Indian Camp

I've managed to encounter one of the school's infamous "event days", where the kids and staff all come in on a Saturday (rude) for some sort of themed day of activities.

This past saturday was "Indian Day". And by Indian, they definitely meant Native American, much to the confusion of the kids, since there are a couple of Indian (subcontinent) students at the school. The activities and vocabulary stuff they learned would have made any teacher in America wince, if not gear up for a racism lawsuit. There was "hunting", a few teepees, as well as an "Indian dance", set to the oh-so-politically correct "Why is the red man red?" from Peter Pan... My job was to man the bracelet station. Basically, the kids picked two colors of yarn, then twisted them together and I had to tie them. The idea was for them to be "health" bracelets, but most of the classes just stared at me totally clueless as I was trying to explain it. Oops? We were set up in this little tent, which was crazy hot, even on top of the already crazy hot day. Ughhh.

Oh, did I mention we had to wear costumes? I made a shirt out of brown paper bag, felt, and a hot glue gun. I drew a salmon on the one side and wrote "EOS Indian Camp" on the other, EOS being the name of the school.

Throughout the ENTIRE DAY there was this song playing. Over. And. Over.

"Going camping, going camping, camping out under the stars (x2). We're taking our gear and food along, camping out under the stars. We're making a cheer and singing a song, camping out under the stars!" Repeat times infinity. And of course there's a dance to go with it... Of course.

In any case, we made it through the day (touch and go), and when it was time to leave, all of the Dolphin students were crying because it was Kelli's last day. One of them (the most ADD child probably in the universe) said, "Kelli Teacher, after today, no more meeting?" And then she started bawling, which set off all the kids and an adorable group hug. I almost cried too just watching. One of the girls was crying so much she got embarassed and put her face in the corner and refused to look at anyone.

When the parents came to pick up their kids, they were still crying or showing signs of having just cried, and of course that's the exact moment I got to meet most of their parents. Obviously they knew what was happening but it was awkward to try to meet them while they're trying to comfort their children... Hopefully my second meeting with them will be a little better....

After Indian Camp ended, the English teachers plus my co-teacher (Korean counterpart) went out in full Indian Costume, much to the amusement/astonishment of the other people at the bar. But the nightlife here is another post in and of itself...