Day Camp, Thai Style

     Why was I reminded of my Marine experience at todays Scout Day Camp?   There are five student teachers at school and they were in charge of Day Camp.  Scouting is huge in Thailand and has been incorporated into the schools since being embraced by a former king.  Early in the day there was a ceremony to honor him.  Scout uniforms are one of the five different uniforms...one for each day of the week...that students wear to school.   Marine experience? we'll get to that in a bit.
      Much of what happened would be expected at day camp.  There was singing, ceremony and teaching stations.  Each of the five student teachers, supported by a teacher, led a station.  The subjects were typical, first aid, etc.  After flag raising the students all went through a tiger's mouth into a short tunnel and emerged to have their face daubed with colored clay.  "Like a tiger be ready for adventure."....or something like that.
      Ok, let's go the Marines.   Students were divided into five groups for the day mixing gender and grades.  Each group, platoon?, was led by a 6th grade flag bearer...a bit like boot camp.    Flag raising featured the usual singing of the national anthem, and, traditionally off key because it's led by a student.  What was different was the teachers in front in their scout uniforms saluting the flag...yes, we did that in the Marines.  But, what really was reminiscent of the Marines was the inspection that followed the flag raising.  With the students standing at attention in formation the officers (teachers) accompanied by the flag bearers inspected every student individually.  They straightened ties, adjusted hats, etc. just like in the Marines.
       Well the tiger thing may be pushing the comparison a bit far and our tunnel was barbed wire with live machine gun fire 30 inches above ground...don't go sticking your head up.  Did we emerge tigers ready for adventure?  Who knows.
       The students were sent home after lunch and we went to the teacher's lunch.  Oh, but that reminded me of youth work days.  We couldn't leave the school until the last child had been picked up.  That brought back memories of the end of some youth event and one child's parents would be late for pick-up and I sooooooo wanted to go home.

Honoring the king.

Face daubing.

Colors.

Inspecting the troops.