Today was the first day of our English camp here in Yuli. It was only a half-day actually, starting at 1:30 pm, and the day’s activities generally involved check-in, testing, and keeping-the-kids-happy-during-testing. We have a bit of a challenge with the setting for our camp – it’s a very small, new school with only a few classrooms for the seventy-one kids we have attending. But we cram them into the rooms all right.
Testing all the little darlings took ages, but I had about the easiest job since I was the test supervisor. So all I had to do was sit there, sort slips of paper into groups, and look official. Jocelyn, Jon-Eric, Jo and Christina did the actual testing, lucky them! Meanwhile, Ben and the TAs kept the kids (somewhat noisily) occupied in the large group room downstairs. We wondered what they were doing … and so, I’m sure, did our neighbors down the street. And our neighbors in the next county. It was, well, it was LOUD.
When we finally finished with testing, we hauled ourselves and our stacks of scoring papers downstairs where the kids were finishing up in large group. And we found out why they had been so noisy. In one-and-a-half hours, they had learned about eight (or was it eight dozen?) songs, including one of the most unique renditions of “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy” I have ever witnessed in my life. Wow. It wasn’t just a song, it was an experience. Picture seven excited teachers and seventy-one keyed-up kids belting out “I’ve got the joy JOY joy JOY joy JOY joy JOY down in my HEARRRRT…” with about enough electrical energy to keep the entire city of Yuli powered for a week. It was hysterical and the kids were loving it. I would have joined in too except that I was laughing so hard I was crying …
After that, we had about twenty minutes of get-to-know-you time in small groups before the kids were dismissed to go home. I’m teaching the highest level, and it’s so much fun to be able to talk to kids again in English. They’re so much more advanced than the students I teach every day at my small rural schools. They’re plenty rowdy though – I’m very thankful for my TAs, Amy and Alice. What would we ever do without teacher’s assistants?
Please keep us in your prayers … especially me. I hear that tomorrow I get to act in a skit which will involve Ben cracking an egg over my head. *shudder* God gives grace for these moments. There’s also something else called shampoo.
Blessings!
From Hualien, this has been Bethany Ingebretson reporting.
