Interlude: Alice's First Girl Scout Camping Overnite in a Malaysian Jungle

Camping lite: The tents were set up before we arrived and the camping was catered.

Alice's camping troop: They made the girls stand for ridiculously long periods of time in the heat, waiting for instructions and watching flags getting raised. It felt like a cultural difference -- the tough, Asian Dad led this part and liked to make them wait until all their lines were straight and perfectly spaced.

Scouts in Malaysia, and most of the world, is co-ed. There are mostly Chinese-Malaysians in the Malaysian scouts, not Muslim or Indians. These Malaysian scouts helped us the entire overnite, with such enthusiasm, love of scouting, and respect for nature. They were inspiring. They taught us Malaysian scouting songs and arm movements around the campfire.

Raising of the school girl scouts flag.

Girl Malaysian Scouts.

Obstacle Course

Knot making. Alice was a natural.

Kite-making led by the Muslim Malaysian forest ranger.

January 20, 2011

Alice's blog:

All the Girl Scouts in my school went camping overnight in the jungle. The first thing that we did was choose our tent. We could sleep with our troop or sleep with our Mom or Dad. After I was done getting there, I swung on the rope next to a little thing of water. We learned how to tie knots. After that, we made kites and decorated them. At nighttime we did a little skit around the campfire. After that, we ate smores and went to bed. We also went on a long hike. At the end of the hike, we learned how to give people slings on their arms. Then the Malaysian scouts got two sticks of bamboo and slid the bamboo through the shirt arms in order to make a stretcher. A little girl sat on it and we carried her.

When I went to bed, I heard all these noises from the jungle. And, it was very hard to go to sleep. In the morning, I heard the sound of a loud bird. Then we got our kites and drove home in my friend's car.