Camp

March 30:

Camp started @ 8am on the beach. There were many activity stations - arts and crafts, games, nail painting, tattoes, soccer, tug of war, sand castle building, etc., for the Catalyst children to enjoy. The expedition volunteers each signed up to help at a station. Zach selected the sand castle building station for us so we were down by the water. The kid's faces just lit up when they saw the ocean and the beach toys. When you think about what their daily life is like, you realize how much in our lives we take for granted. This day was a real treat and positive experience for them.

After a few hours the camp kids wanted to go back to their rooms to take a shower and enjoy the air conditioning. Those are just 2 things they have never experienced before. We also heard that they were fascinated by the flushing toilets at the hotel and stayed up late into the night flushing them over and over and over again.

After the rest we took them into the ocean. The volunteers formed a human chain to keep them in the designated area. They all had a blast splashing each other and us!

Another unique experience for the camp kids was having plenty of food to eat. Some kids ate so much that they felt sick afterwards. Catalyst gave each child 50,000 dong (approximately $3 in US $) and most of them used it to buy additional food to take back to their families. We also noticed many of them doing trash picking and placing recyclables in a bag to take home to sell and make money for their families.

We had a short break before dinner to go back to the hotel and freshen up. After dinner was the talent show. The camp participants as well as the volunteers performed. The home team sang a song one of our volunteers wrote to the tune of "If I Had a Hammer". The kids volunteers did a dance. Everyone enjoyed the evening.