Monday, April 21, 2008

parte cuatro: part four: CAMPAMENTO DE MAYORES

Campamento de mayores (ages 16 to seemingly about 24) was a whole new experience for me. I've been at those camps before, but in the past there always had been about 15 other Canadians there with me. This time around there were only Janna, Nikki, Heather (the nurse) and Heather (nikki's friend) and I... and Jeff every now and then.
I ended up in a cabin with Janna and 7 girls. It was really fun... it was easier to chat with them than it was with my mini girls two weeks earlier (I actually ended up buying purple nail polish while in town on one of my many trips to the phone place so that I could have ANY way to be able to spend some time with my girls).

I dont think that there was a whole lot that was too exciting this week. I like the older camps because the sports are more competitive and also I can just hang out with people instead of having them sit on my lap every time they want to talk to me. ** this isnt necessarily a bad thing at the little kids camp, but sometimes it causes me to have personal space issues and I become somewhat like Jeremy.

It was super to see some old friends too that I hadnt seen in a while.

The amount of creativity that was at camp this week was incredible... art, music, drama.... it was incredible. so many different ways of thinking and different skills just being showcased... it was awesome. FOR EXAMPLE: These guys decided to become a news crew, so they made themselves a mic and camera out of stuff just laying around the camp (boxes, plastic cups, tops from water jugs, etc.)

There was also a super worship team (that I mentioned I think briefly in the previous post). Dale, Janna, Ivan, Carlos, Walter, Roberto, Jeff). They did a super job leading for the week, and they also introduced a new song to everyone... its translated from English (they worked really hard to do that)- From Everlasting to Everlasting.
It was really cool.

The director, David, is really creative and had a super week of games and stuff planned, along with the normal intense futbol and volley matches during the hottest points of every day. One day there was an ironman style competition... for guys only obviously since girls dont really do a whole lot here, and if they do like to run and stuff they're weird. Another day we did a competition with a bunch of different parts to it. During each part if people did something wrong they'd be eliminated and the team with the most remaining competitiors won. One part was crawling commando-style under these mini bamboo things which were easy to knock over.... another part was shooting a hold through a steryo-foam plate with a homemade bow-and-arrow, another part was making a fire and cooking a chicken leg to the point where it could be eaten(that was sick since my team didnt wait till it was cooked... the guy just ATE it). Another one of these things was a run 1 k down the beach and 1k back.... it wasnt a race, but if the person walked then they were eliminated. On the way back Mauricio and I raced. He beat me by actually about 2 steps and I now owe him dinner. It was fun, and none of the boys could believe that I could actually run. It was awesome.
We of course also did the classic run and spin around a stick game.
One day when we were playing games on the beach Daniel decided NOT to get stung by a stingray, but instead to step on a dead fish's jagged spiked back. The fish had spines coming off of it and one stuck about 2 1/2 inches into his foot and then got stuck since there were little barbs all over it. Heather tried to pull it out but couldnt, at which point Daniel got freaked out and yanked it out himself. Thankfully it didnt end up getting infected. Heather searched all over the city only to find that the ONLY place we could find a tetanus vaccine was in a tiny little farmacia about 2 minutes from our house. He's just got the WORST luck with his feet.
Throughout the course of the week several people were carried to and thrown into a mini wading pool for one reason or another. Here you will see Pablo being carried in. He was the speaker for the week. What a funny little man. I think he is actually a midget. Alli. What do you think?? He speaks super english and also loves matte (which is an argentine tea). I shared several matte sessions with him.

For the rest of the week I just enjoyed spending time with people, getting up in the cool mornings and putting on jeans and a long tee for staff meetings, hanging out at the beach, eating lots of gino icecreams, and of course, watching pingpong.

<-theGino man at the end of the week came up to me as I was getting onto the bus to come back to Guayaquil and gave me a HUGE hug and kiss. Needless to say I got made fun of alot.

2 comments:

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Elaine said...

Thanks Jube...that was a good read. I was so excited to check today and find that you had such a long entry with so many pictures. I like being able to see bits and pieces of what you see. It makes me feel not so far away!!
I love you and miss you LOTS & LOTS
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