What an awesome day it has been. We got to camp at around 9:30 and spent a bit of time getting all the campers unpacked and settled in. The rest of the morning was devoted to name games and ice breakers to get everyone acquainted and to allow the counselors to get to know the campers.
After lunch, we had our first activity periods. We generally have 4 90-minute activity periods each day, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. During these periods, the campers participate in our core activities. This afternoon the teams had the following activities.
Red Team: Giant Swing and sports
Light Blue Team: Crafts and river tracing
Green Team: River tracing and Ecology
Orange Team: Ecology and Giant Swing
Purple Team: Climbing and cooperative games
If you are wondering what team you child is on, and you didn't find out at the bus this morning, there is an easy way to find out. Follow the link to the photos below and begin with the tent pictures. Find your child and notice the color of the lanyard holding their name tags. Then you can look in that color folder for the rest of the photos.
We were lucky enough to have great weather today. It was a bit hot in the morning. When it is hot like that, we take special care to be sure that the campers are drinking water to stay hydrated and wearing hats and applying sunscreen when they are in the sun. It cooled off a bit by afternoon, which was very welcome.
While we had nice weather today, it is possible that we have periods of heavy rain and/or lightning sometime this week. This often elicits nervous phone calls. Don't worry. Although we don't let a little bit of rain stop our fun, if there is very heavy rain or any sign of lightning, we move the campers to a safe area and have indoor activities. We take the safety of your children very seriously, and will be sure to take good care of them.
The campers are eating dinner now. After dinner, they will spend a bit of time writing in their journals, and then they will have their opening campfire. We will sing some songs, tell some stories, and of course, roast some marshmallows.
That is all for now. Please see the link to the photos below.
Good night from Camp Taiwan.
Link to photos. (This link should allow you to view and download pictures without any further access or sign-in required.)
A note about photos. We give each team a camera with which to take photos during activities. They try their best to get good photos, but their first priority is managing the campers to be sure everyone is being safe and having fun. It is also important to remember that children act differently when being photographed. Some children turn to the camera and smile for a photo, while others turn away and hide their faces. We will take as many photos as we can and try our best to get photos of everyone's children eventually.