Games and Black Eyes

Pretty much every class I try to work in at least one game--sometimes they involve very little English, sometimes more. They way I see it, these kids have so much energy that they need to have the outside time and the camp leaders even said that we shouldn't be too hard on them--this camp is supposed to be a break from the intense Chinese instruction.

We played a lot of games, but two kind of stuck out. The first was called "The Cinnamon Roll"--got this idea from another volunteer. You basically have everyone stand shoulder-to-shoulder and hold hands in a straight line. Then, one person on one end stands still while the people on the other end run around in big circles. Everyone wraps around the person who isn't moving (this takes a lot of running if you are on the outside) until you get the person in the middle all wrapped up in one big hug that looks like a cinnamon roll. As we did it, we inevitably had our line break up at some points because some people ran faster than others, but it still worked out alright. We had our big cinnamon roll, and of course, as I was on the outside, I took the initiative to push everyone over. You can see all the pictures of all this--we ended up doing it three or four times. I think the kids really liked dog-piling on 20-something year-old American.

The other game that was a lot of fun for most of the time was Red Rover. It took the kids a little while to understand that everyone had to chant the same phrase, but they eventually got it. Me and the TA (Each teacher has a TA, who is actually their group leader. By that I mean he leads them in every activity other than English class.) were on separate teams. I had the balls to pick our TA, who is a very athletic guy who would obviously break our line, but this led to the other team picking me--a serious mistake. It was getting down to the end of the class period, and I had to pick my favorite student, Oscar, even though I was certain he would break our line. Everyone knew he was one of the most athletic kids, and so no one was picking him.

Well, being the certain kid he is, Oscar went for the hands of me and this girl. I was not going to let go of this girl's hand. He backed up to get a little running start, then tore out like a bat out of hell. Turns out I was a little too tall, and our arms caught him right in the face. It was a straight clothesline like no other. One second he was running upright and vertical, and the next he was lying on his back. I basically watched his eye swell up like a golf ball right there on the spot. Being the kind of kid he was, he claimed it didn't hurt, and it seemed that he was more embarrassed than anything. I followed him up to the nurse's office to see if he was okay. He was fighting back tears, then I stepped outside for a second. When I came back in to tell him I'd be there for him if he needed anything, I saw he had let the water flow once he thought I was gone. He went the rest of the camp wearing a hat tilted to cover the eye, but none of this held him back from mixing it up with ladies on the bus to the vineyard. Apparently they were doing dares to kiss girls, and he ended up going full on with some other camper (Jes got the pic). He's going to be in Beijing when I am, so I plan on meeting up with him and his family....Btw, check out the new pics of me in the cigarette factory and giving my speech, both in previous posts.