I spent the weekend at Alex's church's kid's camp. Alex and her boyfriend John go to Trinity Presbyterian church, and are really involved in their youth programs, and they were having a weekend camp to sort of kick off their kids program for the year this weekend. Alex asked me if I'd like to go, and I said sure.
We arrived at the chuch (which meets in a school gym... hmm... sounds a lot like the last Presbyterian church I was attending!) at about 5:30pm on Friday. There was the usual pre-camp activity going on, with a lot of kids sitting around and a lot of luggage sitting around and a lot of vans sitting around. Eventually the kids got loaded into vans, the luggage into a different van, and I was loaded into a car with Tanya, the pastor's daughter who doesn't have her full license yet and needs a licensed driver to drive with her if she is going to carry other people. Also in the car was Laura, who is in year 10, and Nelly and Zelita, who are both university students and kind of jr. leaders. We drove south for about an hour to a town called Ngaruawahia, which is easier to pronounce than it looks (the "g" is silent so it sounds like Nara-WAH-hia, as best I can tell.)
The camp is a Christian facility and as best I can tell they have groups come in to use it for a week or a weekend at a time. There are two sides, so they could have two camps in at the same time. The photo at left is the sort of main lodge, where the kitchen and dining area and large meeting room are located. The facilty was quite nice, but also pretty simple. It's fairly rustic but there are flushing toilets and showers and electricity in the cabins. They have a pool and a volleyball court and a playground, as well as cool hills behind the place to hike in, a flying fox (zipline), a game room and a rugby field. So there are lots of fun things to do.
Most of the kids that were at the camp are from a poor area just outside of Manukau city called Takaninni. The majority are of Polynesian decent, either Maori or something else, like Tongan or Samoan or some combination. They have difficult accents and it's hard to tell what they are saying sometimes. Their names are also hard. The girls in my cabin were called Hairere (pronounced as best I can tell Whydiddy), Jalil, Haley, Laura, Jamiraqui, Paige, Ave (pronounced like Ave Maria), and Cassandra. They all go by nicknames too so it was hard to keep up with who was who. The camp was much more laid back than any I've ever attended. The kids don't really listen very well, and I found it a bit frustrating that they talk amongst themselves almost continuously, even when you ask them to be quiet. But it is not what I am used to because it is not where I am from so of course things will be different. They seemed like really great kids however, and it's cool that the church is able to reach out to them so effectively. I thought it was really great that they don't ask them to be something that they're not in order to be able to participate. So they're not making them change to feel accepted. I think that's an important thing for a church to do.
While I was at camp I was feeling a bit campsick - so much was different to me that it was hard to feel like I belonged. It helped to find some places to help out, like in the kitchen, doing dishes, or cleaning. I was in a cabin with Tanya and eight girls, and she was really in charge, I was just a helper. The kids seemed curious about the fact that I was from America. One girl kept telling me that she thought I had a cool accent. Some others wanted to know what it was like in America, or where I was from or what we ate for breakfast. I tried WeetBix for breakfast for the first time - they are blocks of some kind of grain flakes (the same shape as Shredded Wheat blocks) that you get wet and then break apart. They were pretty good. I had a good time, but didn't get a whole lot of sleep. The kids had trouble being quiet enough to sleep and then they wake up early in the morning and whispering seems to be a concept that they do not understand. We had a fun racing game where I was in charge of a tug of war station which was a lot of fun, and there was a pool at the campground which we got to use on Saturday afternoon. No lifeguards though, or anyone enforcing any kind of pool rules such as No Diving, which was clearly posted but I still saw it happening. I think at camps in America there is too much fear of being sued so you have to have strict supervision and I guess I start to think that's what's required. But maybe not everywhere. Anyway, at some point though there needs to be some structure because some boys got too rough and one kid got cut on his head. It was a new experience for me, though, and an interesting one. I learned some new songs, too. If I get involved at Trinity perhaps I can help out with their girls' group and teach them some camp songs from America!
The schedule looked a bit like this: once we arrived we played some games, then we had tea, which was just a little snack. Then we sang some songs and the kids were sent to their cabins. The cabins are constructed in several long rows that are connected to each other, with a bathroom at the end of each row. Eventually the kids quieted down enough so that I could sleep. The next day we started with breakfast at 8, then more singing and a talk from one of the leaders (which the kids all dreaded) but I thought was pretty good. I went to the older kids' talk and it was on trusting God using the story of Moses being commanded to kill Isaac. Next was morning tea - another snack. Then came a second round of singing and another talk. Then lunchtime. After lunch was a big game that involved going to different stations and racing for time and for points. Then the swimming pool and flying fox were opened. I couldn't believe that on the flying fox there is nothing holding you onto it - you just hang on. You go out over a small lake and if you don't pick up your feet they will drag in the water and you will get stuck in the middle and have to fall off into the water. If you make it all the way across then you land on a net platform and carry the flying fox back around so the next person can go. It looked like fun but there was a long line so I did not have a go.
Next was afternoon tea, and then freetime, I think. Then we had an amazing feed for dinner: roast chicken and pork and potatoes, mixed vege, and roast kumara, which is like sweet potatoes but tastes different somehow. It's very nice. For desert we had apple crumble with ice cream. After dinner there was more singing and then tea again and then a talent show. By this time the kids were pretty tired so it didn't take them too long to fall asleep. During the night some of the cabins got pranked and got their faces drawn on with markers. Crazy! The next day there was more swimmingch service, cleaning up of the cabins, etc., a lolly scramble, in which I think more people got injuries than got candy, and then we headed home. So the weekend was a bit insane, and very laid back, and the kids had a ton of free time without structured activities, but it was fun, and also tiring, and a good way to meet a lot of people who are involved with Trinity church. So I'm glad that I went, even though it was different and hard to find a place to fit into and be helpful with.
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