Scouts Day

Every Friday morning we have scouts.  The teachers (myself included) wear scout uniforms.  We learn how to tie knots, make a sling and tie a tourniquet.  We play team building games, do relays and learn different fables and stories.  The kids love it!  Back in April we had a scouts day.  The kids were divided into their 4 troops (if that's what they are called... I'm not the best scout leader--I don't even know the proper terminology...)

Daily morning chants/prayers by the flagpole.

Practicing something they were supposed to have memorized. (Sometimes I have no idea what's going on.  They give directions in Thai and then the kids do whatever they talked about.  I just stand there until they tell me to do something or start speaking in English.  Haha.  This was one of those times.)

There were these two tunnels set up.  The groups had to recite something to the teacher at the entrance before she would give them permission to enter the first tunnel.  Once they crawled through the first tunnel another teacher and I would smear their faces with a mixture of baby powder and water.  Then they would have to crawl through the second (foliage covered) tunnel.  Another teacher was there with a watering can and would pour water over the tunnel while they crawled through.  

Auto and Post.  I always get a kick out of how high Auto wears his pants!

I taught them how to play Cat and Mouse one week.  They loved it so much that we play it regularly.  I think that teacher Reena (the one on the left) loves it more than the kids!  She it the one that always suggests that we play.

At my station we did a relay race.  They had to get 15 pompoms from one side to the other as fast as they could.  The first person stood on a chair and dropped then into a cone in a teammates mouth.  As soon as there were 5 pompoms in the cone, the person laying down would so a sit up and dump them into a bowl.  The next teammates would have to carry them one by one in a spoon to the final cup a few feet away.  I timed each group that came through and they loved comparing their times to the other teams.  They had a lot of fun and I did too!

After the game rotations we did some skill rotations.  There was an obstacle course, crossing a tightrope type thing, team plank walking and rope climbing.  I was based at the rope climbing station.  Let me just say that Thai children are NOT athletic!  They work INCREDIBLY hard in class and their academics are rigorous but they are not coordinated or athletically inclined.  It was pretty hilarious watching them try to climb the rope.  There were 25 students and only 4 could climb to the top (7 feet up).

And for good measure...  Here are some pictures of me in my uniform!