We're Going to Camp
We’re going to Camp!
You know that phrase “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” Well, we’ve all heard it but this week the world handed our cast a huge batch of lemons. We were told we weren’t going to be able to go to Mexico due to the swine flu. Upsetting, I know. This news was shortly followed by a new travel plan. We were trading in our salsa music for some good old camp fire songs. That’s right. Up With People went to camp. Not just any camp, but a completely hidden away rustic camp up in the valleys of the mountains in Southern California, a place with no cell phone reception, internet, or TV. We had no idea what to expect and I definitely never would have expected my best week in Up with People to have turned out to be a week spent in summer camp.
We spent our days helping the camp prepare for its season by doing some much needed landscaping, cabin renovation, and facility rebuilding. Our evenings were followed by camp fire songs, marshmallow roasting, talent shows, and then we ended our last night with a 90s themed dance. We got to know the staff really well. Two of our girls from the Netherlands helped one of the older staff members sing an Abba love song to his wife at lunch for her birthday. It was amazing to see the way his face lit up when he sang his favorite song to her in front of everyone, and of course she was smiling cheek to cheek with tears coming down her face. It was so great when on the last day the camp opened up the rock wall, zip line, and swimming pools for us.
Yes, it was a great week filled with morning hikes in the mountains, swimming in the river at night, and did I mention the fantastic wild life we saw while we were there. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a bear from 20 feet away outside of a zoo but we had the chance to see four of them. One of the nights the boys convinced us to go ‘snipe hunting’. Have you ever heard of a snipe? Well, neither had I. But a couple of us girls said we’d tag along to find out exactly how one goes about catching a snipe. While we were out we soon caught on to the idea of ‘snipe hunting’, which is to trick girls into believing there is such a thing as a ‘snipe’, lure us into the woods, and scare us! Well, the game took a turn when instead of the boys scaring us, one of the boys who was hiding in the woods got snuck up on by a bear. He came running out of the woods to tell us what happened. The look on his face was priceless, but the best part was on the walk back we saw three more bears! It turns out the bears in the area are pretty friendly so we weren’t too scared. So the score of the night turned out to be 0 snipes and 4 bears! A very successful night indeed and a very successful week at camp Forest Home! So don’t forget what to do when life hands you those lemons!
