Despite the low attendance of Sámara kids, many kids that I have never seen before ended up coming to camp. The first week of camp was in El Torito and the second week was in Sámara, but CREAR ended up paying for transportation for the El Torito kids to Sámara. This meant that we had at least 20-something El Torito kids and about 10-15 kids from Sámara. One of the administrators commented that the Sámara kids love the July camp and yet they rarely come to events at CREAR. Since the El Torito and Sámara kids were mixed together at camp, I tried to figure out why there is animosity between the two communities that are only a couple of kilometers apart. The answer I received was essentially there is no real conflict between the two communities, just trash talking (sort of like what is seen when ticos talk about nicos.)
The events of the second week of camp went as follows: lunes (cooking day), martes (pool day), miércoles (surf day), and jueves (combate). Like the previous week, a lot of activities planned for camp were cancelled or had to be altered the day of or sometimes minutes before leaving. Our two extra volunteers (friend of the administrators and the other a tico who is dating one of the administrators) helped us out each day and on Thursday we had the help of a group of 20 U.S. students.
During this week of camp we also had some "gringo" children from the U.S. join in. Normally CREAR does not like having foreign children participate in camp because CREAR pays for activities that local kids normally do not have the chance to experience: for instance, a pool isn't the most exciting thing for foreign kids when you have a pool near where you live at home but the local kids only see pools inhabited by tourists visiting here and rarely swim in them. I realize some people might find the term "gringo" derogatory but 'ethnic' nicknames are common here and being called a "gringo" is extremely mild. I found out quickly why CREAR puts up with gringo kids: their parents generally give CREAR donations and the tourist parents do want their children to interact with Spanish-speaking individuals. Every gringo kid is different: some really enjoy playing soccer and some try to say a couple of Spanish words, yet there are others who constantly say "stop speaking in Spanish" or do not want to interact with the tico kids.
Monday: Originally we were supposed to take the kids to Monkey's, a local bakery to show them how to bake bread, and then have half the kids making dirt cup desserts at the Salon Communal. Instead we had the kids making dirt cups within CREAR's office and the other half of kids played soccer or lacrosse outside. We also gave the kids a short presentation about recycling and the environment. There were four of us trying to organize/do everything so it was a bit hectic: making the dirt cups would have been easier for three people but we had two; making sure the kids were not getting too aggressive while playing lacrosse and soccer would probably require at least two people to manage each but we only had one; and then the environmental presentation required one person. We also had a group of almost 10 gringo kids to look after as well - at times they were difficult to work with because we had to repeat instructions/orders twice in two languages; it was also difficult because the gringo kids had difficulty talking to the tico kids (the tico kids know more English than the gringo kids know Spanish though.) The tico kids really enjoyed the activity! I am honestly not sure if the gringo kids enjoyed the activity which I guess is ironic because I could have easily asked them in English.
Tuesday: Pool day was insane. There were six of us working but we had well over 40 kids. We had three shifts due to the sheer number of kids and I spent most of the time acting as a life guard/making sure the kids were behaving. The kids loved the pool! Most kids are excited to go swimming in a pool in general, but these kids absolutely loved it. They did not play any pool games but spent most of the time jumping in groups, hitting a couple of beach balls around the pool, or simply just swimming. There was a mix of older kids aged 10 to 12 and then kids who were about 5 years old: a lot of kids cannot actually swim as well. I noticed that a lot of kids kept their clothing on despite wearing a swim suit underneath: I did not ask any of the kids about it but I did find it odd. Kids would also wear partial or all their clothing over their swim suits the next day as well.
Wednesday: The kids really enjoyed surfing and the fact that CREAR paid for the kids to have surf lessons. It was funny coming back to my homestay mother and telling her that I was tired after "working on the beach" - although I feel busy at CREAR, hanging out with kids for a few hours on the beach definitely does not feel like work! (Although I kept forgetting to not talk to the gringo kids in Spanish.) I spent most of the day with Camila from El Torito: we built sand castles and jumped in the waves. I do not think she could swim very well so I would hold her when the waves got too high. It was a little unnerving because there are a lot of smaller kids in CREAR (for instance, Camila is 5 years-old) and I tried watching them because there are a lot of rip currents. The older kids were a bit more active - they were either surfing or jumping the waves with the surf instructors.
Thursday: My favorite day of camp! We had a group of 20 volunteers which was great for our small team of CREAR. We had over 50 kids today of all ages, despite the fact that CREAR is supposed to be for children aged 5-12. The combate was like an obstacle race: first the kids ran around cones, then they had to walk as quickly as possible with a balloon between their legs, before they put on over-sized clothing and had to crawl underneath desks and jump over chairs, and lastly walking with an egg in a spoon.
Overall I think the kids enjoyed the camp. Camp days with extra volunteers were easier for CREAR because we could do more without wanting to pull our hair out at the end of the day. I am glad that CREAR can offer fun events for the kids when they are not in school: CREAR's camp is a good way to keep the kids busy, let the kids hang out with their peers, while learning about how to be respectful of others. Regular after-school programming will continue today: I am meeting with the administrators to talk more about CREAR's charlas (we should be having a charla next week) and the future of the after-school program.
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