(2nd) Best Day of My Life!!! Field Good Fun Day

Pictures and videos speak louder than words, but you can expect to be overwhelmed by all three in this post!

First, the words.

The best day of my life was back in the Fall of 2005. It was a Badger game day, with the game at night, and from start (8am banana chocolate chip pancakes, two kegs of Natty Ice, and tunes) to middle (grub on the grill, four more kegs of Natty Ice, seeing old friends and making new ones, and the Madison drumline performing at our house) to finish (endless dance parties lasting til post bar time and equally endless grins across everyone's faces), I was on Cloud Nine. It will be exceptionally difficult/impossible to top the ecstasy that was that entire day...  but this day came close.

A brainchild between Alice I occurred after the dancing experience we had with the students the week prior. I had been stalking different clubs and organizations to join them and after weeks of finding out the clubs were "inactive", I finally stayed late enough (7pm) to see the dance club practice. Alice and I joined in and the seven members quickly became 15. The audience started as a few of the dormitory girls and within the blink of eye became over 50 primary and secondary students. Where they came from, I haven't a clue. What I did know, is that we were having a BLAST laughing and dancing together.

Alice noticed how much the students enjoyed the teachers participating with them in extracurricular activities, and it was after all, the entire focus of our presentation at the Teacher Exchange Program. We decided to stop waiting until students eventually partook in extracurricular events and organize a day and time to do them together. We sat down and starting spitballing ideas off each other with Jane jumping in the convo as well. We made a list of possible activities we could/wanted to do with students from dancing, to singing, to running, to soccer, to organized games. It was all very vague with a TON of variables at the beginning from whether or not any students would actually be at school after the exams to how long we would keep them to how many teachers would be there to support us. Finally on Monday, we learned that students were going to be required to come and so we planned out a full out day of events with a schedule and decided to rent speakers for the event, to guarantee success. We had NO idea how successful it really would be.

Wednesday came and the schedule for the day was far from followed to a T, but there was no doubt the expectation of FUN was met in a safe and organized way. Announcements were made, Gilbert quickly and flawlessly stepped into the MC role, the teachers embraced their roles and participation the entire day from hip hop dancing and rapping to signing up for organized games and sports to hamming it up with foot races and as performers. As Lindsay noted when looking at pictures from the event, there were teachers smiling and laughing that she (and I) had never seen do either before. 

We were fortunate enough to have some other TeX teachers come and support us as well, which made the day run even smoother. Students were smiling (and grinding-whoops!) the whole day through. I got to talk to students about their musical interests, dance traditional dances with them, run a three legged race with students and teachers, play in an intense students verse staff football game, teach some teachers the Cha Cha Slide and Cupid Shuffle while all students learned to Limbo. It was a ridiculously jovial day that I believe everyone thoroughly enjoyed so much that some teachers were already making plans for next term’s “Field Good Fun Day”. The next day, although most students didn’t want to be at school (as they were finished with exams), they seemed happy to see me and all the students I got to talk to said they really enjoyed it!

 

And here are the million (or so) pictures!

To the left, to the left, to the left,to the left...

Alice, a student, and our head teacher (principal) doing some traditional dancing

I got roped in, as well as Amanda Stevie, a Peace Corps volunteer that taught full time at St. Mary's

Taking it all in

LIMBO!

The school's best rappers, Silva Fox, and their 'dancers'

Too cool for school kids

Video clip of the boys in the dance and drumming club doin' their thang

Impromptu male teachers rap lip sync

Jane and I attempting to explain brackets to the students

Relay Races led by Jane: insane!

Three legged races led by Komakech and I

Tug of War led by Alice

Everybody in the community was interested in what was goin down, especially the cute 'lil primary kids!

Time for staff relay races!

My favorite, Sam the Man, is dressed for success

 

Our head teacher consoling Jane after she took a digger whilst racing her... what you need to know is that Jane got beat by a 60-something year old woman in dress and flip flops.

Everyone's good and comfortable now - let's get our groove on!

 

Gilbert was our unofficial and self nominated MC for day - fantastic job!

Two of my favorite colleagues, Alfred and Albert

Staff vs. Student football game. Everyone not wearing yellow or green are community members that just stopped to watch. Insane.

Alice nominated herself as line judge and this student was quick to get us a team mascot.

The students killed the teachers - nice job, ladies and gents!

Sam and I still smiling in defeat and looking "smart" in our uniforms

Like any good program, this event went from 9 am (scheduled start time of 8am) until 6pm, when the music stopped and the sun began to set. Yes, this was the Second Best Day of My Life!!!