’t my
fault. Obviously, the other team cheated.
As
our second successful week of camp draws to a close, I have begun to
rethink career options. Is there such a thing as a professional summer camp
counselor? While teaching during the school year is great, camp has proven even
more fun and rewarding. All the kids at camp have signed up to participate and
they genuinely want to be there, which is not always the case during the
mandatory school year classes. These kids have made coming to camp a priority
and fit their chores around it.
And while we are still teaching, the main objective is that everything
is fun. I just hope the kids are
getting as much out of camp as I am.
-Emily
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