Boy Scouts at the opening ceremony, each holding a traditional Thai weapon that allows the men to hunt animals in a less brutal way.
Once again I have very little information going in, but I
was invited to our school’s annual campout for the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, a mandatory activity for all students at school. I believe the teachers' participation may also be mandatory as some were wobbling around the campsite in heels. I leave my house with no
more information than I’m going on a two night campout with the Boy Scouts and the girls will be at a separate site. After working as a camp
counselor for four years and being responsible for all the activities and
safety of my campers, it was difficult to not have any concept of a plan for
the next three days in the forest.
After disposing our gear at the campsite, we hitched a ride
down the mountain and waited at a coffee shop for our students to arrive. This is a nice perk. They showed up looking exhausted already and much to
my surprise some were trailing rolly-suitcases. Oddly not a problem as our “hike”
was trekking along the road up to the campsite. We hiked up with them to both
encourage them and so that later they couldn’t look at us and tell us we don’t
know how difficult it was. And oh boy were they a struggle bus…
By the time we made it up, I had really gotten down both the
Thai vocabulary and proper tones for, “let’s go” “come quickly” “go! go! go!” and "car!" plus my students knew how to properly argue with me when I said “you can do it!”
(What a proud teacher I was!)
Once at the top, the Boy Scouts set up their tents. Thanks to teacher privilege, I was in a cabin with an actual bed for the night. We then proceeded with the opening ceremony as everything in Thailand must commence with a ceremony. Also it should have come as no shock to me anymore that they set up
loudspeakers and a microphone. Oh how peaceful nature is…
Then the games began. They were asked to shimmy across a
rope straddling the creek, climb up a rope hanging from a tree, crawl under a
bridge in a creek, shoot archery, start a fire, and then some other things that
really weren’t that clear to me. All the while it was pouring down cold rain.
But thank goodness that boys are boys and had a blast sloshing around in the
rain and mud anyway while chanting our school’s song. I’ve never seen so much
school pride before Thailand. My coworker could not have said it better when we
were supervising the rope bridge: a child’s smile is my heart’s happiness.
The school had invited a group of scouts to be the leaders
of the campfire activities. They were so animated even I was thoroughly
entertained by the festivities. There were lots of sing-alongs and dancing,
some skits (typical from what I know of American Boy Scouts as well) but then
one of my students came out holding two large knives. On my campouts, I don’t
even trust most campers to cut peda bread let alone dance with knives. There
was another dance where the boys were shirtless and ran around the fire to
scare off spirits. My co-worker explained that it’s just tradition,
they don’t really believe it anymore. Although if I had a nickle for every Thai person who has told me he's afraid of ghosts...
The next morning we made the decision to cut the trip short
due to weather. The students carried their things in bundles literally dripping
with water to the songtaos and then swept and even picked up the leaves from
the campsite. Now, at my summer camp we do “sweeps” where we check
for any garbage left in the campsite, but we usually leave nature there.
Many skits and dances
were clearly reflective of traditional Thai culture and practice which was such
a harsh juxtaposition next to the uniforms and sing-alongs that echo Boy Scouts
of America. The exact history of how Boy Scouts was brought into Thai culture
is unclear but I am both charmed and perplexed by my students in their standard
American Boy Scout uniforms holding a traditional Thai weapon.
