So this was the event in April that I had been dreading ever since I read about it on Geoff's blog (the fellow who came to Macau last year). I know I shouldn't have let his experience influence my own... but it sounded like it was pretty crazy last year! All I remember was that students didn't sleep, they broke things in the convent & the teachers were exhausted!!!
Hong & I didn't know the students before going on this camp, so we knew that we were in for a challenge. We all met at the school early on Monday morning, had a meeting about the camp, sent some girls home to change because they were dressed inappropriately, and waited for the bus to pick us up. During the meeting Mr. Wong (the gym teacher) was scribbling down things & pointing to students, I assumed he was writing down names, but we didn't know what he was doing.. until later.
When we first got to the camp, we split up into our colour groups (I was team Blue) & made name tags, did some ice breaker activities, etc. I could instantly see a difference with these students compared to those in Grade six in Canada. They behaved like junior high students.. attitude & all. I later found out that many of the students have failed in the previous years so some of them are as old as 15!!! In Grade six!! I had this one boy in my group (who I was warned about before... that he is 'quite naughty'), he's about 6'3'' & about 300 lbs (wait, who am I kidding, I am HORRIBLE with guessing weight... he could have been 350-375 for all I know) :).
All of the groups got together to play some large group activities... which... did not go well. For about 2 hrs Hong & I tried to play many different games to figure out what the heck these kids were going to do for 3 days... but with every activity, they were 'too cool' to participate. It was frustrating. Only the morning had passed, and we had a long while ahead of us.
The first day was quite long as we were restricted to the convent & it appeared as though everything we tried, the students didn't respond to. Near the end of the day, we set up a relay which surprisingly went very well... I think we tapped into their competitive sides. So, pretty much everything from then on involved some form of competition within their teams. That night we played pictionary, card games, etc giving points to the winning teams. While we were planning the camp, we had made up a tentative plan to keep score of the games & give a prize to the overall winning team of the camp. We weren't sure if this would work though... my Grade ones don't enjoy competitive games, they get very upset when they lose, mock losing teams, etc... so I thought this may be true of the Grade sixes as well. Turns out - they loved it!
After dinner, the students showered & got ready for bed. It was during this time that we found out why Mr. Wong was scribbling names at the meeting!! He arrived at the camp around 9pm to help with the 'naughty boys' rooms'. Immediately once he arrived, he pulled some students out of the room & set them up at a table to do some work. We initially thought they had homework for them... but turns out they were being punished for not listening during the meeting or for not going to sleep, so he made them write lines. I haven't seen anything like it! Mr. Wong was a HUGE help. He stayed in the room with the 'naughty boys' and floated in & out of the other boys' room (there was a total of about 30 boys & 12 or so girls, girls were upstairs).
We found out the next morning that the boys didn't sleep until about 1 or 2am & then some of them woke up at 5/6 am. So Mr. Wong didn't get much sleep. Before breakfast, he held a gym class for the boys & made them do their 'exercises', it was pretty funny... while the girls stumbled out of bed, showered (AGAIN!) & took an hour to do their hair! haha
There wasn't much served for breakfast, each student only had about one piece of bread with some PB on it & some fruit... so they were pretty hungry. I felt so bad for this one little boy who kept trying to sneak some more food (even though there were still some kids that had yet to eat) because he was so hungry!
We spent the day at Hac Sa beach, which I went to with my parents & Chelsea the weekend before to show them around Taipa. It was a beautiful day at the beach & the kids had a lot of fun. We BBQ some food, played some competitive games & also gave the kids some free time to roam around & come & go as they please. We got to know the students a little bit better on this day, and it was much less stressful!
That evening we were anticipating Ms Ng to come after our "Awards ceremony" to drive us back to Macau so that we could pack and get ready for Beijing. I think we were slightly eager to leave because as soon as she arrived we threw on our backpacks & waited at the door for her. ha! She told us that we would leave later... so we went and watched the movie with the kids for a bit & hung out with all of the other teachers that came that evening as well. Carlos (the assistant VP) came as well (... for a photo op only) & so we talked with him for a bit as well. & he was just so hilarious (I'm being sarcastic). He whipped out his calendar & was like 'Oh I'm running a camp in June & since you guys won't have lessons then, I would like you to run the 5 or 6 day camp with me'. My mouth dropped and I was boiling over on the inside. I did not want to do another camp. haha Technically, according to the University, we are only supposed to be working for 12 hrs/week, which is great. So this 3 day camp exceeded this by a lot - a 5 or 6 day camp????? NO thank you!!! I don't know if he was joking or not... but I sure wasn't when I kindly declined the offer. :)
We were exhausted when we got home from the camp, but eager to get on that plane to Beijing!!
