Nature Day Camp in Myanmar

Author: May is a Student Ambassador in Burma who loves researching, exploring, and experiencing.

Last week, I went camping for my school’s annual nature day program and had a memorable experience.

First, we arrived at the camp around noon. We all gathered in the lobby and had a brief discussion while waiting for other students to arrive. Our school’s principal gave us a briefing and gave us the important advice, “to make at least one new friend”. I took pictures with my friends as we grabbed our belongings. It was so hot, especially for me, because I was wearing long sleeves to protect myself from the sun.

Tug of War

Next, we headed to the field where we began our first activity: Tug of War! We walked under the hot, blazing sun, grabbed our gloves, and arranged our teams. I was placed at the end of the rope to control the race. When the whistle blew, I pulled the rope and tried to remain stationary as much as I could, while I could hear someone shouting beside me to remain still. I didn’t know who the person was, but I just saw a glimpse of green (which was my team color). Pull, pause, repeat. My fingers were stinging, my body was slanted, but I kept holding on. It lasted for a few minutes, then, after a while, the flag reached our side. We, Section 5’s won! Against the Taunggyi students and the Section 4 girls. We were so happy we jumped up and down. After that, we cheered for the boys. We screamed our friends’ names, we yelled “Section 5” loudly, and then we won again! All section 5’s were the champions (except for the match of the Sec 5 boys and the coaches, which doesn’t really count anyway). I didn’t even get a picture of this activity because I was too busy helping my team win.

Treasure Hunt

After we all calmed down, we moved on to our next activity: Treasure Hunt. We were assigned to look for items such as colored balls, pipes, cones, and large rings. We had to look for them in order to exchange them for the items needed to build our camp! I know, it sounds exhausting because it was! I volunteered to find the pipe, which was located in the pool, with the company of my friend Su. After the clock hit 4, we all went our separate ways to get each of our assigned items. We walked to the pool, with lip gloss on and hair blowing in my face, which was definitely not a good combo, but oh well!

The pool sparkled in the sun as I squinted my eyes to locate the pipe. There were other students from other teams searching as well, as we anxiously looked around to find the pipe. A minute later, after gliding along in the pool, I heard a splash, and then I heard my friends laugh. Su had found it! We got up, walked back to the lobby to change our wet clothes, and headed back to the main field.

Setting up Camp

As I walked back, students on bicycles rode beside us as they completed their own tasks. We even spotted some students who had to do push-ups for 3 minutes on the football field in order to get an item (I was grateful that it wasn’t me). My teachers always have unique ideas for activities.

After all this, we met up and gathered the items we exchanged in order to build a fire, and then went back to our campsite on the football field. After setting up our tent, we settled down for a chat.

In the evening, we also got to watch our friends and coaches dance Aqua Zumba. While the sun set and day turned to night, the dance was mesmerizing. We sat near the pool edge as we cheered and clapped. At the end, the last act of the dance was to splash water on us. Thank goodness I sat further away, or else I would have gotten soaked.

The Grand Finale

Finally, we had a 5-hour concert session (yes, five whole hours). Clapping and cheering filled the air as almost all classes performed. Then, we finally danced our long-awaited dance to “What is Love” - twice. After practicing this dance daily during free periods, our time had come to show off our moves. It was already 1am. After all the dancing was over, we sang all kinds of songs around the bonfire. From Christmas songs to nostalgic songs, we sang as we stared at the burning fire. Then, finally, we hit the hay.

The next morning, we watched the sunrise. The sky was full of beautiful shades of pink and blue. After a while, we had breakfast, which the school had prepared for us: cheese sandwiches and coffee. The coffee was so hot that I almost burnt myself. We took one last group photo and finally headed back.

Overall, it was an exhausting yet exciting experience, one that would spark many memories. We strengthened bonds, we learned how to thrive in the wild, but the most important thing was that we had lots of fun. I would say the only negative thing about this camp was the mosquito bites (It took me almost a week to heal from all those bites), but other than that, the camping trip was a blast.

This article is written with the assistance of GEN-AI tools.