We had a very interesting activity today. We were told to meet on the beach, with something that could be used as a blindfold. We then hiked up into the jungle behind Telunas... a much more up-sloping trail than the one to the waterfall. Halfway up the trail, our guide, Yoshua, stopped us. He told us to put on the blindfolds... gulp... and then he led us the rest of the way up blindfolded so that we could not see where we were going. Our leaders then explained to us that we were going to be shown a rope, which was part of maze. We were supposed to follow the rope through the maze and find the end.
Here is the rope... be careful where you step... and if you need help, raise your hand.
I take a deep breath... well, but of course I can do this. How easy. Find end of rope. All you gotta do is hold onto it, and walk. The end will be there somewhere. In complete darkness, I started out... carefully, as I did not care to twist my ankle up here in the middle of nowhere. Step... step...step...step... oh, there is a tree. Feeling around the tree, I found that the rope turned. Followed the rope in it's new direction. Step...step...step...step... another tree. Another turn. Step..step...step...step... another tree, another turn. People are starting to grumble. This feels suspiciously like a circle. Being the person I am, I start to count steps. 20 steps, turn right. 20 steps, turn right. 20 steps, turn right. I have soooo tripped over this root before.
The leaders called out at intervals, reminding us to hold onto the rope tightly, and to raise our hand if we need help.
Suddenly I start hearing some exclaimations, and the footsteps of some of the kids move off in a different direction. I must be missing something. I hold to the rope tighter, and sure enough, on the other side of one of the trees, where the rope turns, there is another rope, leading off the other direction! Yes! a way out! holding to the new rope, I set off in a wonderful new direction. 20 steps. turn right. 20 steps... and this tree holds a colony of ants, how lovely. All of us discovered that tree, by the way. 20 steps, turn right... hm, now this feels suspiciously like another circle.
"Hold the rope... and raise your hand if you need help!"
Suddenly a little light came on in my head... maybe I DID need help! Maybe... just maybe...
my hand went up.
Noelle was behind me immediately, asking how she could help. I whispered, "are you allowed to show me the way out?"
She took off my blindfold, and led me to the side. Sure enough, there were two triangles of rope, connected by another rope, that I had been travelling confidently around and around.
"Good job" she whispered.
Yoshua announced, "One person has found their way out!"
Groans erupted from the group...
Well, as you can no doubt see, the point of this activity was that there are some things that we simply cannot figure out on our own. We have to ask for help. And usually, there are people who are willing to help us figure things out. We just have to ask. A well-made point, and one which I will remember every time I see a small yellow polyester rope, or run into an ant-filled tree.
below: me and Brenna coming back
When we got back, we had some fun jumping off the dock, swimming, playing volleyball, etc....
One dock was quite high... and I did conquer my fear and jump off of it, I just don't have a picture of that on my camera. Go figure.
Sam and Verne did have a bit of fun with those who tried to push them in....
We got some group photos today, with our rendezvous t-shirts on...
We had another bonfire tonight, roasted marshmallows, and sang... my camera apparently has an excruciatingly bright flash, so I was instructed to warn everyone before I took a photo at night... which resulted in lots of photos of people with eyes closed or hands over their eyes... but I won't make you see all of those.
We had a few heated discussions over whether you were supposed to burn marshmallows or slow-roast them... there seem to be some strong opinions over that issue... anyway, moving on.
During our night meeting, we talked about making choices as to what we were going to focus on in our lives... the difficulties and disadvantages that come with growing up as an MK/TCK, or the privileges and advantages that we have. Accepting our disadvantages, working through them, and choosing to joyfully focus on the positive is sometimes much more difficult than it sounds. We talked about how many times our "disadvantages" are just in our own minds... they are things which we believe that simply aren't true. We each wrote out a list of these lies, and threw the list into the bonfire... which was fun!
I think it is going to be very hard to leave that list in the bonfire and not take it back out and reconstruct it piece by ash-filled piece... however, with God's help it is possible!
After a few more games... and talking... we... went to bed... well, some of us did... eventually........ hey, we are teens at a camp. Who needs sleep?!
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