Preparing for Day Camp

Human Knot Game

Today we met some new Dominican teen counselors who will assist us with Spanish translation and the day camp.  We welcome Arianna, Hermes,  Deseret, and Susanna, and are looking forward to seeing many of our Dominican teens from previous years. To break the ice and get to know each other more, several team building activities were led by Carol and Christine.  This included the human knot and "Minute to Win It" contests.  Have you ever tried to stack 3 golf balls or tubes of chapstick with chopsticks?  How about putting a paper plate on your head and stacking blocks on top of that?  Where do they come up with these ideas? It was fun to play and watch and see the teens cheer each other.

Sorting the school supplies

We had taken all of our school supplies over  to the Ecological Foundation and again sorted these into boxes that will go to three schools.  We prepared all of our crafts for tomorrow this morning as well.   This included sorting all of our supplies, cutting yarn and construction paper. Some of the crafts that the campers will be making include paper leis, painting wooden worms, and making a worm puppet.  Beads were also sorted for an educational activity called "the incredible journey" which simulates the water cycle. The teens painted picture frames for them to place a photo of the entire camp in at the end of the week.  The campers will paint their frames tomorrow as well as make mugs for them to use to drink water the entire camp,  trying to emphasize conserving paper and plastic products.  We met one of the students that is doing a project at the foundation today.  Tyler Pool from Cal Poly in California told us about a project that he is assisting in the research  with composting and worms.  Since the resort strives to be self sustaining, this may be used in golf course management, saving on chemicals and fertilizers.  It is good for our teens to hear about all sorts of opportunities that  are available to students.

After a lunch of chicken, rice, beans, and plantains, we tie dyed our counselor shirts.  The process went very well with less mess this year.  (Justin, are you reading this?  We all miss you!) We discussed our schedule for tomorrow and are prepared for about 50 campers!



Day Camp craft preparations

 

Learning about worms and poop from Tyler

Minute to win it games with Bobby Loveland, Ali McLaurin, Chase Smith

Garrett Coffey and Rachel Harriman stack golf balls in Minute to Win It

The beach

View from the beach

The rest of the day was spent either cooling off in the fresh water lagoons, beach, or pool.  After a buffet dinner we met to review our day.  We love the cool evening breezes and the beauty of nature all around us.  The beautiful flowers and shrubs at the Ecological foundation and PuntaCana resort make for awesome photo opportunities as always! We thank everyone for their contributions and prayers and look forward to our service to the youth and schools of the Dominican Republic.

Submitted by Suzanne Loveland, Shenandoah County

(Hola to my roommate from last year - Debbie Fadeley - miss you!)