I made it past training camp! Just finished up today and has been such a full 10 days of laughter and tears! I LOVED everyone on my team, training crew and coaches! If I wrote about everything, it would be a really long post! So I’ll bring out some of what I think are the highlights of the last 10 days.
Few facts: We will no longer be going to China or Mongolia, but will be going to Cambodia and Thailand. We are an all girls squad of 20. I am in a team of 7 and our team name is Daughter Zion. I will be treasurer of my team. New favorite song at the moment is King of my Heart (got it from worship at camp)
I passed the fitness hike of 2.2 miles in 38 minutes. It was actually really challenging to me. I had to jog part of it to make sure I’d make the time. Them dang hills were tough!
We went through many field scenarios such as; losing our packs at the “airport” and sharing with one another, doing community living with all 88 of us in 9 community tents, we had to be checked for lice (ok that was a real scenario because someone did have lice in the group!) going to a campsite with only bringing 3 big packs, 4 daypacks of reorganizing what to take and share. Then making our own fire, setting up a sleeping situations and cooking our own dinner with what we were given, staying up all night in prayer and worship, experiencing an international market and then sleeping in an “airport” with a 12 hr layover.
Have you ever watched the part in the movie Freedom Writers where the teacher has students stand on the line when the question applied to them. We did something similar to that, Stand up for your Sister. As a squad we answered yes/no personal questions. We then had to hand them in and then our mentor switched them around and rehanded them out. When the answer was yes, we were to step in the circle. I realize in this exercise that no one is alone, I’m not alone, others struggle just like I do. Also the fact that no one knew who was who and we all stood up for each other. It was so powerful and totally got to the best of my emotions. This showed me what sisterhood is about.
One of my favorite sessions was talking about World Religion. It was about learning how to talk to people at have different religions. I learned about Islam and the Quran and Buddhism. I learned about taking in what one believes in relations to Christianity to bring to them in a conversation. Also I was told that others really are excited in you wanting to learn about their religion. It’s so cool.
We had different cultural days where our meals correspond with that. One day was adventure day and it’s all about trying new stuff, well this girl ate a whole mouthful of crickets. No joke! They actually weren’t bad and Im saying I’d rather eat crickets then Indian food…
