Scout Camp and a salute good-bye for a month

Khun Krew (Teachers), Phe Toy (dark green shirt), me

I thought my blog on my families was going to be my last blog before I leave for summer vacation but I was wrong. Earlier in the week I called Phe Toy, my old principal’s wife, to see if I could spend the night at their house one night this week since I won’t be seeing them for about a month. She invited me to spend the night with her Thursday night at her school for Scout Camp. A little disappointed it wouldn’t be her house I said ok because I haven’t had a chance to participate in Scout Camp yet. My school has already had Scout Camp but I was not able to attend because of other WorldTeach obligations.

So at 4:00 in the afternoon Phe Toy came to pick me up. We got to the school to watch the students crawling through a tunnel of tree branches. They had to navigate their way through the scratchy twigs and on the other side they were greeted by teachers who would smear charcoal on their faces to make it look like they had just endured a great wilderness experience. After dinner I was dressed up in Hawaiian wear with some of the other female teachers. We practiced dancing in the Library before going out to watch/be in the evening campfire ceremony.

P. 6 boys

The bonfire opened with some of the P.6 students dancing around the campfire in grass skirts and painted white holding long sticks that would soon be torches to light the bonfire. Once the fire was lit the boys skipped/ hopped around it and sometimes, because the wind was so strong, they had to dance through the tips of the flames. They said the dance was some kind of African dance, if it was done in America there would have been some unhappy people if you ask me. Next the Hawaiian dressed teachers and I processed around the bonfire three times while doing a traditional Thai dance. We then gave a lay to the PA (principal) and a basket of fake flowers that would sit on the coffee table that was in front of the couch he was sitting in to watch the evening celebration. After giving him the offering, I had the wonderful opportunity to lead all the teachers in a dancing around the fire, my partner was the PA. The students were quite impressed with my graceful ram (slow Thai dance) as they gave me approval shouts of “ooooh wee”.

I was the flower bearer

The evening continued with performances from all of the students P.4-P.6. They included a skit of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the race between Tortes and Hare where the Hare rode on the Tortes’ back. There was also a boxing match between two students where they were full on kicking and punching each other and too close to the fire for my comfort.

Around 11:00pm the ceremony commenced with all students and teachers holding hands and swaying side to side as they sang songs which I am assuming are traditional Scout Camp songs. The village is a Catholic village so after the songs a prayer was said by one of the students. It was interesting to be in Thailand and at a public school none the less and see all students and teachers, Catholic or not, bless themselves and bow their heads while putting their hands in proper prayer position.

Practicing for the dance around the fire

Students then went to the classroom they would be sleeping in for the night, girls in one building boys in another or in tents outside. The teachers stayed up until 1:00 drinking and singing karaoke. Some of the teachers (many of them drunk) kept an eye on the students in the beginning. The students they caught sneaking around had to run around the school field until they were pooped out. I think I saw groups of kids run around about 10 times before they went to bed. I don’t know how they had that much energy at 12:00 at night when they had been at school since 8:00 that morning.

Phe Toy always looking our for me and including me in the fun.
She's the sister I never had!

After thinking I was never going to get to go to bed Phe Toy took me to the Library with some of the other women teachers and we tucked in for the short night. I was woken at 4:30 by loud music and whistles blowing to wake the kids up. Fortunately I was able to sleep through it until about 6:00. I went out to see the students packed up, dressed and making breakfast over fires they had made for themselves. It wasn’t instant oatmeal or PB&J like typical American student campers would eat, rather they were preparing raw chicken and beef and cooking it in woks over their fires. I was impressed by one boy’s skill with the butcher knife and how quickly he finely sliced up a huge chunk of raw meat, put it in a bowl, mixed in some seasonings and passed it off to his classmates who were in charge of frying it up.

Overall reflection of the evening. . . My initial thought was that Scout Camp is a big hazing ritual performed because of the slapping of charcoal on their faces, making them dance in grass skirts close to the fire (mind you the white paint was probably highly flammable), fighting each other etc. . . The evening ceremony is for sure an event parents back home would be suing the school for yet here the students were always laughing and never refusing to join in. Waking up this morning I was impressed with how well 4^th-6^th graders could make a fire little to no adult supervision and then cook their own meal from raw meat. A task I don’t think many 9-12 year olds could do back home.

That's all for now. . . I'll be back in a month or so.