Group photo day!

Today was another good 'un!  Children are taking ownership of 'their' books, challenging themselves at a higher level, enjoying each other and having activity fun in the afternoon.

Today's photo link:  http://s1057.photobucket.com/albums/t393/Readingcamprocks/



On the porch of Mission House, 21 June:
Twenty two children, twelve counselors, seven teachers, two sous chefs.
 

Wonderful Wednesday in Lexington

Hard to believe our third day of Camp is over - time flies when you're having fun, I guess!
The children are settling in well with each other (amazing how fast they adapt!).  They are becoming comfortable with the teachers and counselors - the teachers are learning their idiosyncrasies and things are working.  The ones who need glasses to read even remember to bring them!  Being the flexible people they are, the teachers have made a couple of modifications to the sessions to improve time with the students.

 Creative Movement Session

 Jeffrey from the Lexington Philharmonic being ever so patient with the children during the instrument 'petting zoo' (what a joyful noise they made!)

 "So when do we get lunch?!"

There seems to be a definite sense of reading confidence improving, the mumbling and slurring of words is disappearing, and the level of the books they choose to read is certainly getting better.

Full photo selection: http://s1057.photobucket.com/albums/t393/Readingcamprocks/

In closing for the day, a hearty and very sincere 'shout out' to our gracious and much appreciated food providers:
Good Shepherd - Brian Cole, Rector (and reader!)
St. Michael's - Luarie Brock, Rector
St. Andrew's - Carol Ruthven, Rector & Deacon Mary (reader!)
St. Rapheael's - Johnnie Ross, Rector
Christ Church - Carol Wade, Dean

Thank you SO much to Resurrection - Jan Cottrell, Rector for the loan of your Reading Camp Express, Bob Broughton, Driver

A Happy Note from Cameroon

The Cameroon authorities are in full support of our project! :-) On June 15th, we met with the Tiko Divisional officer (Government representative).  He personally booked an appointment with his boss, the Senior Divisional officer and we met the next day in Limbe (that's unheard of!).

Only three days after that, on June 19th, the Divisional officer officially launched the 2012 Cameroon Reading Camp; the event was covered by one of our television stations and two radio stations. The Camp will be shown and broadcast this week throughout the entire country! This took a dimension we never expected, anticipated or planned for. Hopefully we shall have a copy of the DVD for you and the Ambassadors. It will look like a short documentary.  The speed with which this all happened has taken us all by happy surprise as we never expected, anticipated or planned for it! 

There are 45 children at Camp; eight were replaced June 18th; 20 kids who weren't selected showed up anyway and they are hanging out everyday with others and learning some activities through the window! We are also feeding the kids hanging out. We need to do roll call each day to avoid children not selected entering in the learning centers. We are working with 21 trained teachers and 12 counselors - they are so cooperative and helpful.

In short, the community is blessed to have this reading camp and is longing for more every year.

Bishop Chilton's goal to make the Episcopal church visible in the community has been achieved far beyond our expectations.

Thank you very much and thank God. 

Clemence

Lexington RC Day 1

Wow!  The First Day of School!  What a delightful bunch of energetic kids!  Beginning at 8 o'clock we began welcoming the first of 23 children - some brought by a parent, some on the bus (hosted by the inestimable Ginger Sauls!).  As soon as they were officially ours for the day, Pat fed most of them a nutritious breakfast (some had already eaten) and they were off to their first sessions.  Bishop Chilton Knudsen welcomed everyone to Mission House with an interesting description of who bishops are, what they do and what they wear.  They were cloistered in strategic locations throughout the spacious first floor of Mission House; every half hour Timekeeper CC blew her whistle and the children rotated to the next session.  In the Reading for Pleasure session, children were offered their own choice of reading material from a large and very eclectic selection, then went off with an adult to read.  It was delightful to see their faces when faced with so much choice!  So many books and so little time!  One of the adults said how impressed he was with the reading ability of some of the children - "Why is she here?" was the refrain.  Other children were clearly there for the right reason - improve their reading skills. 

After a half hour lunch, there were Arts activities - such things as piano lessons and latch hook rug making and then off to various visits around town.

No question that most of them had an enjoyable first day and are looking forward to tomorrow :-)

Here's a link to today's photo collection:  First day photo collection

A Cameroon Note

From Carolyn Hockey, one of our Ambassadors to Cameroon:

It is so exciting! We met with the teachers today, and we don't quite know what we are doing, but everyone is so dedicated and really wants to be here and make a commitment to this program. We originally had planned to meet with the teachers for training and such at 9:30 this morning, so yesterday Clemence called all of them to make sure they were coming. A curse and a blessing was put in our laps. We met with a government official out of the blue! On a Saturday! The district commissioner that we met the other day set it up for us when he saw how important reading camp is. (I am not sure what the man's title is that we met with today, but they said he is higher up than a governor). BUT he could only meet at 10 a.m. in Limbe! This meant we were not able to get back to Tiko for the training until 2 p.m., and it had been to late to contact all of the teachers. However, they were all there waiting for us when we got back! It was incredible! They just stayed and waited for us to come. That would never happen in the US.

Twenty minutes and people would have left. There is so much commitment and dedication. I am anxious, nervous, and exciting for this coming week!

Have no idea what is to come, but trying to keep an open mind and an open heart.

Oh! And I forgot to mention that they don't have children's books here! Like, they don't exist in Cameroon at all! So that makes it extra special and exciting that we have books to give to the kids. :)

Ambassadors in Cameroon

Updates from our ambassadors:

From Carolyn:
We are all doing well! We are all happy to be here -- and exhausted! Today we received a very warm welcome from the St Andrew's in Tiko. They were so hospitable. They prayed for us in a worship service and then we shared a meal with the vestry. It was wonderful -- and very spicy! It is overwhelming how gracious everyone has been to us.