English Crazy Camp #34 Borai Wittayakom School, Trat

English Crazy Rock You Again: This Time We Hit the Western Coast of Thailand

May 24-25 , 2008, Borai, Trat - No matter where we are, we still ROCK! It was another long trip for English Crazy Club. The university term was going to start soon, so some of us had just come back to Ubon from visiting our hometowns, travelling, and apprenticing, while some were still on the road travelling from place to place. After saying “Of course, I’m going” to the coordinator of this camp, we all knew our next destination right away. Trat!

Most of the staff team started their trip in Ubon travelling excitedly across province to province to meet the other three who were travelling from Bangkok at the same time. Before reaching Trat we, from different starts, met in Chanthaburi, and then together headed for the final stop, Trat.

We arrived at the school very late and everyone seemed really exhausted from the trip, but a warm welcome with a variety of fresh local fruits energised all of us. “If you guys get up early tomorrow morning, you can go to the plantation behind and pick as many rambutans as you want by yourself,” a teacher mistakenly gave us permission. We are not only English Crazy clubbers, but also eaters. We were not able to hide our excitement while picking the colourful fruits from the easily reachable branches.

There were only 41 students, but all of them were so welcoming. Some were so small especially compared to Isaan kids. The school is the most beautiful school I have seen in Thailand. They even have fruit plantations at the back. Our driver, Pee Aan, stole some for us. Oops!

All the kids had fun during the camp with the ten Thai staff and one volunteer from the Netherlands. One of the Thai staff was new. He is a friend of a staff member and his name is Nong. The kids called him “Pee Nong” and we called him “Nong Nong”. Confusing! As we all know, anyone from any corner of the world is welcome to our club. The only qualifications they need are craziness and a willing to help other people to make the world a better place to live.

Talking about the staff, one of us was such a lazy person. He did not join our night activity, but stayed in a special air-conditioned room alllllllllllllll night. The next day he still did not show up. That was “Geng” or “Pee Heng” for all the campers. However, nobody wished to be him, because nobody wished to be in hospital. Geng had to be sent to the hospital that night, because he had food poisoning. Bob, one of our staff, with the family of a teacher had to stay there with him. All the staff at the camp wished he would get well soon.

While Geng and Bob were at the hospital, all the activities were still going great led by Nit, Ang and Aom. The kids had fun from joining the four crazy rotations, even though they picked up some bruises as usual. Presenting their TV show programmes at night time, and playing a lot of crazy games in the morning of the last day made their smiles even wider. Once again, we did a great job! The smiles of the children, thanks from the teachers and laughter of everyone said so.

English Crazy Camps are in our blood, and Geng proved that by making it for the last moment of the camp. Everyone was happy having him back at the camp, even though it was the last short moment. We all smiled for the photos. One…Two…Three. Crazy! We will see you again and we will ROCK!...again.

P'Nit