Session 6 - Suzuka
The second camp at Suzuka was a little shakier but also a success I think. I took an AD (American Director) role in this camp, which meant that I had to deal with the setup and cleanup of activities like Carnival and My Town, and just keep an eye on the ACs. It’s funny, when I was an AC, I thought I’d like to help with the setup and whatnot and let others be the AC, but now after having done both, I’d rather be an AC than an AD. It really does depend on the camp, because at Nagasaki, everyone pitched in to help with setup and cleanup, and the AD just managed the schedule and talked at the major meetings, and the JD (Takeo) introduced the activities and also acted as a JC where needed, while also talking to facility people. At this camp, it is the AD who does all the setup and whatnot by his lonesome, and the JC only translates and deals with facility people.
Also, there can be a tension between the AD and the JD. I’ve worked with Yoko now for several camps now, and I think we still haven’t found a good power balance. I’m trying to treat her as an equal, but it see-saws back and forth more often than not. She doesn’t translate very literally at all either when I say something, but takes a lot of liberties to cleanup and spice up what I say. She does it well, but at the same time, it’s not me, and sometimes I think it doesn’t really matter what I say. I’m not sure if she knows how much I can understand of her Japanese, and I wonder if other ADs have the same problem at different camps or not. But I digress.
The first day was games, games, and more games. We had Icebreakers, then Activity Stations, then Carnival. After dinner we had My Story, then a Dance Party.
The My Story was really tough because the English level of these kids was so low. Yoko had to translate a lot, and was busy going from group to group. There were a few questions that people skipped more often than not, because it just wasn’t worth the effort. Needless to say, everyone used both My Story sessions to the fullest trying to get the kids ready, and there was no way that they could memorize their My Story.
The Dance Party went well. Yoko was entertaining and leading a bunch of the girls with what looked like Tai-bo moves, and Dawn helped out there, while us guys entertained the boys primarily, and a few of the straggler girls. We had some prescribed dances, such as the Macarenca, YMCA, and the Locomotion which all the kids could do, and enjoyed. The Locomotion was also funny because Chris wrapped the circle closer and closer until everyone was more or less spinning in a tight circle. When the train finally broke, all the kids were super dizzy and falling over. Everyone laughed and had a good time however.
When the Dance Party was done the kids were tired, but in a good way. The fact that asked Yoko if they could do another Dance Party speaks pretty loudly in my book. In fact, we did do a little more dancing as well, during the Campfire, with the Hokey-Pokey and YMCA. We would have done the Macarena had Yoko not accidentally kicked the boombox and scratched the CD causing that track to skip.
Other activities that the kids did included the Skit, which worked out reasonably ok. Some of the counselors took the easy way out and made simple skits, one of which one first place just because the kids had memorized all their lines, even if the props were primitive and the story short. I think the group that did Momotaro was excellent, but they didn’t have their lines memorized, which is a shame.
I don’t know if it is just how the Nagasaki camp worked or not, but generally, when I had a group that finished early, I would just go outside, weather permitting, and do something, and felt no reservations about doing so. With this group of counselors however, they seemed to think that that was forbidden for some reason, and so we had kids running and playing in the room, which got really loud, and a bit dangerous. When I suggested that they move the kids outside, they all gave me the “I can do that?” look, and then did so.
Another thing I usually did is I took my group away from the main mass, and found a quiet spot somewhere that I generally used for all my activities. This group of ACs seem to think that they have to use the room, or at least the lobby, and rarely go outside for activities at all, which is another thing that puzzles me. If the room works for them, I suppose who am I to say otherwise?
Anyway, My Town was a lot better than most My Towns we’ve had just because we had more kids. I was happy when I got Akari and Yayoi to smile at the 1-Bounce, because they always seemed a little sad at camp. We blew through 155 raffle tickets, which is insane, and I think they all had fun. We had one girl, Akari, throw up afterwards, probably from too much candy, but she still wanted to do the Scavenger Hunt.
The Scavenger Hunt could have sucked, but I think turned out ok. It had rained the first day, and the morning of the second, which had me worried that we couldn’t do the Scavenger Hunt nor the campfire. As such, we had made up a secondary Scavenger Hunt for indoors, which sort of sucked. Luckily, it stopped raining and turned out to be a nice day, so we defaulted to the regular list. I had a bit of fun being the AC they had to find and answer my question. We also added on that they had to find a smores stick to use during the campfire that night.
Nights were a good bit of fun, because Paul and I figured out that the boys liked the Game Boy Advance a lot, and we each had one. They would sit and watch me play Mario Kart, and were happy when I let them try. I felt a bit guilty about letting them play games at a camp when they should be hanging out playing with counselors and so stopped giving them my GBA after a while, but Paul let them play his. So, when they weren’t playing the GBA, they were either throwing a ball around the room, playing with John, and just talking with each other. English conversation was difficult with them just because of their English level, so we didn’t press the issue. They were also great because they went to bed at lights out, and got up at a reasonable time.
Eigo-Kai went well timewise. Each student read their My Story, and sometimes had to have an AC help them. Akari broke from the pressure and started crying so didn’t do her My Story. Yayoi did her My Story but started crying during it. There’s no bigger downer than two cute, friendly kids crying during something that is somewhat of a competition but is supposed to be fun.
I think most of us were sad to see them go. I know that some people felt some relief at seeing them go, because some of the groups were tough to work with because of English comprehension and reluctance to use English. Still, they were all genuinely friendly kids and just wanted to have fun, and I know everyone had fun playing with them at least.
Once they were gone, we hung around the facility until about 3:30pm waiting for FedEx to come and get our supplies, and then took a cab, train, subway, and cab to get to our hostel, where we grabbed some dinner, and then headed to Karaoke before turning in for the night.