Half Day School Camping Trip

Camping Trip!
Near the end of the school year, the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th graders from the half day school went on a camping trip to a national park about two hours away from Mae Sai, called Huai Mae Sak Park. About 37 kids went all together, 6 teachers, and 3 volunteers. This was at the entrance to the park.


On the way to the camp. Happy and excited. These girls are originally from Burma, but now live here, but are not eligable for school in Thailand since they don't have Thai citizenship, so they come to the half day school.


We arrived in the afternoon, and immediately there were teachers and adults coming off the bus with machete-s in hand, and started choppin old palm fronds, cutting down bamboo, and collecting vines. Later we found out that all of it was for this "Fear Factor" obstacle course. Here the kids had to crawl for about 30 feet under this tunnel while Pi Gope (Frog), pours colored water from the sprinkler, then another helper pours powder on them after they get wet.


Then at the end of the tunnel...you face is covered with a paint mixture they made- baby powder mixed with Poster Paints and water. Notice she put her shoes on her hands so for extra support.


This was the last station. The second was crossing a bamboo pole over a creek. Next crossing a rope across a creek, then climbing a rope, then crawling on their hands thru the murky stinky creek under bamboo branches.




After the obstacle course the kids got to take a bath/shower in the WATERFALL!. real pretty. And the water was pretty clean too. It was real cute how they'd lay back and let the water pour over their hair. They actually had a real bathroom they could take a second shower in.


I think they intended the camp to be fun relaxing time, but also a team building time. They mixed up the grades on different teams of colors. I was just surprised that the kids went along with the obstacle course. Not much complaining or griping at all.

To reiterate that point-the kids making dinner. Turns out the kids also brought their macheties to cut their own firewood for their dinners. I think the most quotable quotation from Pilar (another volunteer) and I was: "Where is the adult supervison?" The kids just walked up a hill with all their ingredients and lugged their water up there and the fire wood. Then they just made their own fires and knew how to make rice over a fire, and many other main dishes- wok fried vegetables, soups, porridge. Very impressive. I also like the use of natural vegetation for lids- they used banana leaves to cover the rice while it cooked (as seen in midground).


Quite possibly my favorite moment in the North so far. The first night they tied the hands of the kids together, as shown, and made them walk the 15 minutes up to the waterfall together. We thought that was it, butttttt on the way back, the flashlights were taken away and they walked back in pairs with only a candle....anddddd the adults were hiding behind trees and rocks and scared the kids. Pilar and I had a blast jumping out and pretending we were ghosts and werewolves and your basic jungle boogyman.


ehh- a scene across from the food prep area.


The second day some adults went on a walk to place clues for a little scavenger hunt through the bamboo forest.


We woke up early- hence the sun...and I didn't eat breakfast yet...and I was hungry.


Ahh yes, back to more interesting pictures, on the way back from the scavenger hung the kids played on the tarzan vines, this was a natural swing.





My friend swinging on a real tarzan vine, and Pilar in the background on the swing. Som Chai is pretty sweet. He is 18, from Burma and lives at the center with his little sister. His sister goes to school, but he works about 19 hours a day. Just tonight, I went to the kitchen room at 9:15pm, and he was just then eating dinner. He does a lot of the miscellaneous things around the school- hauling leaves, cleaning, unloading stuff. But I'm glad he's having a fun time here.


A cute little boy.



Ehh, a butterfly fell in the creek. Don't worry it was dead before i got there.


Where is the adult supervision? The boys making a HUGE bonfire.


The bonfire in action. They sang some songs and did some little skits around it.



Look closely, this is the tree with the big bean pods. Its right in the center of the picture, a little to the left...and looks like 3 or 4 tan circles. But in reality the pod is about 2 feet long.


My favorite kid. Some how he has real nice style, can play the guitar and sing, and play soccer. The new volunteer, Steve, is teaching them how to play baseball. But at camp they improvised with pieces of bamboo for bats, and some kind of nut instead of baseballs.


Ahh. This was a hilarous game they played while waiting for the bus to pick us up. Pretty self explanitary-you blindfold two people spin them around, then the first to hit the other on the head with the water bottle wins. Its really most funny for the audience.


And we're done. On the bus the kids were wiped out. Real cute tho- all leaning on each other sleeping.