The Jungle Blog: Bor-Ondor Sports Camp

Camp #2.

After taking a few days to re-coup in my soum, I headed to Bor-Ondor to start my second camp of the summer: a week-long sports camp organized by my friend Leon.

Camp ran from 9-12 and we taught a new sport everyday. In the afternoons we would hang out, play cards, and enjoy the beautiful summer air.

Day 1: Capture the Flag

First, we divided into teams and chose team names. My color was blue, so my kids chose to be "Super Blue." Brian was red and dubbed the "Red Stars." Apparently, we have very few pictures of Capture the Flag day. No matter... neither team managed to capture the flag. They were more pre-occupied with guarding jail and the flag to every make a move.

My team got real close though....

Yea... I'm in jail.

Day 2: Ultimate!

Obviously my favorite day. The kids LOVED it. And they were real good, too. I was so super impressed. Here's a vid of the most intense game of the day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIG-ey87d04

Brian and I split our teams into two smaller teams so we could play 5 on 5. Super Blue took 1st and 4th. Red Stars 2nd and 3rd. At the end of the day, we were still all tied up.

Oyoka. She was my favorite. She was super competitive and really great at all the sports. Look at her go!

Reach!

Day 3: Dodgeball

Oh man, another really fun one. The kids had trouble in the beginning, but once they got it... it got intense. Unfortunately, Super Blue couldnt' pull it together for a win. We got 3rd and 4th.

The last game we played was Camp Leaders versus students. While I felt a wee bit bad throwing balls at little kids, it was super fun and of course we won.

Day 4: Kickball

If you are considering teaching kickball to children who don't speak your language and also don't know what baseball is... I wouldn't suggest teaching them kickball. Easily our most frustrating day, but, hey... there are a million rules to kickball. If we could play kickball with them once a week for a month, I bet they'd start to understand it a lot better.

Despite the confusion and frustration, and as a true testament to the wonderfulness of these kids, they said they had a great time and liked the game.

Though Super Blue took an early lead, we couldn't pull it together in the end. Red Stars took the W.

My line-up (10 points to me if I can still remember all their names...): Nendaa, Amraa, Batzka, Monoo, Oyoka, Deka, (Damn it... I can't remember pink stripes!) and Darai

Day 5: Relays

This day was meant as a game-changer. Red Stars were waaaay ahead, but a few relay wins later, Super Blue was only a point behind. Ultimately, it came down to the last game... and thanks to one kid who was spacing out during the game... Red Stars were declared the winners of the week.

We had loads of fun, though!

This relay was ridiculous. We gave 2 eggs to each team. The first guy on my team dropped and cracked both of them. So... we lost. But the Red Stars were kind enough to give us their second egg so that each kid could have a go.

No relay day is complete without dizzy bat!

Leap Frog

3 legged race

Super Blue! We had trouble wearing blue all week, so I changed our color to white the last day. My team then suggested our new name was "Super White," but I thought we should stick with "Super Blue" :)

Super Blue + Red Stars = SUPERSTARS!

Bonus Day 6: Water Games

It was hella hot all week. These kids endured that sun without complaining (too much) all week, so we thought we'd give them a special day to hang out with us in a non-competitive atmosphere.

Water Games.

Aaaaaand of course, it was cloudy and colder than all the other days. But we played anyway.