Session 4 Day 1

There will be a link to a Dropbox folder with pictures of the day's events at the bottom of this blog post. 本篇部落格文章底部會附上 Dropbox 資料夾連結，您可以在裡面查看當天活動的照片。

It has been a good start to the week at Camp. The weather is hot and dry, but there is a bit of a breeze, making to so much more comfortable than in Taipei.

When we arrived at camp, we got all the campers settled into their tents and unpacked. Then we had them all come up to the dining hall for a quick orientation. We go over the rules for everyone's safety. It is very important to us that everyone is safe here at camp, not just physically, but also treating and being treated with respect. We go over the expectations in a group and have each tent group sign a behavior contract. You can see a photo of each tent group and the behavior contract in the photo folder linked below.

After the orientation, we broke into our teams for ice-breaker and name games for the rest of the morning. This gives the campers a chance to get to know everyone, and for the counselors to learn all the campers' names.

For those of you who are new to Camp Taiwan, the campers are divided into teams of 12-15 campers and given a color. Hopefully, you noted the color of your camper's team when you dropped them off this morning. If not, you can find out by looking at the tent pictures in the folder linked below. When you find your camper, not the color of the lanyard on their nametag. That will help you locate their pictures for the rest of the week.

The day is divided into four 90-minute activity periods, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. The campers will rotate through the activities in their teams. There is also a rest period after lunch and another 90-minute evening program after dinner.

Today, the teams had the following activities:

Red Team: Sports

Blue Team: Giant Swing

Green Team: River Tracing

Orange Team: Catapult Games

Our Grey Team (20 teens) split into two groups switching between Archery and Climbing, so everyone got a turn at both.

Catapult games might need a little explanation. In keeping with our Medieval theme, the campers will construct a catapult out of PVC pipe, and play a series of games launching soft balls at targets.

For the last activity period of the day, all of the youth campers gathered for their first Wide Game of the session. Today’s program featured a collection of relay games, with several short challenges lasting about 15 minutes each.

Once the games were finished, the campers headed to the showers and then gathered in the dining hall for a delicious dinner.

We are ending arrival day with one of our favorite Camp Taiwan traditions: the opening campfire. The counselors have prepared songs and games, and we will finish the evening by roasting s’mores over the fire.

You can find a link to today’s photos in the Dropbox folder below. As mentioned above, if you do not know which team your child is on, begin with the tent pictures folder. Once you locate your child, look at the color of the lanyard attached to their name tag. This indicates their team. Most photos of your child will appear either in that team’s folder or in the folder for whole-camp activities.

That is all for tonight. The session is off to a wonderful start, and we are excited for another full day of activities tomorrow. Sleep well!

Dropbox link