I survived my second camping trip Friday night, with a group of the guys. Only ten more trips to go. Yea…you read that right. Somewhere along the way I figured it would be a good idea to take all the guys camping over their summer holidays. At five or six guys per trip, it’s going to take awhile to get through all 80 or 90 boys (in the two homes). So that’ll be my Friday night for the next three months or so. =)

It’s actually been a lot of fun (well, so far…). It bothers me that these guys are growing up with so few positive memories or experiences in their childhoods. I have great memories of camping with my family as a kid…so I figure every kid should get to go camping at least once in their lives. When I came down here I brought my tent and some of my camping gear, and I was able to buy some more stuff down here…so camping it is! We do the whole thing too…hotdogs…Smores…tin foil potatoes…and of course some good steaks. It’s a bit strange really…hotdogs, marshmallows, tin foil…very expensive here. Some of the best steaks you’ll ever have…very cheap (two kilos of meat cost me just under $6) . Go figure. But…we’re going to do the Canadian camping experience…and you can’t do that without hotdogs and marshmallows! =)

Camping is a completely new experience for the guys. When the first group found out that they were going to stay overnight at the campgrounds, you should have seen their faces. One group put up their tent by themselves. It looked really good too…until I opened the front flap of the fly and realized…there wasn’t a tent inside. They used the poles and the fly, but didn’t bother with the tent… =) Yesterday we prayed for lunch and then all the guys scrambled to get their hotdogs and buns…which they proceeded to eat raw. I was like, “Guys, NO! You have to cook them first!” All I got was silence and blank looks in return. Those looks then turned to comments of “Seriously?” when I demonstrated how you put the hotdog on a wire coat hanger and cook it over the fire. But they caught on, and were all impressed with my ingenuity and wisdom. =) Seriously…they were… And if you know how to cook here, your esteem and value go through the roof with the guys. We’re all about the food really… Which means, of course, that the Smores were a huge hit. They were all especially entertained by how quickly marshmallows burst into flame.

By the way…the campground was amazing. Waterfalls…rocks…places to cliff jump….beautiful! I’m a little burnt today if anyone cares. =) Come on….surely you can find it in your hearts to have a little sympathy….

It’s been great to see how taking them camping is helping my relationships with the guys. Getting the chance to get away from the home for a bit….to sit around the fire talking and laughing…to have devotions and pray together out under the stars sitting next to a waterfall (and then to have a good midnight swim and do a little cliff jumping)…these are good things!

I was already friends with the first group of guys I took, but I can see how this has deepened our friendships. I was able to sit with one of the quieter guys the other night and just chat with him for and hour or so. He was more relaxed and comfortable than I’ve seen him before. He had a good moment with one of the younger guys…he put his arm around the kid and talked to him about something or other. So I told him I was proud of him, that I thought he was being a good older brother to the little guys. You could see that those comments really meant something to him. It’s sad to think that maybe that’s the first time he’s ever been encouraged by anyone in regards to his character or actions.

So…the lack of sleep (these guys can really snore), the bug bites, the bruises from falling down on the rocks (goes back to the lack of sleep)…these things don’t mean much when you realize how important something this simple is. I may be ready for a break come next January…but until then…

Once again, thanks for your prayers. A couple of guys you can pray for more specifically are…Yedi (or Jedi as I like to call him!). Jedi is 13 and has more personality than 10 kids put together. He’s great. He’s been at the home for about six months now. He was in the first group that went camping. I had the chance to talk to him a bit about God and such. He says he’s not a Christian, but he’s very interested. =) The kid just makes me laugh all the time. I’m hoping to chat with him some more about where he’s come from and how things are going for him.

The other fellow would be Americo. He’s the quieter guy I just mentioned. Again, an amazing kid. He’s 16 and kind of gets lost in the day to day craziness of the home. But he’s got such a great personality and sense of humor. I’ve been working with the music group at the home (and partnering with my co-worker Marcee who’s been working with a drama group from the girl’s home…we’ve been performing at different churches in the city)…and Americo is a part of that group. One day we were sitting in church and he just turned to me and said in English, “I am handsome!” =) Not sure where that came from exactly, but it was very funny. Americo has a great heart for the younger guys and like I said, he tries hard to be an older brother to the youngest ones. We’ve had probably 10 or so really young guys show up lately (in the 6-8 year old range) so that’s been even more important. Please pray that Americo will understand his value and worth. He’s growing in his relationship with God I think, but his age group is pretty much on their own when it comes to learning and figuring out who God is and their relationship to Him. They’re in that middle age group that tends to get forgotten.

Anyhow, have a great day everyone. Thanks for taking the time to read this and to pray. I’ve had a few ups and downs these past few weeks, so I really appreciate your prayers. They mean a lot to me. Please continue to pray for my relationships with Miguel and Edly too. That’s been a bit of a challenge lately. They’re both really amazing people, but when they get stressed….hmmm….we all get stressed. =)

Talk to you soon!
Ken

PS:  Okay my story for the day. Not so much a culture story as just a Ken story. I was climbing around on the rocks by the river, when I slipped and fell. In trying to keep my balance, I managed to toss my car keys that were in my hand into the nearest pool of water. Fortunately the water wasn’t that deep, so the guys were able to dive for them and find them. All was well….until I got back to my truck and realized that my truck alarm was armed and the key tag (that turns the alarm on and off) was no longer working. So I figured I’d just open the truck and hit the reset button that’s hidden under the dash. Of course the reset button was just for pretend, and did absolutely nothing. So for the next half hour or so…as my alarm whooped and hollered and more or less annoyed the daylights out of everyone else in the campground…I pulled fuses and followed wires trying to figure out how to shut the thing off. Let me just say that the $200 I payed to get that thing installed was well worth it. That baby’s there to stay. I finally cut the wire to the horn so that we would at least have some peace and quiet. I figured I’d have to make a fast trip home to my house to grab the spare key tag I have. But hey, guess what? For $200 you get an alarm that, even if you can’t hear it, won’t let the vehicle start if it’s been activated. Isn’t that great?!

I was starting to get a bit worried. This campground is a bit out in the middle of nowhere and I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to get us all home. Trust me…I was doing some serious praying! Then one of the guys, who had opened up the key tag and had been blowing on it and trying to dry it off, managed to get it to work and the alarm shut off (that’s the only time it worked too…after that it was once again dead as the proverbial doorknob). I decided to still make a quick trip home to grab the other key tag so I could arm the alarm that night while we were sleeping…and…ahem…to get my backpack with my dry clothes and contact solution and everything else I needed for the night. After giving the guys the big lecture about making sure they didn’t forget anything that they were supposed to bring…I sort of didn’t remember my stuff. In my defense, I did have to bring everything else!

Anyhow….this is where it gets a bit more entertaining. I left one of the older guys in charge, and brought another of the guys with me for company. Since it was just him and me, and my shorts were soaking wet, I decided to just drive in my, old and somewhat ratty, boxer shorts. We took off, and started doing some seriously fun rally-driving on the little dirt trail back to the main highway. We came burning around a corner, and there were two ladies standing more or less in the middle of the road trying to flag down a ride. Being the nice guy I am, I decided to stop and pick them up. It wasn’t until the dust settled that I realized that the one lady was quickly approaching her centennial birthday…and the other lady was a good 10 months pregnant. Before any of you jump all over that, let me say…you weren’t there! As the good ladies climbed in the back seat of my truck, I looked down and remembered….oh yea, I wasn’t wearing any pants…

We continued on our way and while I was trying to keep my speed down as much as possible, I still needed to make the trip fast since the boys were waiting for me. But the road was pretty rough. There were more than a couple of moments where, after we bounced (or while we were bouncing) over a couple of especially deep ruts, I was fervently praying “Oh Lord please don’t let her give birth in my truck!”

Of course she didn’t, and we made it safe and sound. You probably guessed that. Trust me, if that story had had a different ending, we would have started out with… A LADY GAVE BIRTH IN MY TRUCK!!

As a side note…for some reason I managed to fall down a lot on that trip. The next day I took another header, only this time with my video camera in my hand. In my effort to protect the camera…and not toss it into the nearest pool…I didn’t manage to protect anything else. I actually cranked my chin right into the rock. So…now my chin’s kind of sore.

But the camera’s fine…