Session 6 Day 2: Waking Up at Camp

Today was the first full day of camp. It is something of an adventure for the campers to be waking up at camp and going through the morning routine of brushing teeth, washing their faces, etc. all by themselves. Living together with new people and sharing a space is also a new experience and a great learning opportunity.

After we got everyone up and fed, we continued with our rotation activities. The campers had the following schedules.

Red and Pink teams (combined): Giant Swing, Sports, and Archery

Orange team: River Tracing, Crafts, and Climbing

Green team: Archery, Climbing, and Giant Swing

Blue team: Sports, Giant Swing, and STEM

Gray team (teens): Zip line, Archery, Cooperative Games, and Giant Swing.

The morning went pretty smoothly, but we had quite a large thunderstorm in the afternoon. I don't think it was anywhere near as big as what people in Taipei experienced. Storms often come up from the south and, but there is a mountain between us and Taipei City that usually keeps most of the rain and lightning in Taipei. Fortunately, the storm hit when all the camper were inside, so we just had to wait it out. We continue our regular activities in light to moderate rain, but rest assured that if there is lightning in the area or if there is very heavy rain, we move all the campers indoors to a safe place.

For the youth campers, our third period was what we call Tent Time. This is a chance for the campers in one tent to discuss with their counselors and come up with an activity that they want to do as a small group. This is a gives the campers a chance to have some choice in their activities as well as giving the small tent group a chance to bond over a shared activity. This was supposed to be our fourth period, but because of the weather, we rescheduled it to be the third period. For most of the groups they did either crafts or learned a new table game since they opted not to go out in the rain.

By the fourth period, the rain was light enough that we could go out and do our regularly planned activities. We still needed to wear our raincoats since it was raining slightly, but it wasn't enough to stop our fun.

After the fourth period, the campers had a chance to take a hot shower and put on some dry clothes before coming up for dinner. After dinner, they had a bit of time to write in their journals before playing the nighttime game. It has stopped raining, but the ground is still pretty wet, so we opted for an indoor game again. We call this the flashlight game. A counselor sits blindfolded in a dark room surrounded by various items designed to make some noise. The campers take turns trying to sneak the objects out of the area without getting tagged by the counselor's flashlight.

That is all for tonight. Remember to check out the pictures of today's activities.

Dropbox link to Day 2

A quick note the some of the Orange Team river tracing photos. Unfortunately, at the waterfall, there was a sunbeam poking through the trees that landed right of the faces of some of the children, so that the center of the photo is overexposed. It seemed like it would be a good photo at the time, but it didn't work out that way. We didn't notice it until we got back.