Grade 5 and 6 Retreat

On a random whim, I was offered the chance to chaperone for the Grade 5 and 6 retreat. Since I am the English teacher and am familiar with at least half the students, I was given priority over other teachers. I accepted willingly and was ready for an eventful overnight escapade.

At noon yesterday, Leanne and I were driven over to SLDC, a conference center that shares property lines with our soccer field. We arrived just in time for lunch (however, I opted out because we had a surprise birthday party in Grade 3 for one of my students and they brought personal pan pizzas for everyone).

Just as lunch finished up, Dianne, an expatriate middle school teacher led a session about being a servant and how we can be a servant in everyday life. The students just began working on posters when an electrical fire broke out in the ceiling, causing black smoke and flames to ooze out of the ceiling.

All the kids were in a panic - and not about their safety. No they were concerned that their hand phones might get burned or their cameras might get stomped on. It took quite a while to get the kids out - it's a good thing the fire was small or disaster could have taken over.

For the duration of the afternoon, we worked outside and played games (marble pass, blindfold shapes, and holes in the water tube). We were drenched with water and sweat by the time the bus came back to pick us up and bring us to the boarding house or PHH (Pelita Harapan House). We were given time to shower and chaos errupted.

Leanne, Rosma, and I were assigned to the boys dormitory because there were no male chaperones on the trip. We staked our claims, near the front of the room for ventilation purposes, and then headed to the women's showering area.

While we were gone, one of the boys pooped in his pants just before showering. He wiped himself with someone else's towel and folded it up, giving it back to the other person (not having the decency to tell him about using it). When the other boy opened the towel to wipe his face, you can imagine the surprise he got when he realized what was smeared on his face. It was the talk of dorm. Smells seared out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. Trying to conceal this to only the directly affected people was an even more difficult task. You'd think you'd want to keep it quiet if you accidentally wiped poop on your face, right? Wrong. This kid shouted it to the rooftops. So much for being discrete.

The rumblings and laughter died down as we went to dinner. After dinner, we had a bonfire and Leanne and I taught them how to make smores. They had never even made them before. The closest thing to making them, was "seeing them in the movies." This was really a mind boggling thing for me considering I used to make them all the time when I was camping with my family. The whole concept of all three ingredients together petrified them. It was as if you were saying a good refreshing drink consists of soda, ketchup, and pepper (ew gross, but they couldn't believe that these three things actually went together to make something tasty).

After smores Leanne and I did a ad-lib sporatic story about how we were cousins and went on an African Safari before coming to teach in Indonesia. The most craziest thing about this story was that I told them I was wearing a zebra print dress and orange high heels and a rhino saw me and almost impaled me because he thought I was a zebra. Oh the funniest thing was that the kids bought the story. They thought the whole thing was true. They talked about it all night and all the next morning. Who would have thought they would have believed a wild and lie-weeded story? None of the teachers told them it was a "tall tale" and so now the kids are telling everyone they see about Leanne and Marie's safari adventure.

When the bonfire died down, we split up and headed to bed. I tucked in all my boys and comforted a few boys who were scared of the dark or who had never spent the night away from home before. It took about ten minutes when the giggles erupted. I let it slide because I was amused at the boys next to me laughing like hyenas. They even had me in tears from laughing so much. The lights flipped on and Rosma started reprimanding the boys angrily (I had to cover my face because I was laughing so hard - I didn't want to let her see that I was in stitches).

Once she yelled at them, they were quiet the rest of the night. I fell asleep quickly after that. The room was 16 degrees (Celsius) - which was perfect temperature for sleeping, but perhaps not too fun to wake up to.

I woke about 3 a.m. to go to the bathroom. I walked sleepy eyed to the nearby boys bathroom. There was no way I would make it across the building to go pee. I walked in and stopped dead in my tracks. One of my grade 6 boys stood in front of the mirror stark naked. I quickly backed up, thinking if I stayed silent, he wouldn't know I saw him and be embarrassed. I sat in the lobby area and tried to think of reasons why he was naked. The best thing I could think of was that he was sleep walking.

Then the unexpected happened. This boy strutted out of the bathroom and saw me, and turned toward me. He looked at me and said "I hope you don't mind that I'm naked, Miss Marie. I love walking around naked." I cowered in my seat, trying not to lose my cool. I was flirting between the emotional line of insanity and hilarity. I nodded, avoiding all eye contact and told him to get in bed.

As soon as the door shut, I roared in laughter. Never in a million years would I expect something like that to happen to me. Honestly, if I was a grade 6 student, I would be mortified if my teacher saw me naked. Oh but no, he thought it was completely normal and comfortable! That takes guts. I couldn't even look him in the eye this morning when he said hello to me at breakfast.

We had devotions and took a group picture before they left for the orphanage and I to the classroom to teach grade 3. The retreat was great - but I definitely got more than I bargained for.