The first was to celebrate American Independence day, the fourth of July. It started the afternoon before with a walk down to the river bank carnival to watch hot air balloons being launched, an awesome sight! Then the next day we walked to the main street of the small town to watch the annual fourth of July parade, complete with boy scouts and fire trucks. Then off to a local CISV family's enormous back yard for a picnic. It was a great day with swimming, volleyball, boat rides, great food, and more importantly...the kids got to drink coke!!!! It was just as well they had had a little coke as the day ended late with a fireworks display watched from back down at the river.
Our next 'field trip' was to a nature reserve. We got there in a typical yellow school bus. Which was exciting enough! But when we arrived we were taken on walks through mosquito infested forests, being told not to touch the poison ivy along the way and finishing at a pond where we stood motionless waiting to catch sight of a snake!! Then we looked over an old pioneer cottage and checked out some of the native animals.... I still can't believe I actually touched that enormous spider!!! The afternoon was spent ten pin bowling at the local bowling alley. Now, this may sound boring to you, but I have never heard so much laughter and chatter in my life!!
Our last trip was a special one. Having no swimming pool at the camp, the kids were getting a little bored with the water fights that happened every afternoon, so when the day we were going to the local pool finally arrived everyone was sooooo excited!! But it was to be a day of extremes!!! In the morning we went (in that yellow school bus again!) to an ice skating rink, where the local skating club taught us how to skate. Then after a lunch supplied by Mc Donalds, we went across the road to the swimming pool and escaped the heat until we all turned into little prunes!
For my delegation it meant many arguments and lots of preparation. What would we wear? What food could we make? Did we really have to dance? So before we had even left home, while we sat sticking pictures into our booklets, we came up with ideas for our national night, and finally made a decision about what we would do. We practised during delegation time, and made signs and decorations, until finally it was our turn. In the end we performed a play about an Australian legend, and played Australian games. We made Fairy Bread and even encouraged everyone to try some vegemite!!
National Nights are one of the greatest things at village. We learnt dances from the USA and Finland, and a song from Italy (although I have no idea what it means). We tasted Colombian drinks, and Costa Rican Bean Dip. We saw a video from Norway and learnt all about Canadian holidays. And we went home with a booklet reminding us of each person at village and where they came from.
The night of Dedication night was hot. Incredibly hot. And by the time all the guests had packed into the hall, it was even hotter. It was at this stage that the kids in national costume started to look exhausted. It was at this stage that we were glad being from Australia and wearing T-shirts, rather than from Norway and wearing long sleeves and long skirts! But, as soon as the hall was full we entered, one delegation at a time, singing "we're from Australia jolly good place, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello" and made it to our seats where we could fan ourselves with the program. One delegation at a time went up on stage and presented a song or dance. Then the whole village stood together and sang "Heal the World". After thunderous applause we were allowed to sit down, and after each child had met their home stay family we were allowed to escape and change into some cooler clothes. We had survived Dedication night and now the kids were off to Family Weekend and the leaders were off to Leaders Weekend.