10 Things We Did at PLAY Camp

1. Gave each child a backpack, water bottle, t-shirt and tekkies (sneakers) for them to keep - along with a pillow and sheet for each of them to use while at camp. The children (all in grade 7) also received a notebook with the Purpose Driven Life curriculum.

• One group of children was from a very poor school in Soshanguve township. Their primary language is Swani.
• The other children came from a poorer school in the Pretoria area that has a mix of white, black and colored. The white children speak primarily Afrikaans and the black children English.

As you might imagine there were some challenges due to the different languages and different competences in English.

2. Worked with a team from Big Valley Grace church (from Modesto); Prince, a camp facilitator from Durban; and the Bayete camp counselors, Jacob and Werner.

John and Lisa with part of BVG team

John with Jacob and Werner

Amy and Prince

3. Supported Lisa as she taught the children that they are loved, special, unique and valuable - and about the five purposes that God has for their lives.

4. Helped with the creative hands-on activities that reinforced the Five Purposes from the teachings.

5. Documented crazy and challenging adventure games that the kids participated in throughout the week. Building shelters out of sticks, rafts out of logs (and the tested in the dam), problem solving and high ropes courses - and an epic obstacle course. Winners of each contest were awarded points leading to a final team winner on the last day.

6. Enjoyed getting to know the kids during their free time - volleyball, swimming and coloring butterfly wings.

7. John was at every activity taking hundreds of photos and loving every minute of it! (Stay tuned to see his photos in a future post). Amy attempted to take video.

 

8. Up every morning at 6 am so that Amy could be a part of the Wake Up and Shake Up games with Prince. Had a blast learning new games and crazy camp songs.

9. Observed the changes in how the kids interacted with each other over the week. While they remained separate in many ways due to cultural and language barriers, we saw many instances of bonds being formed between black and white children - working together and helping each other. One white boy started out the week stating that he did not want to sit next to any black kids. By the end of the week he was working cooperatively, talking with his black teammates outside of group activities and hugging them in celebration.

10. Learned about the culture and current societal barriers - had our hearts saddened as we found out the horrific home situations of some of the kids - laughed and sang and danced. But most of all, we watched in awe as Lisa taught these very impressionable children that they are loved and have value and can influence change in their schools and communities.

 

 

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