Catch-Up

Well, I'm back from camp and finally have some time to tell you about it! Are you ready?

Originally the plan was to have three back-to-back English camps from January 24th until February 13th. Each was going to be a week although we knew the number of students present each week would change. Well, in His sovereignty, there was another plan.

We had a large group of about 40 campers for the first week. The majority of these students were from Da Yan, a city east of Hailar. Since they were mostly from the same school, the group worked well together, both in classes and during recreation activities. Together, the students and we staff felt our way through THE first winter camp at Shamineau East! We broke in new ice skates, inner tubes, scooters and gas heaters. We also broke the heat in John's car... Fortunately the car heat was repaired fairly quickly with only one very cold trip back to the city and we were able to continue using the car for the week to take trips up the mountain for sledding.

During classes we focused on American holidays. Through these we were able to introduce the historical lives of Harriet Tubman, Mary Lincoln, St. Valentine, Santa Claus and Mary the mother of Jesus with dramatic monologues. The students learned many Christmas songs and even watched a few videos pertaining to the curriculum. Students also participated in presenting class dramas at the end of the week. My class presented the story of Mulan, complete with every fight scene, intermittent mumbling in Chinese when a line was forgotten, and props including arrows, fireworks, and cannons. Overall the students did very well and took pride in learning their lines (or actions) and performing well.

Despite all my training in working with ESL children, I struggled all week with teaching each class. Perhaps it was due to the range of students, but I found it quite difficult to teach so that every student understood, particularly when there were two students in my class who refused to speak English. However, there were three or four students who were very excited about speaking and learning so I learned to follow their drive and relied on them to translate to the lower student when needed. Yes Bush, I left students behind. I was able to connect with one of the two lower students towards the end of the week. He was an older boy in high school who came knowing absolutely no English. Through an interpreter, he and a few other students joined me for the better part of an hour picking through all the songs on my computer, sharing with each other favorites and such. For not knowing any English, he was familiar with quite a few songs! Although I'm here to teach English, I often have to remind myself that above all I simply need to show love. Even when I know my love is genuine, I feel it hard to express such emotion without sounding fake. I'll keep working on that.

Midway through the camp a colleague and brother, Bruce (on the right) joined us at the camp. He led our meetings each morning, providing needed encouragement and giving an amazing example of how to live a life that does not follow our own desires and plans. Although he was roughly the same age as the rest of my team members, and not exactly a peer (for which I am longing) it was a joy to have him with us for a week.

After our first week of camp, we were planning for a smaller second week. Our third week of camp at that time was worrisome since we didn't know of any students who wanted to come and were debating whether to call it off. Well, on the morning of the 31st of January, as we were preparing for students to arrive, John decided to cancel the second camp and combine those students with the third camp prospective attendees. So, after a long and stressful week full of students, we all had a few days to relax and recuperate at the camp.

I returned to Hailar on the 3rd, attended fellowship the next morning and a study in the afternoon, shopped on Monday and then returned to the camp on Tuesday morning. Although we all could have jumped right into another group of students for the second camp, we were all grateful for the time to rest. Because of the week off, I think we all came back with more passion and excitement, ready to greet the next group of students on the 7th.

The second camp was a bit different from the first. We had about 20 students who were mainly from Labudalin and Hailar, but most of them didn't know each other. We also had quite a lot of teachers and University students. So the ability levels of the students were wide, but more defined than the first week. This made splitting the students into classes much easier. Sherry taught the teachers and university students, I took the students at an intermediate level and Mary (who speaks the most Chinese) taught the beginner students, who were very beginner.

One of the students from the school I've visited in Hailar was in my class and two of the teachers from this school also attended the class. I enjoyed getting to know them all in a more relaxed setting. I am hoping that once school begins again I will be able to develop a deeper relationship with my co-workers.

The second camp ended on the 13th but we had a group of high school students from Hailar that John has been studying with join us on the 13th and 14th. We had a bit of a Valentine's celebration (as much of one as can be held among 3 Christmas trees) and watched 5 movies in 2 nights.

And now I'm back home in Haiar preparing for the Spring Festival and trying to meet everyone's request to visit them during the festival. I'll hopefully catch-up on posting photos and more elaborate stories in the next few days.