Friday, July 25, 2008

Day #4 - July 15, 2008 (Tuesday) - Hot Dogs for Breakfast?!?!?!??!

The Slovak leaders (bless them) decided that we didn't need to be downstairs so early this morning. If we were there at 7:30am, 15 minutes before the students were to arrive, we would be doing well. Oh snap... what a great idea!! And thank God Kristen slept across the hall and agreed to wake me up each morning... my alarm clock was my sports watch and was completely unreliable! Still, I didn't want to miss my coffee so I made sure I was there on time. From here on out I ate a half a banana with my coffee and would share the other half with whoever wanted some. It was wonderful to have some fruit since its one of my favorite foods!!

Of course the students came down at 7:45am for the camp dance and I have to say that I started loving camp dance in the morning. Its a great way to wake up!! After camp dance we had breakfast... hot dogs. Yes, that is what I said. Hot dogs for breakfast. Hot dogs any time of the day is a bad idea (at least in my book) but the smell of a hot dog that early in the morning was not pretty! Luckily I 'talked' (thru another Slovak leader Dusan) to the chef and he gave me some bread and jam instead. I was saved!!! I couldn't thank Duscan enough!!! Also, we had some amazing tea that I did drink... we had this generally once a day and I was always happy to have some!!

For English we had created a few different games for our Lambs to play in order to speak English however they were completely unnecessary! We started chatting and barely got thru any of the games before our time was up!! Each group got together again and we had a fun competition. We called it an A-Z scavenger hunt. Each group had to put each letter of the alphabet on a paper and then we walked around the camp and had to come up with the most creative thing we could see that would relate to the letter. Competition between the 4 groups was fun but you could tell it was getting heightened. There were a lot of discussion on this game and from here on out we English group leaders tried to reduce the competitiveness between the 4 groups. It was turning a little from fun competition to scratch-your-eyes-out and we were afraid it may actually take away from what the camp was there for.

Once again lunch was mystery meat (we guessed turkey, maybe), with potato and beets. I do like beets and potatoes so they were good. The best part about dining was the conversations with everyone anyway. It was funny cause most people sat at the same place for every meal even though there were no assigned seats. I did the same except I would go back and forth between 2 tables.

After lunch, during free time there was a craft station set up. It was amazing what the Slovaks (mostly the ladies) could come up with on these crafts... so creative!! Since I was exhausted I really wanted to nap however Ashley, the American who was nominated to handle craft time, needed help because today's craft was tie-dye. Very mess but everyone had so much fun! I even tie-dyed a shirt!! Everyone was so into and had so many different ideas. If you check out the craft section in the pictures (under Slovakia Student Camp #1) you will see everyone creating their shirts!!

Once I thought the craft was under control I left to take a nap. When I am sleepy I become very sick to my stomach and I definitely was!! Luckily a 30 minute nap was all I needed and all I was able to get. Of course after free time was sports and today we played Crazy Soccer (Football) and Pyramid.

In crazy football you had to be back-to-back with another member of your team and then you had to play. At first I played on the field and was mostly dragged around the field... hehe!! It was fun however after a while I switched out with our goalie to give her a break and then I played goalie. Luckily we only had 7 available players (Laura hurt her knee in the first day and was a time keeper after that) so our goalie was able to play solo. Either way, we didn't win a game but we had a great time. I was so proud of Zuzka! She scored most, if not all, of our goals... she was amazing!!

In pyramid, one team was around a square on the outside, the other team was around a square on the inside, and inside of them were 3 sticks that formed a pyramid. The goal for the outside team was to knock down the pyramid. The goal for the team on the inside was to block it. Each team got up to 5 minutes to knock down the pyramid and the team who could do it in the fastest time would win. The first round that we played the other team scored quickly and it took us almost 5 minutes to score. However we Lambs considered it a practice round and we won the next 2 games!! What what!! It was fun!! I was so proud at how confident and how competitive each girl was. We were blocking the ball from some of the hardest throws that the guys could throw at us!! We rocked it!!!!!

Of course it was raining and cold again today so I took a quick shower again before dinner. Dinner was rice covered with gravy including mystery meat (pork, maybe), mushrooms, and pickles. The pickles may sound out of place but were actually quite good and I love mushrooms so that was good by me!

After dinner we had some free time again before worship so some of the Slovak students introduced us American girls (Ashley, Kristen and me) to new cookies and chips... we were in heaven!! The were amazing!! Then we took our cameras down to the main meeting room so Tim could put the pictures on his computer. Worship (both music and message) were very low key tonight. I could feel that everyone was really, really tired and it showed a lot here.

I could tell I was really tired because I kept feeling like people didn't like or trust me and I was getting upset with people for no reason. I talked to a few other people about this and I was surprised to know that they were dealing with the same issues!! I found this quite interesting especially since in our pre-camp training there was a lot of emphasis placed on the concept that there is warfare out there and there will be things that will try keep us from going on the trip but not much was mentioned about it happening at camp. Honestly I didn't feel much before I went on the trip but after finding that I wasn't the only person at the camp having this same experience I knew this was the warfare they were talking about... designed to keep the leaders separated and fighting among each other instead of focusing on the true goals of the trip. We prayed about it and I felt much better! I continued to pray about it, chose to forgive the people that I was upset with (I doubt they knew I was upset but didn't feel the need to tell them since I realized it was an internal battle for me only), and I felt much better!

After worship we had eNight. This night was watermelon night... can you say yummmy!! I heart watermelon!! Tonight I sat with all ladies... Mikja, Beckah and 2 others and we had another amazing conversation about our walks with God. Each had such a unique and amazing experience and it was great to hear about each person. Once again, I could feel the family coming together!!

At the end of eNight I went with Ashley and Kristen to see the shirts that everyone had created during craft time... until now they had been wrapped up... and it was amazing to see them all made!!

At this point I realized how tired I really was! I headed up to my room to do my Bible study, reflect on my day, and go to sleep however Veronika came in and changed my plans for the better!! She and I started chatting about her conversations from eNight and she had such a light in her eyes about it because they had been chatting about some very personal parts of her life and who she had been chatting with enlightened her. While we were chatting Mikja came in and the three of us were able to talk together! It was wonderful but I was up until about 2am or 3am. I was glad to have the opportunity to chat with my roommates!!!

No comments: