There seems to be a bumper crop of summer camps this year, but few can claim the ambition of the Arts Council's Camp. It's held deep in the bush with young participants from all over the country. But learning the ins and outs of country life is the easy part - the hard part is learning to perform a play complete in just 10 days while being ravaged by mosquitoes and navigating pit latrines at night. It's performing under pressure if ever there was such a thing, but the campers came home this weekend happy, enriched and accomplished. Here's a look at what they did:
Indira Craig reporting,
Indira Craig
Staged at Program for Belize's La Milpa Forest Station, 73 children from all over the country spent 10 days in the bush learning about the performing arts and about themselves.
Beverly Smith-Lopez
Because it was arts and environment, we decided that Jonas Mata-Palo was supposed to be the theme of the cam. As you know Jonas Mata-Palo is one of the new books that David Ruiz wrote and the emphasis was on conservation. So we blend everything together and the camp worked around that. We had music and dance and drama and arts and crafts all dealing with that theme.
Indira Craig
And, in the ten days, the children participating in the camp put together a production. It culminated magically on Friday night at the Crystal Palace in Orange Walk.
Beverly Smith-Lopez
The word: impressive. Most impressive. In just about seven days, the children of Belize were able to put off this wonderful musical drama. Dancing and music and trees dancing and birds and butterflies and the entire story came alive.
Indira Craig
And while Friday night's show was the culmination of the camp experience, Smith-Lopez says that the children will take something else with them-the bigger idea of being transported into another context.
Beverly Smith-Lopez
Lots of positive things happened. There are things that we will need to strengthen about the camp, there is no doubt about that. But a lot of positive things happened with the camp, about the children feeling good about themselves, about them living in the rainforest for 10 days. Not all of us get that opportunity. We only read about it or see it on T.V. These children actually know the pros and cons of living in a rain forest.
Those images were made available through the Ministry of Culture's Video Unit, which is compiling a documentary on the experience.