Somehow I find that fact that my Outdoor Ed blog is the first of this New Year rather fitting – thoughts and preparation for the week have basically consumed my life for the better part of January. Sit back, grab a drink and snack, it’s going to be a long one.
For those of you who didn’t read the OE blog last year, here is a brief overview of what it OE is – 150+ middle school students exploring God’s creation in one of three locations in the Philippines. It’s organized chaos, and a complete blast.
Subic was this year’s destination where students could sample jungle survival training, minster to kids, play at the beach, plant mangroves and swing over tree tops like Tarzan.
My role as squad leader was to be in charge of 11 8th grade girls, hanging out, playing around and guiding them throughout the week. This may sound easy to some, but come the end of the week, adult conversation and alone time seems like precious gold.
Let me take you through the week, day by day.
Day 1: Travel
We left school at 7:30 am Monday morning. A 2 hour trip on a good traffic day, 3 on a normal one, took us about 5 hours. We arrived at our first stop – Zoobic – where we looked at animals, had tigers eat chicken right before our eyes and watched a pig paint a picture. We reached base camp. My bag was invested with red ants, literally hundreds crawling though my clothes, biting me as I picked them off one by one. 30 minutes later, I unpacked, ate, had a great worship service, then when into squad intros – which are complicated, high tech, choreographed and a really big deal. Lights out at 10:15, went to sleep around 10:45.
Day 2: Base camp
Woke up at 6:30, not a good sleep since every time I close my eyes I saw red ants crawling all over my face. Killed a couple cockroaches. Pack lunch, eat breakfast, walk to Tree Top Adventure. Spend the morning riding two rides, one called the Superman where you lay horizontal in the air, shot backward then forward over the tree tops. Second one was called a canopy ride, a much slower glide over the tree top canopies. Wrapped up the morning with team building exercises. Lunch – tuna sandwich, peanut butter and jelly sandwich (which was lunch the whole week) – then off to Mangrove Park. Pick up trash in a swap, learn an annoying song about planting trees, weave nipa and plant nipa seedlings. Dinner – then off to see swarms of bats before they set off at sunset. Worship service, learning about using our gifts, paper airplane contest, giant musical chair game. Lights out at 10 pm, asleep at 10:30 – ants still haunting my dreams.
Day 3: Ministry/Beach
Wake up at 6:30, it’s great to sleep in a second day in a row. Pack lunches, eat breakfast and prepare for ministry. My group is in charge of teaching vocabulary for a Bible story in both English and Tagalog. That’s part of the ministry. The real impact is spending an hour or so playing with the students at the school. I was so excited to see all my girls really involved and excited about serving this school and these kids that have next to nothing. Hearing “I don’t want to go yet,” out of every squad member was worth the whole trip. We piled back onto the bus after several hugs and goodbyes and headed to the beach. Beautiful beach, hot sun and fun – we snorkeled, lounged, made a sand sculpture, played fun beach games. The best part of the recreational beach time was releasing baby sea turtles into the water! They hatched the night before and every person at the beach that day released a sea turtle. I named my Charlie, and cheered him into the water. He had a lot of spunk. Only 2 percent of the 100+ sea turtles will survive to adulthood. My girls and I cheered on several sea turtles. It was amazing to learn how God uniquely created these creatures to triangulate where they are in the world using the sun, moon and their location so that when they are ready to lay eggs of their own, they can come back to the same beach. What an experience! We went from that to dinner and worship – which was stellar, one kid accepted Christ! Great talk with my squad about realizing their value in God’s eyes and not comparing themselves to others. Next was volleyball on the beach, totally fun. Lights out at 10, sleeping on the beach, went to bed at 1, after playing Dutch Blitz with leaders and seniors and talking to Liz Haunschild.
Day 4: JEST
Woke up at 6 am, packed up the hut, ate breakfast, got to know other squad leaders, witnessed a senior girl win 1000 pesos (20 dollars) for drinking a liter of Vienna sausage juice, and saw an octopus. Piled into the bus to return to base camp. Packed lunches, packed for JEST in a mad rush. Back on the bus, saw monkeys on the way to JEST chilling on the side of the road. We started our hike with our guide Monico, a sixty-year-old Filipino man that had been leading JEST hikes for 20+ years. Hiked into the jungle, on the way learned about which tree and vines can give you water, which can be used to make rope, stop bleeding, use as an antiseptic, use for jungle coffee and tea, and saw when a certain type of bark was rubbed together with water, it lathered like soap and could be used as shampoo! Tasted water from bamboo – awesome. Arrived at camp, chilled in the river, had squad devotions about serving others. Bamboo demonstration on all the different types of things you can create from bamboo. Our guide made cups, spoons, plates, rice cooker, meat cooker and started fire with out a match, all from bamboo! We had a chance to try; I broke the bamboo every time I tried to split it. We went back to camp to cook rice and meat in the bamboo. Had one of the best dinners ever, who knew rice, tuna and veggies could be so good. Had a great talk with two of my girls about friendships. Eaten alive by mosquitoes. Campfire (bamboo) and an amazing talk about how God created man in his image and what our response should be to man having that knowledge. Next, had amazing time with a couple squad members while others went hunting for frogs. Tried BBQ frog on a stick, don’t think I will try it again. Tried to scare Ted, epic fail and embarrassment. Lights out, told scary stories. Fell asleep quickly, with my contacts in since I forgot an extra pair.
Day 5: Travel Home
Woke up at 5:30, packed up the JEST camp and walked 20 minutes with all my stuff, bag, sleeping bag and pillow, to the bus. Thankful I didn’t have to hike back up the mountainside we came in on. Shower, breakfast, and packed lunches back at the base camp. Piled onto buses, and 3 hours later arrived back at school.
That is pretty much the summary of Outdoor Ed 2012, my trek through the Philippine jungle. It’s such an amazing experience and opportunity for the FA middle school students and I love being a part of it. Things like this don’t come together without Christ and it’s such a humbling experience to see what he can do. No matter what my future holds, OE is something I will cherish forever.
Pictures to come :)
