Greetings from the land of shoes, showers, and soft comfortable beds! Yes folks I am back in the land of the living having survived my second visit to Jungle Camp - this time with 109 'young' people.
I had the shock of my life at the airport as I stood, clipboard in hand, ready to welcome the 'kids' when a hoard of 6ft-odd strapping men and women came rocking through the arrivals hall. There wasn't a Spiderman lunchbox among them!! The girls all looked like they could be my mates and half the guys could get me into a lot of trouble!!!! It seems the 'youth' that I am here to develop have already done a fair bit of developing before they got here! Compared to the local kids that arrived the day before, the Europeans look like they've been on hormone acceleration tablets - it's frightening.
Thankfully the two groups bonded pretty much straight away, on our first night the Malaysian participants gave a lovely demonstration of bamboo dancing and we introduced them to the Hokey Cokey in return - culturally classy I'm sure you'll agree.
I then had my first group exercise the next day so I decided to play an icebreaker to get to know everyone. It was kind of a take on the 'Freak or Unique' game where people have to reveal a unique fact or party trick. I managed to get one of the girls to turn her eyelids inside out, one guy admitted to being in the Guinness Book of Records (as one member of the largest gathering of adults dressed as apes) and one girl was the great, great, great, great (and possibly a few more greats) grand-daughter of Mr Crapper himself (inventor of the flushable toilet for anyone who missed that particular history lesson) . For my part I admitted to having three butt cheeks (followers of my travelling antics over the years will remember the unfortunate incident involving a bottle of gin, a snowboard and flight of stairs in New Zealand that left me with ripped gluteals in my nether regions!!). All of this was going remarkably well among my fellow Europeans who were finding it highly amusing but there was a slight satellite delay for the poor Malaysians who had to rely on a rather bemused and slightly disgusted translator. The look on their faces when she'd finished explaining my bottom tale was priceless - I thought perhaps it had lost something in translation but thinking about it she probably got it spot on.
Lots more to tell but the thought of a proper shower and a good nights sleep (on a bed that doesn't point downhill and involve white knuckle holding on to stay in) is far too appealing. so I'll sign off. I'll update again tomorrow and stick some more piccies on (I'm the greasy one with the fuzzy hair!)
Bye de bye
Vic xxxxxxxx
I had the shock of my life at the airport as I stood, clipboard in hand, ready to welcome the 'kids' when a hoard of 6ft-odd strapping men and women came rocking through the arrivals hall. There wasn't a Spiderman lunchbox among them!! The girls all looked like they could be my mates and half the guys could get me into a lot of trouble!!!! It seems the 'youth' that I am here to develop have already done a fair bit of developing before they got here! Compared to the local kids that arrived the day before, the Europeans look like they've been on hormone acceleration tablets - it's frightening.
Thankfully the two groups bonded pretty much straight away, on our first night the Malaysian participants gave a lovely demonstration of bamboo dancing and we introduced them to the Hokey Cokey in return - culturally classy I'm sure you'll agree.
I then had my first group exercise the next day so I decided to play an icebreaker to get to know everyone. It was kind of a take on the 'Freak or Unique' game where people have to reveal a unique fact or party trick. I managed to get one of the girls to turn her eyelids inside out, one guy admitted to being in the Guinness Book of Records (as one member of the largest gathering of adults dressed as apes) and one girl was the great, great, great, great (and possibly a few more greats) grand-daughter of Mr Crapper himself (inventor of the flushable toilet for anyone who missed that particular history lesson) . For my part I admitted to having three butt cheeks (followers of my travelling antics over the years will remember the unfortunate incident involving a bottle of gin, a snowboard and flight of stairs in New Zealand that left me with ripped gluteals in my nether regions!!). All of this was going remarkably well among my fellow Europeans who were finding it highly amusing but there was a slight satellite delay for the poor Malaysians who had to rely on a rather bemused and slightly disgusted translator. The look on their faces when she'd finished explaining my bottom tale was priceless - I thought perhaps it had lost something in translation but thinking about it she probably got it spot on.
Lots more to tell but the thought of a proper shower and a good nights sleep (on a bed that doesn't point downhill and involve white knuckle holding on to stay in) is far too appealing. so I'll sign off. I'll update again tomorrow and stick some more piccies on (I'm the greasy one with the fuzzy hair!)
Bye de bye
Vic xxxxxxxx
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