Tell you what I'll do instead. I think I'm going to post entries by category... Off the top of my head, here are a few that I may touch on over the next few posts-- safaris, camp, downtime, musings and revelations (aka miscellaneous).
In today's post, I'm going to share about some of our camp experiences. (If some of this sounds familiar, it's because I've pasted a bit from the entry I wrote for our team blog a couple weeks ago. But most of it's new.)
On this trip, eighteen of us came from various locations and backgrounds to volunteer for 2 weeks as a work crew for two Young Life Africa Tanzania camps. But before I go any further, let me provide some background for you -- If you're not familiar with Young Life, it is an international organization that develops relationships with kids, and sharing the Gospel and Love of Jesus Christ. In full disclosure, I am a product of the Young Life-- I was invited to Monday night "clubs" and camps back in high school. Club is weekly meeting filled with games, worship, and a short talk at the end.It's where the love of God was revealed to me, and where I began my own relationship with Jesus after my sophomore year. Two years later, I was on a Work Crew at Malibu Camp, British Columbia in the "Pits" (washing pots and pans from morning to night). I loved every minute of it.
Fast forward 15 years(!), and here I was again, volunteering to do work crew again. Aside from a few donations over the years, I haven't been involved with Young Life since high school. But since that summer at Malibu, I had a general idea of what to expect. Of course, one of those expectations was to expect the unexpected -- to be surprised and overwhelmed by whatever may happen.
Now that you're caught up on my YL history, I can fill you in on the happenings of the two individual and uniquely spectacular camps we were blessed to work at in Tanzania.
The first camp was the on the island of Zanzibar. A beautiful island off the eastern coast of Tanzania, it was the first YL camp to be held on the island. We had approximately 150 kids from various areas of the island come together for 3 days of camp. The second camp was more than double the size and back on the mainland, in a village 45 minutes east of Dar Es Salaam. Our work crew responsibilities fell into three divisions -- kitchen and dining, housekeeping, and the Outdoor Crew (yours truly was on the latter). The jobs were straight forward, and we knew what we wanted to do -- to provide a place that would rock the minds of the kids. Of course, in doing so, they would would rock ours as well...
Although the purpose is the same for the American and African Young Life camps, there are many, many differences that define the two. The first was the energy level of the campers. From the time the buses pull up to the camp to the final goodbyes waved through bus windows, the African kids were dancing, chanting, singing. Joy and passion filled the hours they were together. We were continually amazed by the excitement, comraderie and exuberance from the campers. Literally, almost every free minute the kids are chanting, dancing, singing.... Ben, one of our work crew members said that when he first saw examples of this during the welcome, it gave him a glimpse into what heaven will be like. People of different color and backgrounds coming together in celebration. It is a sight to see and behold!
The camp schedule has been packed to the brim for these campers. Between Club, Cabin Times, meals, and planned activities, it's a full couple days. The two largest events were the pitch-black nighttime obstacle course, and the mid-day field day. In the obstacle course, cabins were challenged to work together as a team to accomplish a series of tasks. Some examples were tying and untying a sandbag up a tree without climbing, human pyramids, or crawling under webbing in the dark, only to be surprisingly soaked by buckets of water.
During the field day, cabins were merged to create multiple teams, once again working together to win relay-type races. Friendly competition ensued on the field, composing of things like carrying each other while carrying plates of water to fill water bottles, team balloon races, transporting mouthfuls of very salty tang from cup to bottle... All of this done with the gaggle of cheers and laughter coming from their fellow team members.
Most importantly though, Club went great. The kids had two great program directors -- Bosco and Richard (aka "Woof Woof"). Their enthusiam and jovial spirits rivaled those of the kids they are entertaining. Finally, for the talks, we have a fantastic speaker in James. Although none of our work crew were fluent in Swahili, we could tell that the kids are enthralled with the message being shared. As Shirley (another crew member) said, the audience didin't fidget, whisper or goof off as would have been typical in an American camp. The campers were focused and attentive to what James has to share with them. So much that in the first camp, nearly a third of the kids stood up when asked if they accepted Jesus into their life. And in the second, nearly two-thirds did the same. It gives me chills just thinking about how much God was working in those camps (literally, you should feel the goose bumps on my arm right now). Don't forget that most of the kids, especially from the Zanzibar camp, come from Muslim families... By accepting Christ, they risk being ostracized and possibly exiled from their families and communities. Obviously, it's not a choice to be taken lightly. But then again, God isn't to be taken lightly either.
So there you go -- my first of a few delayed blog posts about my time in Africa. Much was experienced there -- too much in fact to share it all in writing. But I'll try to share the big things that were impactful to me over the course of the next few entries. Until then, "kwahali!" (goodbye!).
