Hokey Pokey No More

October 24, 2007


Our three-day-long day camp adventure has finally ended today, and although it was great fun, and the kids absolutely loved it, I’m definitely glad it’s over.

The irony of this is just overwhelming. There were just three of us at Annau School #16 and we had over SIXTY kids show up today, on the last day. Over fifty came yesterday and we had around 35-40 on Monday.

Between the three of us, we spent about $8 altogether on supplies. That’s less than $3 a day to put these day camp activities together.

And the kids absolutely adored it.

We introduced them to the hokey pokey, duck duck goose, pictionary, and much much more. I have to say I’m just completely baffled by the little tiny things that make these kids so happy.

Many times after dinner I’ll go outside and play with the kids in my host family but at first I was very, very confused.

“Anjelie! Basketball! Play basketball!” they said.

“Ummm…but there’s no basket. Basket, nirede?” I asked.

“Basket yok!” they replied and just pointed to two different areas to show that those were the ‘baskets’.

And so we played basketball. And then volleyball. And we played some sort of weird version of bowling, and their version of dodgeball which I still don’t really understand.

The point is, that even with an old, half-flat soccer ball you can have the best time of your life, and if you show up somewhere, and give some kids your time and attention, they will soak it up and it will have an effect on them.

I love being here.