On Monday, all the semester students were told during lunch time announcements to come to the lower field with a long sock and a black t-shirt for OAP (Outdoor Activities Program). Previously during OAP we had played games such as yoga-ball soccer and dodgeball, but today we were going to be playing “sock wars” which is a combination of capture the flag and dodgeball in which you tag people by throwing a flour-filled sock at them. While the game itself was a lot of fun, it was made even better when we all untied our socks and had a flour fight all across the lower field. This resulted in dinner that night being filled with many a white hair white shirted person at dinner.
OAP has been one of the best parts of Chewonki so far. We do not have it every day but when we do, it is always so much fun and everyone looks forward to it. Everyone usually dresses up in “flair” and usually people get really into their costumes. One favorite OAP activity so far has been dodgeball. We play it every Friday and it is one of the more competitive OAP games. Everyone plays and we even have the occasional faculty versus students game.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays instead of doing the team “sports” for OAP, we have a special leadership oriented OAP with the president of Chewonki, Willard Morgan. So far we have gone canoeing on the waterfront and hiking at Eaton Farm. The canoeing we did was not ordinary canoeing though, because we had to canoe without paddles. This made it especially challenging to direct where we wanted to go. However, after getting the paddles back we canoed out a little bit and had fun playing pirates, where the challenge was to tip another group’s canoe and then take it over. By doing this, we learned how to paddle and control canoes, while at the same time judging the tide.
The point OAP is different each day of the week: on Tuesday and Thursday, we learn leadership skills, understanding what it means to be a good leader. On Mondays and Fridays OAP is more about being active and having fun. So far, OAP has turned out to be a great way to unwind after a long school day by having fun playing games.
-Hannah Cabot
Wayland, MA
-Andreas Dal Piaz
New York, NY
-Margot Daiber
Rye, NY
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