English Camp

FHI is active with many projects here in Aceh. I’m part of the educational department, but there are also agricultural, cash for work, and livelihood (grants for local business people) programs. I’ll try to share all of them with you all, but naturally I’ll begin with something I’m directly involved in: English Camp!

We recruit children from the three neighborhoods where FHI is involved, two are neighborhoods that are relatively well off (i.e. everyone has houses) and the third is a large area that was completely destroyed by the tsunami where many kids are still living in tent camps. While walking through the tent rows I was struck once again at how the people here are such survivors. The kids that we were conducting this English Camp for had been through a terrible experience, one that no child should have to face. Losing one’s family members (in many cases both parents), friends, home, possessions, etc is a horrific thing for any person to face. When that person is a child, it makes it even harder to bear. Our heartfelt desire was to allow these children some time to just be kids, and to maybe learn some English as well.


My first English Camp for February 2006 is now over and done. I’m left exhausted, happy and enthusiastic about what I’m doing here in Meulaboh. Every afternoon the excited voices of children echoed up the stairs as they signed in, collected their workbooks, pencils and drawing pad and raced up the 2 flights of stairs to the 3rd floor of our office. And being the top floor, even before the kids got up there, it was a sauna! Meilin, Wira, Bethany and I orchestrated the semi-controlled chaos by having them sit in teams. We sang catchy (too catchy since they’re still in my head) songs that practiced key English phrases we had taught. While the children waited to begin, or waited for their ride home snatches of the song: What’s your name? What’s your name? What’s your name?( clap clap) rang out, mixed with What do you like? What do you like, what do you like Silvia? We chanted vocabulary words, acted out hobbies and decided what food we liked and didn’t like. After English we enjoyed snacks and we tried to practice polite behavior and calm standing in line (still much needed work in those areas), which is a great challenge to children who often get what they want by simply being persistent and loud. Next came the special art time when our country director’s father, an accomplished artist, taught the children simple techniques for drawing. The kids loved this part, and many of them did amazing jobs with perspective and shading. Then came chaos… games! Hot potato, musical chairs, body part tag and grab the treasure were all popular. I was really challenged to think of games for 50 kids in an enclosed HOT space… but we managed, and even enjoyed ourselves! Then at 5:00 we shuttled them back to their neighborhoods, helped by our incredibly patient drivers Chichik and Endang.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. A lot of work too, but the kids’ smiles and enthusiasm definitely made it all worth it. But I am glad that we have a couple weeks before the next English club!

While the songs were repetitive and could be slightly annoying when sung constantly, they did their job by helping the children remember what they had learned. Hopefully by our diligent efforts to provide an educational, fun experience for these children we too will be remembered fondly, and perhaps even spark a desire to learn more of what we had introduced so briefly. This program, as well as all our other programs here, is funded by donations. If you’re interested in helping support what we’re doing here in Aceh, you can click on the Food for the Hungry link here on my blog page!