Hey Y’all!
As most of you all know I was recently in Gainesville, GA for training camp it was 10 days long. Those 10 days were long and hard but they were also filled with laughter, crying, and happiness, and a little bit of stress. When I arrived in Georgia it was very weird for me personally because I was meeting so many new people at once that it was overwhelming.
There was a time in the beginning when I just wanted to quit and book a flight home but I knew that if I did do that I would regret it. The reason that I felt that was because I kinda felt really overwhelmed with everything and I felt like I wasn’t really connecting with anyone but once I started to get more comfortable I started to actually enjoy it. And I started to connect with people which also helped a lot.
These girls are my teammates for the next 9 months and I am beyond excited to live with them and get to grow with them. We are all from different states ranging from New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Georgia. (And of course Michigan is which is where I am from :))
Camping out for 10 days is something that was so fun but also sometimes wasn’t fun. It was fun being able to just be in the woods for 10 days and just listen to the sounds of the woods and wake up to the sounds of some sort of bugs. It made me grateful for all the things that I have at home. The bed I get to sleep in because waking up to your sleeping pad being deflated is not something that I enjoyed.
Sleeping in the woods sometimes wasn’t the best because if you left your tent open or took your rain fly off to air it out a little during the day wasn’t always the best choice because sometimes it was start raining all of sudden then you have to run back to the campsite to close up your tent. Thankfully that never happened to me but there were some people on my squad who left their rain fly open then they would be running back to close it.
Bucket showers were a blessing that I didn’t know I would need. Showering with a bucket and a cup and cold water was quite the experience. The first time I did it, there was no cup in my bucket which made it a lot harder I was literally just splashing water on myself. The bucket showers were great because that was the only way that I really felt clean but even then I didn’t fully feel clean.
We got lucky for 3 nights because it was raining so bad or it was suppose to be raining bad where we actually got to sleep inside the training center with some AC. It felt good but I will admit I did get cold at night but that just made me snuggle closer to my sleeping bag which kept me nice an warm.
We also had to hike 2.2 miles in 38 minutes with our big pack on. We did the hike on Sunday morning. Since I am route 1 aka Gap W. We went first and I am so happy that we did because it wasn’t that hot when we did it and it was a good way to start the morning. It was not the easiest hike that I have done. The trick of doing the hike is walking up hill and running/jogging while you are on flat land and going downhill. It was an okay hike but when we got to one of the uphill parts I really just wanted to give up. The hill was so long and it was also pretty steep. I am pretty sure that if I took a break for a few seconds I would of fallen backwards that it how tired I was towards the end. We also had to do part of the hike 2 times in order for it to make it 2.2 miles. I was able to finish the hike with about 4 minutes to spare.
Overall this whole experience was AMAZING! It not only taught me so much that I will be using while on the field it also helped me to grow in my faith with God and for that I am forever thankful and I will cherish forever. I was able to finally talk to someone about some of the stuff that I have been hiding and running from and I am sooo happy to say that talking about that stuff has made me feel so free and alive. I will for sure be writing a blog all about that!
Big announcement that I found out while I was in Georgia was that I will be traveling to Guatemala, Ethiopia, Thailand and MALAYSIA! I will be going to Thailand for only 2 months then for my final month I will spend in Malaysia.
Until Next Time,
Chelsey Wiers
