Camps!
Ok, so camps:
First Day: Walked out of my house carrying my backpack and a smaller bag, with the stuff that didn't fit into my backpack. The backpack was pretty big, but i had about half the amount of stuff that some other people had. This time, thank common sense, they didn't try and mix up the grades or anything on the bus, so i got to sit with my class instead of a bunch of really annoying 8th graders. This was really good :) Um, ok, we got to the campsite, and saw our sleeping place. All guys in one room, all the girls in the other. Squished bunks, not much space. We very quickly related it to pictures of concentration camps that we had seen. So, the sleeping places became known as the "barracks". A friend and i nicknamed the bathrooms as the "gas chambers" because they too looked pretty severe. It was of course all a joke, because really, the facilities weren't all that bad. The food kiosk became the rations centre, and we tried to think of a name for the chapel that had something to do with brainwashing, but never really came up with anything. So, we settled in, and then went and had lunch. It was HUGE. Ok, after lunch, the Camp people did some games, which i thought were utterly humiliating. Ick. Needless to say I didn't really participate much. After those games we played soccer, and then had free time. Then did worship practice, i did the powerpoint. I can sing, but yeah, i did powerpoint... Hyperactivity and an awesome praise and worship time followed. It was great! Then we went to bed. Girls, though, will talk, even in their sleep. Someone yelled out something in korean, and someone was like "No!nonononono! " But eventually i got to sleep.
Day Two (Tuesday): I woke at 5:30 am, to find that many of the other girls were already awake! So, got my appearance somewhat decent and wandered around, generally waking more people up each time I went back into the barracks... Breakfast was fine, except for the cat that got onto the table and ate some of the butter. My table avoided that table... . My work group had about 10 people in it, and we went to an orphanage to do "light work". I actually fell asleep on the way there, waking up at 5:30 really does seem to take something out of me. Really throughout the week i got a taste of each of the options. Heavy work was shifting gravel and loosening the rocks with a pickaxe (Which is what we did on this first day at work) then there was light work (painting and varnishing) and kids club. So, our objective was to fix things up at the orphanage as much as we could. There was a massive pile of gravel in their play area that needed spread out, so thats what we did. They had some really funny and distracting dogs there too. They'd come up and simply beg you to throw the stick they'd dropped at your feet. Then they'd sit right where i was trying to shift gravel to... So, at around 11:30 we headed back to the campsite. I had a lovelly warm shower. :) Um, the ridiculous games followed lunch, and sports followed the
ridiculous games. I got really frustrated at the worship practice, but it was alright afterwards. Slept really well, as the teachers threatened TRV's (equivalent to a tardy rule violation slip, it can get you expelled if you have enough of them) to stop the talking. so i slept wonderfully!
Day Three (Wednesday): Ok, so, on wednesday i woke at 6:00 and nobody was awake yet! So, i mooched around the main area, waiting for other people to wake up, journaled, and then a teacher brought out her trumpet. The worship leader at camp also knew how to play it, and LOUD! He woke everyone up, much to the annoyance of people. Some were so glad they'd woken up just before the trumpet blast. Then the teacher who'd brought the trumpet went and woke the girls at nowhere as near as loud. We had pancakes for breakfast, which was good :) At the worksite on this day we varnished a wall, i still haven't gotten rid of all the varnish stains on my skin... Lunch was again very huge, and as usual as well, i was unable to finish it. Worship practice was right after lunch, but no songs got practised because the Camp people had messed with the stuff when they moved it off the stage to make room for their drama for the parents.
You know that you NEVER mess with another guy's instrument. They had even messed with the tuning of the guitars and had tangled all our cables. It was a mess. Our guys were PRETTY mad. So, after getting that sorted, we had the daily session of ridiculous games, and then free time. Then, because they had a night for the parents to come and have supper at the camp i got to see my parents. Then the camp people put on the drama. It was all about a couple doing drugs who had HIV who became Christians through Palabra de Vida. We've seen it before when they showed it at school. But yeah, then the parents left and we had our worship session, and that was really fun :) Went to bed.
Day Four (Thursday) : Woke up at around 5:40 to see a hand signing "Hello" from the top bunk.My best friend was awake... I was really hyper that morning, Breakfast was good, the worksite was ok. We had some other people join us who didn't have the right attitudes. But anyway, we had a kind of kids club for all the kids in the orphanage, 24-26 girls. all aged between 3 and 15. The oldest two (aged 15 and 13 or summat) we didn't meet. They were really really cute :) I made the habit of getting into the shower quickly and having a lovelly hot shower, but this day, i had a FREEZING shower! Oh well, it was kindof refreshing... More silly games, not too horrid though. People actually got into it a little bit, and attitudes were a little better. Sports, i actually played a full game of soccer... Oh, somewhere in there was worship practice, which was REALLY FUN!!!! They were playing "Do that thing you do" :) So, after night fell we had worship, which was just as great as the practice. A cool teacher had some sweet dance moves... :) Everyone came up and were bouncing around the stage in the last song. The only thing that really went wrong was the fact that the projector went all funny, so we missed half the songs, but people knew them anyway... Then the bonfire. It was pretty cool. Ok, Palabra de Vida had a special powerpoint thingy. Talking about things like, when you have God, you have peace and love etc, when you don't, you have hate, and fear. Ok, there was a cat kindof distracting me, and i was playing with it, and as soon as the guy said "temor" (fear) the cat out of the blue attacked my friend, and she yelled. The guy said "Este no es temor, este es miedo" (Which translates into something like "Thats not fear, thats surprise/fear" There isn't a word in English that really captures what "miedo" means) It was sooo funny! But anyway, the bonfire was a great time, because you could see God moving so many hearts. One or two people re-dedicated their lives and some even became Christians for the first time. I even got up and spoke. I said something like this "Don't let peer pressure get to you. If you don't believe in Christianity, don't
pretend that you do, and if you do believe it, don't pretend that you don't. And then how selfish i am, how i don't share as much as my friend jenny, and how its not about me, and what you can do for me, its about you what i can do for you" Then we played moonlight soccer. I had a glowy thingy round my neck, and it was amazing how many people instantly recognized me because of it (I'd had one almost every night during chapel and stuff). Then i went to bed.
Day Five (Friday): Woke up at 5:30, and got everything packed. Helped a seventh grader with her sleeping bag (that made me feel big) and helped out cleaning up. Had breakfast, and helped my workteam clean up by the lake. Saw my dad (he was there to pick up some sound equipment) and generally helped out and packed and cleaned. Then went to the worksite. The kids were so happy to see us, and i had a blast! One little girl was even teaching me some quechua. It was cool. We made some empty tombs out of paper plates folded over and stapled as our craft (On thursday we'd done those bracelets that show salvation, you know, yellow is for gold, green is for growth, black for sin, white for washed clean etc etc.) It was fun. Then we headed out to the school. Had lunch, waved goodbye to my friends as they went home on
the busses, and then came home and collapsed.
So that was camps :)
posted by Curious at
Monday, October 29, 2007
