On the second day of the camp, I had gotten to know my ‘children’ much better. They were beginning to adapt to my style of teaching (over enthusiastic LOL). They began to pick up stray words like ‘Keep quiet’, and ‘Queue up’ and ‘Good job’- phrases that they did not understand just the day before. I was really proud of them, although they still couldn’t understand very much of anything else I said in English.
Early in the morning, a few of us were asked to lead the ‘senaman beramai’. I was one of them. After a hasty clean up in the bathroom (hardly any water), I got into the Language Camp T-shirt, and found the kids all lined up and ready to go. I took over the session, and lead the kids to do some exercises. Marsha and I worked together to lead the kids with warm ups from head to toe. We both forgot the knees though. Banchee then led the kids to run around and I think they really enjoyed the exercise session, regardless of the fact that one fell down, and caused a bit of a commotion. The kids were then asked to come up with a song for their team (Mr. G’s idea) and they did. It was an awesome session. My team were screaming the altered version of ‘Old Mcdonald’, and some other teams sounded like they were competing for a karaoke prize or something. Farhana’s team went to the extent of synchronizing actions with the lyrics of the song. They took some time getting the moves straight though. Bits of paper with the group numbers written on them was prepared and the teams were chosen in random order to come up to the stage to perform their masterpieces. The session lasted until breakfast time. It was a refreshing experience.
Later in the day, the kids prepared for the drama they were supposed to present. My ducks had a fantabulous time during the practice. Hani and I were cooking up ideas to make the play more realistic by allowing the kids to apply the suitable creative ‘make –up’ that they were squealing with excitement about. I had a jolly good time laughing. They were the best kids ever. Ernest, enthusiastic, and ever so obedient in their own special way.
I still think of them now. Kids have this effect on me. They unconsciously take a very special part of your heart, and they kind of keep it for always without even knowing it. That’s why I love teaching – it involves love, respect, cooperation, and so many other beautiful virtues that one would never find in any other profession.