It was a long long day today

So today I volunteered at Tzu Chi to help with an English camp. On Thursday I tried to ask Director Tsai how long we would be there and how early and basic timing questions. She ignored my question every time, and this morning I figured out why. We (Luke, Kaylene, and I) were picked up at our apartment at 7am. When we got to Tzu Chi we had some rolls for breakfast and then were shown around to our stations. We were also given a schedule of how the day would go. Yeah, the camp didn't end until 5pm. And I had more things that I was in charge of then I knew about.

We all met in one room for introductions. Luke and Kaylene played a couple get to know you games and I went through power points of self introduction phrases. After that there was a 20 minute tea/snack break, but we only had time to be there for 5 minutes because we had to set up our own stations. I was in charge of recycling, but it was set up outside and so all of the empty plastic bottles, empty paper cups (you get the point) were blowing off the table for the whole hour and forty minutes. Plus, I knew that I would be teaching recycling for an hour and forty minutes and that the students would be coming in groups, but no one ever told me how many groups there were or how long I was supposed to talk. So for the first group, I recited my paragraph and had them name all different materials we recycle. I turned to the group leader and asked how long I needed to talk for and she said time was up. That was a lie because I didn't get another group until 5-10 minutes after the first group left. From then on I knew to talk more and have them separate the recycling more. But it wasn't well matched up. The other stations were rushed for time (tea ceremony, sign language, flower arrangement, and Chinese calligraphy) and my dinky little recycling center took all of 2.5 seconds.

When that part was done, it was time for lunch. Lunch had some pretty good and some not so good stuff, but I couldn't tell you what it was. There were some imitation meat things (Tzu Chi students are vegetarians). But don't worry, they flavor their fake meat really well and it actually tastes really good (most of it tastes good at least). I did ask one one of the things was, apparently I ate deep fried mushroom. That was interesting... and greasy.

After lunch we all went up to the language studio and went over some scripts. That's when I did my directions skit. There were 6 skits total that were performed and after they were performed Luke, Kaylene, and I went on stage and read half the script while the audience read the other half (in response to our half). After that practice we were again split up and we went over the scripts in smaller groups. That went okay. Instead of reading the scripts out of the booklets, I had a map and asked the students how to get from where we were to another classroom. If they did not give well enough directions, I would take their hand and make everyone walk with me based on the exact directions given and they would see that it did not get us even close to where we needed to be.

After practicing those in small groups it was time for another tea/snack break. This break was only 10 minutes and no one really ate or drank much, they mostly took pictures :o)

We all went back into the music hall (where we had the introductions in the morning). I'm not sure what went on there. I think it was supposed to be a wrap up, but it lasted an hour or more. All of the kids had to come up on stage and say thank you and say what they liked about the camp. We also watched a slide show of the day that had been quickly thrown together. We saw some Tzu Chi students perform a song in sign language. And we listened to a lot of speeches from Director Tsai and Venerable Ying.

So it was finally 5pm and I was so tired and so ready to leave. But, after the kids left we had to have a staff meeting to talk about how the day went. Uh, most of that was in Chinese, so that wasn't that great, and it took forever. It was 6:30pm when the meeting ended and so we all went back to the dinning hall and ate dinner. Venerable Ying invited Luke, Kaylene, and I to sit at her table with her. Dinner tasted much better then lunch and afterward the Tzu Chi students who were the counselors today circled around our table and sang us a song and presented us with flowers. Then Venerable Ying asked the students to come up one by one and tell us something about how they thought our teaching went today. One of the girls was playing sappy music and all of them came up and thanked us and it was so sweet that at least 4 of the people started crying. It was like they were saying good-bye to us, but we've only spent half of our time, we still have two months. They are obviously closer to Luke and Kaylene because Luke and Kaylene are with them more, but they were still so sweet to me. It's crazy how they used to be so quiet and so terrified to talk but now they are so out going and full of life. I don't know what happened, but I'm glad something did happen. I am seriously looking forward to my Thursday lunches with them.

So the day was super long and there were times when it was fun, but I was so ready for it to be done when the kids went home. But, because of the dinner, I am so glad that the day didn't end when the kids left.

And as the kids were leaving Director Tsai asked if I would be available to help with an art camp in August. I told her I would have to check my schedule and I was hoping to fill in that weekend really fast. But now, I think that I would like to help out. Plus, I found out that the art camp is working with elementary students (today we were working with high schoolers) so that's something else that makes it more alluring.

Oh man, I am so tired, I really need to go to bed. I didn't do much physically all day, but I'm still drained of energy.

Oh gosh, I almost forgot to write about this. It was the sweetest thing. One of the boys from Tzu Chi, when he came up to say his couple lines of thanks he told me that my smile is so beautiful and it can make hope out of the deepest despair. Gracious, that is just adorable. That made me feel so good :o) A couple other boys whom I've never really talked to so they didn't know what to tell me told me that I had beautiful eyes and that they were very attractive eyes. One of these boys told Luke and Kaylene that they were a good couple, a blessed couple. Then he turned to me, told me I had beautiful eyes, and then kept making a heart with his hands and pointing from me to himself. Um....precious ma? ("ma" turns anything into a question in Chinese)