Day 4 - A full day of camp fun!

This morning was the "official" opening ceremony of the 2004 Trai He Yeu Thuong - 2004 Cherishing Summer Camp. And it was also the Awards Ceremony for the 5th Annual My Vietnam Art Contest. The hour long ceremony was so different (and fun) from past expeditions where we had to sit through 3 hours of un-interpreted really long speeches from officials! There were only two speeches me and the director of the shelters. Nice and short :-) because as you know I'm all for getting to the point.

The awards ceremony was great...the kids were all excited! The art was beautiful and as the winners were announced they would get on stage and be greeted to their round of applause. The Best of Show Winner was a young girl 19 years old who is deaf. She prepared a speech that she proudly read through a sign intepreter. The top prize is a $200 scholarship to the school of her choice and she told us all that she wanted to become a professional artist. Then her mother was invited to speak and she cried as she thanked Little Red Fairy Company and her daughter's school for giving all of them this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Then the part that the kids were really looking forward to was the peformance of a husband-wife duo who were known for their Top 10 songs on the pop chart. It's hard to know who they compare to in the US but definitely a concert ticket that the kids at our camp would never be able to afford! They have two young daughters also that joined the stage for some fun songs! The concert lasted about 1/2 an hour and the kids went nuts singing along!

After the concert we then were all separated into our different "family groups". There are 223 children from 10 different shelters/schools here and they range from 50 girls at the Little Rose Warm Shelter to 11 boys and girls at the school for the Hearing Impaired. Our team were all assigned their own groups and then we played games and did arts and crafts for 2 hours. Thank you so much to Caroline McLaughlin and all her Girl Scouts friends and community in Succasuna, New Jersey! The craft bags that you put together for each child were GREAT!!!! The children loved the beads, masks, popsicle stick frames, and friendship bracelets. They were all quite creative with the materials too!

During the arts and crafts time we all had a chance to get to know each other! Then the polaroid film and cameras came out. As all our Aid Expedition Alumni know this is the MOST popular "toy" that we could bring. The chaos of having hundreds of children rush you so that they can have a picture of themselves and their friend is overwhelming. This year we tried to control the chaos by giving out tickets to each child and they had to present it to us. But we quickly found out that the children were bartering tickets for craft supplies and some ended up with more than their fair share of pictures! We really need to try to get Polaroid Company to sponsor us in future years!

After arts and crafts time the children from camp asked for a nap time after lunch. They had mistakenly taken Dramamine (motion sickness medicine) becuase they thought we were going on a ferry this afternoon. So by the time lunch time rolled around they were all wiped out. For the team that meant we got about 2 hours of free time...and we used it well! We played at the pool - the men have formed their own synchronized swimming team ;-)! And then walked the block and a half to the beach! WOW - it is beautiful! The water was warm and the waves just perfect for a little body surfing! Needless to say it was a welcome break from the hot sticky morning! Our youngest team members think that Culture Camp should be here!

After our beach time and the kids' break, we all went to the Nha Trang Oceanographic Institute. Nha Trang is world famous for the research of marine biology. The museum ahd a ton of different fishes and sea creatures. Even a skelet of an old humpack whale that stretched half the lenght of a football field! We all had a great time walking around with our kids. After the museum we all went to eat an early dinner of a Nha Trang Specialty - nem nuong rolls. It's a combination of pork meatballs, rolled in rice paper and vegetables served with a bowl of cold rice noodles and great sauce. It may not sound great but it is DELICIOUS! Even our pickiest of eaters liked it! It was our first meal with the camp kids so they did a lot for our team as far as telling them exactly how to each each delicacy!

After dinner we all had to go back to the hotel and prepare for our evening's talent show. I never laughed so hard when i saw our team all dressed up in their "costume". For the girls it was our tshirts on inside out with a couple of towels wrapped around us for a makeshift skirt. We then practied our "dance" and i used that term real loosely and realized that the "funny" quotient should win us the top prize! It realy is something that won't be justified by the pictures!

The talent show lasted about 3 hours for 14 different performances. Even our youngest team members performed - Emily did her amazing gymnastics and Keelin and Clare did a "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" duet that was adorable! Susan and Michael did their reprise of "Summer Loving" from Grease and the kids went crazy! In Vietnam when you enjoy your perfomer you present them with flowers as they are singing. By the time they performed they were barely seen as the kids rushed the stage with flowers!

It's been a great day! We are looking forward to tomorrow - a whole day on the BEACH! I'll try to post pictures soon but the connection here is so slow...so we will have to wait until Da Lat!

Talk to y'all soon!
Peace,
Caroline