Thai Girl Scouts aren't called Scouts and they don't sell cookies

They're called Girl Guides although I'm not sure who or what they're guiding. Still, they had a great overnight camp I was lucky enough to tag along on, and here's some pictures from the two day camp:


It was a five minute drive to the forest wat where the camp was being held, but all the girls had to walk the scenic path, through the woods and over the river into the back entrance. It was more fun this way but the heat was overwhelming.


Half way down the trail a large Buddha image rested under a tin roof. The Girl Guides each helped to clean the white image. While sitting around quietly, a heavy wind knocked a huge branch from a tree and it landed directly behind a large group of girls. It was one of those moments everyone is so shocked by what nearly happened that they just look around to make sure everyone else saw what just happened. Then we just moved the log-sized branch and the girls continued to clean the Buddha.


The final test to enter the forest wat was to walk across these semi-stable bamboo poles. It wasn't so hard (only one older teacher fell in) but I was scared because I had my camera along with me. I didn't mind getting wet but my camera wouldn't have made it out of the water alive.


After lunch it was arts and crafts which in Thai translates to making baskets out of magazines. They told me the baskets were normally made from strips of thin bamboo, but for some reason they were weaving magazines cut in to strips instead. Eiter way, I thought basket-weaving was just a joke but here it's taken pretty seriously.


Some down time at the camp, the girls just being themselves.


One of the games we played was a chopsticks and ping pong ball race. They do these differently in Bangkok, but here in Isaan they are G-rated and still entertaining to watch.


Another game played that I didn't quite understand. I know they had to all fit on the mat together without touching the ground, but there were no winners and losers. I suppose it wasn't really a game then, it was just an activity done for fun. Either way, it's amazing how little Thai kids often care about winning or losing, and instead are happy to just be having fun.


These lovely girls are from my best matayom 4 class. Like the rest of the campers, they were cooking their own dinner over the fire, entirely unsupervised. It wasn't a big deal, but I imagine at home that when Scouts go camping there's more than enough supervision making sure no one does anything remotely dangerous. Here, the teachers all left the camp to shower at home (it was only a couple minutes drive away) while the kids cooked their own dinners alone.