half the camel has arrived

the end of june and the begining of july was a busy time. i spent two weeks teaching at an english camp and then went on a countryside road trip with some friends.

that being said, expect the following fun to ensue here on the TC:

1. a momentary hiatus from all posts regarding the topic of wisdom
2. a glimpse into my english camp adventures
3. a gigantic, chaptered story about my countryside road trip



let the fun begin...



english camp was two weeks in a korean built compound about 45 minutes outisde UB. 30-some collete students, 10 staff, a short term team of 5 from singapore, myself, a cook, and everything about 50 people needed for 14 days (including a washing machine) was crammed into a few buses, hauled out, unloaded and assembled for some english camp fun.

besides teaching 6 of the best students there (doka, byambaa, duluu, nomin, dariaa and eegii) i also played hopscotch, went for a hike**, watched movies, sang songs, ate my weight in soup and rice, nearly froze to death going to the bathroom,washing my hair, and brushing my teeth**, taught aerobics, made friendship braclets, shared the Gospel**, tried my hand at translation**, danced, told bed time stories, learned the meaning of 'bummery'**, gave a lecture on time management**, hugged lots of people, and fell backwards off the deep end of an empty pool.**


allow me to elaborate on the ** by sharing some commentary:

...hike** - this means we climbed up a big rocky hill and stood around taking lots of pictures of each other. however, as deflated as i may sound, i learned much about my students and their precious lives during this time.

...teeth** - it was cold during english camp. really cold. it snowed. twice. the toilets were outside as well as the spickets for washing ourselves and brushing teeth. i have never had a more torturous weeing experience. drafty doesn't even begin to describe it.

...Gospel** - after a week hanging out with each other, the FCS staff and students and singapore team presented the Gospel. which turned out well - it certainly changed many lives and made several extremely curious. one of my students chose Christ. one of them is scared to believe in God. and one of them wants to become a worship leader in the future (which is curious because he's not a christian currently...).

...translation** - this was during the Gospel presentation when an FCS staff was sharing. i felt bad for the singapore team not being able to understand anything so i listened as closely as possible and tried to summarize major chunks. at the time i thought i was doing pretty well. later, though, i found out 90% of what i told the singapore team was incorrect....no more translation for me.

...bummery** - i shared a room with 6 gals. one of them was an FCS staff person. for some reason we got on the subject of poop one day as we chatted together. i don't have the best mongolian and she doesn't have the best english, but it's nice to know that what draws us together is poop talk. i kept hearing her say 'i need a bummery' or 'i wanna bummery!' almost daily and didn't know what she was talking about, so i asked. she explained that saying 'i wanna bummery' basically means: 'i have to poop.' so now we have an inside joke between us involving this bummery phrase.

management** - not my strongest subject to lecture on, as a few of you know. but i had to.

...pool** - you know those trust falls you do with your friends? where someone stands behind you and you fall backwards into their arms? well, my friends at english camp took it a couple steps farther. we played a game one afternoon in teams. this game had various 'stations' all around the compound where you and your team would do a different activity. one of the games was a trust fall. two teams stood at the bottom of the deep end of an empty pool as each person from the teams fell backwards from about 7 feet into the waiting arms of the teams below. 7 feet doesn't sound like a lot, but it's massive when your falling backwards. i was not going to do it. i mean, i'm not some 90 pound mongolian girl who can bounce off your arms. i'm a lot of weight coming at you with a good amount of speed...the thought of perishing in such a way was just too overwhelming. but then, one girl was having an equally difficult time taking the plunge and before i knew it this came out of my mouth : 'if i do it first, will you do it?' to my horror, she said yes. so i lifted myself out of the pool, put my heels to the edge and fell. it was the worst thing i've ever done. i was caught and made it out alive and unparalyzed - but it was absolutely terrible and i hope i don't ever have to do it again. it then came to my friend's turn. she wobbled, she teetered, but in the end she never did fall. AH!

and that, my friends, is english camp in a nutshell. there's so much more i could tell you, but the other half of the camel is coming this way and i need to wrap it up.

i'm aware of how strange that sounds.