For the first of the two scheduled movie nights we chose Jurassic Park (The plan for the second one is Finding Nemo, but there is little respect for the Chrono so who knows if that will happen). We decided an action movie translates best across language barriers, we showed the French dub but French is still at best a second language for everyone. We also wanted to blow their minds with a movie about dinosaurs. Minds weren’t blown in quite the way we all hoped for but it was still a lot of fun to watch the movie.
I was most looking forward to the big T-Rex scene and seeing their reaction to that. I was expecting a lot more on the fear spectrum of reactions, but they seemed to have a far better grasp of just how pretend the scene was than I had hoped for. Another volunteer / my roommate for the two weeks and I talked about it afterwards and we came up with a couple ideas on why. First, when we first saw Jurassic Park we were younger than these campers are. Second, a lot of these campers have already seen action flicks on TV at some point and have been exposed to CGI so it’s not a new thing.
Everyone was still definitely entertained and on the edge of their seats for the scene. I could feel the tension in the room rise as everyone’s eyes remained glued to the projection. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t the silent type of tension, it was the yell at the characters for doing something stupid type of tension… and as things got more intense the comments became more and more urgent. It was really fun to watch; I mean, I love that scene but I was having so much more fun watching the audience for most of it. It was most clear just how tense everyone was during the actions scenes when they ended. The collective sigh of relief was audible and followed by a discussion of what just happened with your neighbors. Unfortunately there was a lot of whispering at once and in a bunch of languages that it was tough for me to pull out any good comments.
A lot of joy was gleaned from watching people get hurt, and they loved watching the “fat one” do pretty much anything - plus at the end of his arch he gets hurt too, what more could you want? All in all everyone seemed to follow the movie really well, and there was a surprising amount that was relatable to life in Senegal. Raptors eat cows fast, the T-Rex gets a goat (both animals are EVERYWHERE), and all lizards must die. Speaking of which, the scene where Alan Grant and the kids spend the night in the tree and the Brontosaurus comes over to say hi turned into the moment that made me laugh the most thanks to someone’s reaction. There is the line in the movie that compares them to “big cows” which was apparently lost on one of the Senegalese counselors (kind-of counselor, her role really was unclear). She started to scold them quite loudly as soon as they started petting them. She had the full “whatever, fine, don’t listen to me” reaction too and threw up her arms in disgust.
It was really great to people watch the whole time. Now it’s time for the Rocky and Bullwinkle style chang up. During camp the Peace Corps Volunteers involved stayed at a different place than all the campers. I got to share a hut with Kellen, my closest neighbor actually; however, there’s a small debate as to wether or not our hut can actually be considered as suck. It was basically a box made out of bamboo poles with a thatched roof on sticks. The thatch roof was the most weather proof part of the hut and at least bigger animals wouldn’t be able to make it into the hut. We came to the conclusion that a good tent could probably provide better protection from the elements the night of the big storm when the grass mats lining the walls nearly blew down onto us. Kellen may have made a hole on the back porch on the way to take a bucket bath one day, but the beds are REALLY comfortable. Next to our hut there was a monkey leashed to a tree, apparently it’s the more temperamental of the pair of pet monkeys that lived there (the other being left to roam free and apparently live under our hut). Now, I had been leaving my toothpaste out back by the sink so that we could brush out teeth there when it went missing one day. I will admit that I laughed off Kellen’s suggestion that the monkey had taken it for a few days until the tube was found in the Lost and Found with monkey bite marks on it. That was just funny, no harm done, first offense, all the toothpaste was still there, and I was basically inviting it to get taken by leaving it out.
The Second offense however… the cursed little monkey came into our hut and stole out corn! We had the back door open, and a couple ears of corn left on a small table that we were planning on roasting up that night. We were all hanging out having a Coke/Fanta break when Kellen had to get something from our hut. He came back with two empty ears of corn in his hands, “The monkeys ate our corn.” Apparently he caught them and his mouth dropped open, a motion the monkeys decided the mimic as they stood over their prizes. If you can’t tell I have a very specific picture of how this all went down in my head. It was a traumatic experience, I was looking forward to making someone roast that corn for me so I could have a tasty night time snack.
Pure devastation when the evening rolled around and I wanted to have a snack. Stupid Monkey.
Everyone was still definitely entertained and on the edge of their seats for the scene. I could feel the tension in the room rise as everyone’s eyes remained glued to the projection. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t the silent type of tension, it was the yell at the characters for doing something stupid type of tension… and as things got more intense the comments became more and more urgent. It was really fun to watch; I mean, I love that scene but I was having so much more fun watching the audience for most of it. It was most clear just how tense everyone was during the actions scenes when they ended. The collective sigh of relief was audible and followed by a discussion of what just happened with your neighbors. Unfortunately there was a lot of whispering at once and in a bunch of languages that it was tough for me to pull out any good comments.
A lot of joy was gleaned from watching people get hurt, and they loved watching the “fat one” do pretty much anything - plus at the end of his arch he gets hurt too, what more could you want? All in all everyone seemed to follow the movie really well, and there was a surprising amount that was relatable to life in Senegal. Raptors eat cows fast, the T-Rex gets a goat (both animals are EVERYWHERE), and all lizards must die. Speaking of which, the scene where Alan Grant and the kids spend the night in the tree and the Brontosaurus comes over to say hi turned into the moment that made me laugh the most thanks to someone’s reaction. There is the line in the movie that compares them to “big cows” which was apparently lost on one of the Senegalese counselors (kind-of counselor, her role really was unclear). She started to scold them quite loudly as soon as they started petting them. She had the full “whatever, fine, don’t listen to me” reaction too and threw up her arms in disgust.
It was really great to people watch the whole time. Now it’s time for the Rocky and Bullwinkle style chang up. During camp the Peace Corps Volunteers involved stayed at a different place than all the campers. I got to share a hut with Kellen, my closest neighbor actually; however, there’s a small debate as to wether or not our hut can actually be considered as suck. It was basically a box made out of bamboo poles with a thatched roof on sticks. The thatch roof was the most weather proof part of the hut and at least bigger animals wouldn’t be able to make it into the hut. We came to the conclusion that a good tent could probably provide better protection from the elements the night of the big storm when the grass mats lining the walls nearly blew down onto us. Kellen may have made a hole on the back porch on the way to take a bucket bath one day, but the beds are REALLY comfortable. Next to our hut there was a monkey leashed to a tree, apparently it’s the more temperamental of the pair of pet monkeys that lived there (the other being left to roam free and apparently live under our hut). Now, I had been leaving my toothpaste out back by the sink so that we could brush out teeth there when it went missing one day. I will admit that I laughed off Kellen’s suggestion that the monkey had taken it for a few days until the tube was found in the Lost and Found with monkey bite marks on it. That was just funny, no harm done, first offense, all the toothpaste was still there, and I was basically inviting it to get taken by leaving it out.
The Second offense however… the cursed little monkey came into our hut and stole out corn! We had the back door open, and a couple ears of corn left on a small table that we were planning on roasting up that night. We were all hanging out having a Coke/Fanta break when Kellen had to get something from our hut. He came back with two empty ears of corn in his hands, “The monkeys ate our corn.” Apparently he caught them and his mouth dropped open, a motion the monkeys decided the mimic as they stood over their prizes. If you can’t tell I have a very specific picture of how this all went down in my head. It was a traumatic experience, I was looking forward to making someone roast that corn for me so I could have a tasty night time snack.Pure devastation when the evening rolled around and I wanted to have a snack. Stupid Monkey.
wow :/ i couldnt begin to amagine how akward it must be in a battle against monkeys for your own things.
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