Camp 2024

My camp diary

Day 7

The rain woke me up this morning but by the time everyone was up, it had stopped and the sun came out.

We had more challenges today. Unfortunately, yesterday there were some misunderstandings about the foreign language challenge. Someone had asked Bara a question in Czech which she answered in kind, realised that she had spoken Czech and so thought that she had failed the challenge. This was the first time anyone had actually done the foreign language challenge so it was somewhat unknown. Klara later explained to the kids that accidentally speaking to someone in Czech was not a disqualifier - the idea was more to understand what it’s like to be a foreigner who can only speak their own language and not communicate in the language of the natives. Also, to understand the challenge that foreigners have in a foreign country when they’re trying to speak a foreign language all the time.

Needless to say, Bara is redoing the challenge today with this new understanding. No doubt it will be a success. In addition to Bara, Maruška and Adam are doing the Day without Sight challenge.

The Světlušky had their own adventure this morning. They headed off on a nature hike with Kika, collected things in nature and then made things from their items.

While the Světlušky were having their adventure, the Skautky were learning about common czech herbs - what they look like, their medicinal qualities and how to use them. They then went on their own nature hike with a mission to find these herbs in the wild.

While this was happening, I headed into the kitchen to help with some kitchen prep as we were short helpers. Lunch was Broccoli Cream Soup with homemade knedlíky, tomato sauce and meatballs.

The afternoon is raining off and on and right now, it’s free time. I’m writing while Kejmi works on creating hadanky for tomorrow. That’s one of the things that we’ve had every day. Hadanky (Puzzles) for each age level. When they get them correct, they each get a chocolate bar or candy. The kids are working on dream catchers and their indian bracelets (again, the indian theme), but there are also a big group of kids playing board games which is definitely a popular activity in this group. Julinka is sequestered off in a corner planning her strategy to earn more odborky!

We later found out that after our 20 questions game yesterday, the kids wanted to create their own version of the game where THEY are the question- askers and we have to create the answers. This is going to be great. Since it’s raining again, they got their opportunity this afternoon. It’s a hilarious experience as the adults are all acting like kids, yelling and not paying attention while the kids try to organise themselves. It was so much fun to watch them figure out how to do this.

They eventually got organised, put us into our groups (this took a long time as they clearly had some concerns about make sure that the teams were even). I only got to answer one question during the entire game but I was really proud to be able to answer it as the categories were hard! They were:

Czech Republic
Flags of the World
Fairy Tales
Biology/The Human Body
Norse Mythology

Yikes! These kids REALLY didn’t want us to succeed! I chose the “Czech Republic” category and there was some scrambling from the kids to choose the right one. Verča asked me (in czech) to name 3 czech inventors. I quickly named Bat’a and Škoda and couldn’t remember the name of the guy who invented contact lenses. I asked if I could name the invention in place of who invented it and the kids decided that that was acceptable. It was a 1-point question, so I moved to first base where I stayed for awhile until I eventually moved to second and then third bases before the game ended. Other questions were:

Name all of the past and present Czech presidents
Name all of the Czech Kraje

The rain eventually let up and the kids moved outside to work on their bows and arrows. This was going fine until Vítek first, whacked me in the face with his bow as he ran by, then started using is bow to splash in the rain puddles - right next to me, covering my legs in mud. Oh, well. I think (hope) he remembers not do it in the future!

The evening ended with some more Indian tales and the kids were excited to head out on hiking adventures tomorrow. The wind is howling and the rain is beating down on my tent. I love it but am extremely thankful for my sleeping bag!