August 28th-30th: Sports Camp!
So to inaugurate the new school year I took two of the kids to my community to a sports camp that a group of volunteers and I organized. There were about twenty-two kids and eleven volunteers, which was a nice, manageable amount of people. I brought one boy and one girl from my community, neither of which had ever traveled as far as we did the first day to get to camp (it was about a four hour trip, probably about eighty miles, but it took so much longer because of public transportation).
The first day there we did some activities to promote good sportsmanship, then a group of volunteers taught the kids how to play kickball and we organized several games. After that the kids went to the pool for swim lessons and games, and then had time to shower and rest before dinner. After dinner we did team building activities and had “reflection” time where we broke into groups and talked about our day.
The second day we woke up in the morning at about 6 am—none of the kids could stay quite till the designated 7am wake up call-- and did yoga with all the kids (they definitely thought it was funny at first, but calmed down and seemed to enjoy it by the end). They then jumped in the pool and afterwards we coaxed them out for breakfast. After breakfast a group of volunteers went over the rules to play soccer, and then the kids played till they got tired out. After a snack, another volunteer and I did a presentation on good nutrition and had them play games to learn about the different food groups. After that, we ate lunch and came back to play volleyball. I did a short session on the rules and techniques for volleyball and we went and played. We ended that session with two games of volunteers vs. kids, and I am sad to say that my team lost :(.
After more shower time, we had divided the boys and girls and had a “taking care of your body session” which lead to many interesting questions (on the girls’ side at least). Then it was dinner time, and we had planned a bonfire, but it began to rain and we had to make a makeshift bonfire out of construction paper inside the gazebo and eat our smores uncooked. It didn’t matter though, the kids were happy anyways, and just played dominoes and sand and danced around the rest of the night.
The next day, after another yoga session and breakfast, we reviewed what we had learned and handed out certificates and medals. The kids were definitely sad to leave! On the way back, we passed through Santo Domingo and I gave my kids a tour of the Peace Corps office. They loved it and wanted to stay there for longer than we could. They came back tired but happy!
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