We are on Winter Break right now. During school vacations, the Ministry (of Education, that is) hosts day camps in every region for the kiddies. Local high schoolers apply to spend one of their two weeks off of school, back in school. Sounds a bit illogical to me, but hey, I'm just a counselor, so what do I know. I showed up at the Ministery for our "briefing" before camp on the first day. Going into it, I had no clue what the camps were like, the schedules, the activities, etc. Utterly clueless. There were eight counselors at the meeting...and over a hundred campers. Of these counselors, four spoke only Spanish (perfect for English Winter Camp!), one girl from India who spoke broken English, one girl from London who spoke too much English, and one normal guy from Michigan. The director was a very timid Chilean with a very large nose, who could speak very good English if you could strain your ears enough to make sense of his whispers. Glancing around the tiny office and doing the math in my head, I did not like the direction this week was going to go...besides myself, only one other bilingual speaker...or mutterer, I should say. Furthermore, the schedules we were provided with were as follows: 8am- Campers Arrive, Activity, 11am- Snack, Activity, 1pm- Lunch, Activity, 4pm- Snack, 6pm-Campers Leave. Being that only a half hour was allotted for the meeting, and practically everyone arrived twenty minutes late, the campers began to trickle in just as we were handed our schedules.
After the campers and counselors were registered and given their t-shirts (free t-shirts always make things a little better), the kids just sat there. After about a half hour of nothing, I walked over to the director and asked him what we were supposed to do. He started rifling through his clipboard and stammered something about not liking big groups. Whose idea was it to put this guy in charge? I sighed, dragged a chair out the the middle of the floor, and shouted until I had everyone's attention. I made up a few games on the fly and managed to occupy the time till the first Snack, hoping that the Director would use this window to plan something for the rest of the day. After the campers were done eating, The Director approached me and asked ME what I had in mind next. DUDE! YOU'RE THE ONE WITH CLIPBOARD AND THE T-SHIRT THAT SAYS "DIRECTOR" ON THE BACK.
And so, the rest of the day went a little something like that. When the last camper finally shoved off at 7pm, The Director came over to me and handed me his phone, "It's for you." The person on the phone was the Minister of Education telling me that the next day all of the camps across the country had to make a music video. It was a contest and the rules were that all campers and counselors had to appear in the video, all had to be lip-syncing the lyrics to "Moves Like Jagger," the school in which the camp was taking place had to be represented in every shot, and the video could only be ONE TAKE (How´s my film lingo, Brett??). The last criteria meant that the camera had to roll the entire way through the song...without stopping. Do you know how difficult it is to film an entire music video in one day, using a very large school, teaching the lyrics to the campers, making props for the set, choreographing dances, and somehow getting one hundred plus non-English speaking teenagers to perform on camera without messing up? Luckily the counselor from Michigan had a video camera. Since no one seemed to take the initiative with getting the ball rolling the next morning, guess who started her directing career?
The entire day, I was in fifty places at once, making up dance moves (apparently "dance coach" is one of the other duties under the "volunteer" job title), tracking down art materials, and boosting the morale of girls that were crying because another group stole their red marker (yes, these are high schoolers). Somehow, miraculously, all of the individual scenes were coordinated (which involved a lot of me sprinting up and down several flights of stairs) and we managed to capture a decent take just as 6pm rolled around. We emailed our video in that night to be evaluated against all of the other camps...the winner gets a "special lunch." More special than the food we have been eating? (Who wouldn't want to eat Tuna Surprise or Meat Product Stew??) Hardly worth it! By the way, if you would like to see the video, here it is for your enjoyment. (Note: I only make one appearance...in the red car...as I was madly sprinting around, positioning campers, and....well...you know, directing.)
The next day, the press showed up. I am not talking about a harmless photographer from the local newspaper...we're talking two news channels with cameras, microphones, and reporters with notepads, three regional newspapers, and a man from the ministry scoping footage for a promotional documentary. Again, I desperately hoped that someone (perhaps the man in charge) would step up to the plate. Completely futile. So there I was, standing on a chair, organizing an activity...shouting directions, running from group to group, being SUPER PEPPY AND POSITIVE (Yay! English is the best and we are just thrilled to be here!), smiling for the flashing cameras, and conducting interview after interview in both Spanish and English. The "Director" never even showed up that day. Despite myself, I actually had fun. Later that night, I was changing into pajamas (at last!) when I heard my voice echoing from the living room. It was the most bizarre experience. I ran into the other room and there was my awkward and very flustered self blabbing away on the television about the importance of English and how enthusiastic the campers had been. Gloria was crying and jumping up and down and clutching my arm, while Dani was calling as many of her friends as she possibly could. The house line rang at this time. It was my "abuelita" calling from another town saying that she was watching me on T.V. On a different channel. Sure enough, we changed the channel, and there I was again. What a day. So very cool, yet so very laughable at the same time.
It didn't stop there. The next day on the way to camp in the morning, I stopped at a newsstand to buy a pack of gum. When I was digging through my backpack for exact change, the man in the window was staring at me suspiciously. When I finally produced the correct peso pieces, he slid the newspaper and a pack of gum towards me. I pushed the newspaper back and said "Thank you, but I am only buying gum." He smiled and said the newspaper was free. I shrugged and stuffed it into my backpack, thanking him over my shoulder as I scurried off to make the green flashing "walk" sign. (Trust me, you do not want to get stuck in the middle of a Chilean intersection...yielding to pedestrian is quite literally a foreign concept.) When I arrived at the school, one of the kids shouted, "There she is!!" Within seconds, I was swarmed by the campers, all waving newspapers in my face. Apparently, it had been a dismal news day in Chile because we made the front page. There was a giant picture of me talking to a bunch of students smack dab on the cover. Furthermore, there was additional media coverage that evening on the various news channels, featuring more footage of me acting like an idiot, playing a game with the campers. A few people actually stopped me on the street to tell me that I made the news. Humiliating.
On the final day of camp, we had a talent show. I hate talent shows because they are contingent upon singing and dancing and music-playing. I can walk on my hands...but my talents end there. So naturally, I opted for comedic relief. I "danced" to "Sexy and I Know It" with a bunch of other campers. The whole number was rather ridiculously choreographed but the kids seemed to enjoy it. And it only cost me my dignity!
That concludes my work week. Now I have two weeks of travel ahead of me...and then HOME (that is, if they let me out of the country)! Over and out.
A few pictures from my week at camp:
All of the counselors:
My mini-group (apologies for the poor quality):
My front cover campers:
The front cover:
The talent show (what shame):
After the campers and counselors were registered and given their t-shirts (free t-shirts always make things a little better), the kids just sat there. After about a half hour of nothing, I walked over to the director and asked him what we were supposed to do. He started rifling through his clipboard and stammered something about not liking big groups. Whose idea was it to put this guy in charge? I sighed, dragged a chair out the the middle of the floor, and shouted until I had everyone's attention. I made up a few games on the fly and managed to occupy the time till the first Snack, hoping that the Director would use this window to plan something for the rest of the day. After the campers were done eating, The Director approached me and asked ME what I had in mind next. DUDE! YOU'RE THE ONE WITH CLIPBOARD AND THE T-SHIRT THAT SAYS "DIRECTOR" ON THE BACK.
And so, the rest of the day went a little something like that. When the last camper finally shoved off at 7pm, The Director came over to me and handed me his phone, "It's for you." The person on the phone was the Minister of Education telling me that the next day all of the camps across the country had to make a music video. It was a contest and the rules were that all campers and counselors had to appear in the video, all had to be lip-syncing the lyrics to "Moves Like Jagger," the school in which the camp was taking place had to be represented in every shot, and the video could only be ONE TAKE (How´s my film lingo, Brett??). The last criteria meant that the camera had to roll the entire way through the song...without stopping. Do you know how difficult it is to film an entire music video in one day, using a very large school, teaching the lyrics to the campers, making props for the set, choreographing dances, and somehow getting one hundred plus non-English speaking teenagers to perform on camera without messing up? Luckily the counselor from Michigan had a video camera. Since no one seemed to take the initiative with getting the ball rolling the next morning, guess who started her directing career?
The entire day, I was in fifty places at once, making up dance moves (apparently "dance coach" is one of the other duties under the "volunteer" job title), tracking down art materials, and boosting the morale of girls that were crying because another group stole their red marker (yes, these are high schoolers). Somehow, miraculously, all of the individual scenes were coordinated (which involved a lot of me sprinting up and down several flights of stairs) and we managed to capture a decent take just as 6pm rolled around. We emailed our video in that night to be evaluated against all of the other camps...the winner gets a "special lunch." More special than the food we have been eating? (Who wouldn't want to eat Tuna Surprise or Meat Product Stew??) Hardly worth it! By the way, if you would like to see the video, here it is for your enjoyment. (Note: I only make one appearance...in the red car...as I was madly sprinting around, positioning campers, and....well...you know, directing.)
The next day, the press showed up. I am not talking about a harmless photographer from the local newspaper...we're talking two news channels with cameras, microphones, and reporters with notepads, three regional newspapers, and a man from the ministry scoping footage for a promotional documentary. Again, I desperately hoped that someone (perhaps the man in charge) would step up to the plate. Completely futile. So there I was, standing on a chair, organizing an activity...shouting directions, running from group to group, being SUPER PEPPY AND POSITIVE (Yay! English is the best and we are just thrilled to be here!), smiling for the flashing cameras, and conducting interview after interview in both Spanish and English. The "Director" never even showed up that day. Despite myself, I actually had fun. Later that night, I was changing into pajamas (at last!) when I heard my voice echoing from the living room. It was the most bizarre experience. I ran into the other room and there was my awkward and very flustered self blabbing away on the television about the importance of English and how enthusiastic the campers had been. Gloria was crying and jumping up and down and clutching my arm, while Dani was calling as many of her friends as she possibly could. The house line rang at this time. It was my "abuelita" calling from another town saying that she was watching me on T.V. On a different channel. Sure enough, we changed the channel, and there I was again. What a day. So very cool, yet so very laughable at the same time.
It didn't stop there. The next day on the way to camp in the morning, I stopped at a newsstand to buy a pack of gum. When I was digging through my backpack for exact change, the man in the window was staring at me suspiciously. When I finally produced the correct peso pieces, he slid the newspaper and a pack of gum towards me. I pushed the newspaper back and said "Thank you, but I am only buying gum." He smiled and said the newspaper was free. I shrugged and stuffed it into my backpack, thanking him over my shoulder as I scurried off to make the green flashing "walk" sign. (Trust me, you do not want to get stuck in the middle of a Chilean intersection...yielding to pedestrian is quite literally a foreign concept.) When I arrived at the school, one of the kids shouted, "There she is!!" Within seconds, I was swarmed by the campers, all waving newspapers in my face. Apparently, it had been a dismal news day in Chile because we made the front page. There was a giant picture of me talking to a bunch of students smack dab on the cover. Furthermore, there was additional media coverage that evening on the various news channels, featuring more footage of me acting like an idiot, playing a game with the campers. A few people actually stopped me on the street to tell me that I made the news. Humiliating.
On the final day of camp, we had a talent show. I hate talent shows because they are contingent upon singing and dancing and music-playing. I can walk on my hands...but my talents end there. So naturally, I opted for comedic relief. I "danced" to "Sexy and I Know It" with a bunch of other campers. The whole number was rather ridiculously choreographed but the kids seemed to enjoy it. And it only cost me my dignity!
That concludes my work week. Now I have two weeks of travel ahead of me...and then HOME (that is, if they let me out of the country)! Over and out.
A few pictures from my week at camp:
All of the counselors:
My mini-group (apologies for the poor quality):
My front cover campers:
The front cover:
The talent show (what shame):
How does a celebrity such as yourself ever come back to boring America? I see no Gorditas in the picture, by the way! Very sexy. But you knew that.
ReplyDeleteWow! Just watched the video and it's amazing! Great job, director!
ReplyDeleteThe Lip Dub is Fantastic! (And, for the record, your Film Lingo is spot-on.)
ReplyDelete