Lauriana's At Boot Camp!
Posted by Peter Williams on Saturday, June 26, 2010
Under: BootCamp
Lauriana To Malawi
June 26, 2010
by Peter (Dad)
We flew to Orlando -- Jenifer, Chloe, Lauriana and I -- last Saturday (a week ago) to have a few days together as a family prior to dropping her off at the Teen Missions Boot Camp on Merritt Island, just south of Cape Canaveral (the Space Coast of Florida). We got to play at Epcot for several hours, at Animal Kingdom for a day, and we volunteered at Wycliffe USA for half a day. Then Wednesday, June 23, we went to Cocoa Beach for a few hours of fun in the sun, playing in the waves, and eating some seafood, before driving about 10 miles to Teen Missions camp. We arrived about 4:30, put all her stuff in a wheel barrow, surrendered her cell phone, and walked back to the big tent where all the teams were gathering and checking in. I saw teams going to Honduras, China, and many other places. There we met her team leaders for Malawi team 1 -- Jim, Jamie, and Lindsey -- and found cousin Drake and the other team members. Lauriana and her team were all excited to see each other in person after having connected over the last couple of months via Facebook: lots of squeals of joy and hugs.
Lauriana went through the various steps of checking in which involved various checklists, surrendering certain documents, tools, final payments, etc. and receiving certain items, checking things off a list. This process took about 45 minutes, but was completed in time for her to go with her team for the first team meal. Each person has her own dishes and washes them after each meal by dipping them in a series of tubs that supposedly result in clean dishes by the end. Lauriana said the food wasn't so great and she wasn't sure her dishes got clean, but she knew ahead of time that having no choice of food was part of their training so that when they arrived in rural Malawi, the second poorest country in the world, they would be somewhat prepared for a basic, limited diet.
After supper it was time to take her stuff back to the team's campsite, about a ten minute hike along trails, by sloughs and lakes and then into the woods where we found 6-8 two-person tents set up on little platforms about 8 inches off the ground and with tarps spread over the top of each tent. There were two shower stalls, and by stalls I mean a tarp strung up to four trees and a place to put a bucket of water with which to wash. There is no running water and the toilets are a 6-8 minute hike back up the trail. The lake is just through the woods about 30 yards away, so they'll get a nice breeze from time to time, but also plenty of mosquitoes, the first of which were starting to snack on us as we stood there and put Lauriana's stuff into one of the tents. It was good to visit with team leader Jim and with team members Hannah and Yulia as we walked back to the campsite.
Lauriana is going to develop some good friendships this summer. I can't wait to hear how things are going. But that's the challenge (for families and close friends) because there won't be much outgoing communication, just the occasional letter. I don't know how much time she'll have to write. We will be writing her letters and I hope some of you who are reading this will, too. This will be increasingly important to Lauriana as the days go by. Make sure to put the team name and number on the envelop. We will also email her but the emails cost a quarter per page for them to print out in the office and take to the kids; Lauriana has about $5 set aside to pay for the emails during these three weeks of boot camp, and we figure the 3-4 emails per week we, her immediate family, send her will use up her $5.
Boot Camp will be hard in some ways, lots of rules to follow some of which seem silly, quite rustic camping conditions, bugs galore, and food that is, well, less than delicious most of the time. For Lauriana, even recognizing all these challenges the first couple of hours, she was pumped to be there, to have the chance to bond with her teammates, and to be part of something bigger than herself.
Keep Lauriana and her team mates in your prayers and write to her from time to time. We'll try to keep you posted here as we hear from her.
Blessings!
June 26, 2010
by Peter (Dad)
We flew to Orlando -- Jenifer, Chloe, Lauriana and I -- last Saturday (a week ago) to have a few days together as a family prior to dropping her off at the Teen Missions Boot Camp on Merritt Island, just south of Cape Canaveral (the Space Coast of Florida). We got to play at Epcot for several hours, at Animal Kingdom for a day, and we volunteered at Wycliffe USA for half a day. Then Wednesday, June 23, we went to Cocoa Beach for a few hours of fun in the sun, playing in the waves, and eating some seafood, before driving about 10 miles to Teen Missions camp. We arrived about 4:30, put all her stuff in a wheel barrow, surrendered her cell phone, and walked back to the big tent where all the teams were gathering and checking in. I saw teams going to Honduras, China, and many other places. There we met her team leaders for Malawi team 1 -- Jim, Jamie, and Lindsey -- and found cousin Drake and the other team members. Lauriana and her team were all excited to see each other in person after having connected over the last couple of months via Facebook: lots of squeals of joy and hugs.
Lauriana went through the various steps of checking in which involved various checklists, surrendering certain documents, tools, final payments, etc. and receiving certain items, checking things off a list. This process took about 45 minutes, but was completed in time for her to go with her team for the first team meal. Each person has her own dishes and washes them after each meal by dipping them in a series of tubs that supposedly result in clean dishes by the end. Lauriana said the food wasn't so great and she wasn't sure her dishes got clean, but she knew ahead of time that having no choice of food was part of their training so that when they arrived in rural Malawi, the second poorest country in the world, they would be somewhat prepared for a basic, limited diet.
After supper it was time to take her stuff back to the team's campsite, about a ten minute hike along trails, by sloughs and lakes and then into the woods where we found 6-8 two-person tents set up on little platforms about 8 inches off the ground and with tarps spread over the top of each tent. There were two shower stalls, and by stalls I mean a tarp strung up to four trees and a place to put a bucket of water with which to wash. There is no running water and the toilets are a 6-8 minute hike back up the trail. The lake is just through the woods about 30 yards away, so they'll get a nice breeze from time to time, but also plenty of mosquitoes, the first of which were starting to snack on us as we stood there and put Lauriana's stuff into one of the tents. It was good to visit with team leader Jim and with team members Hannah and Yulia as we walked back to the campsite.
Lauriana is going to develop some good friendships this summer. I can't wait to hear how things are going. But that's the challenge (for families and close friends) because there won't be much outgoing communication, just the occasional letter. I don't know how much time she'll have to write. We will be writing her letters and I hope some of you who are reading this will, too. This will be increasingly important to Lauriana as the days go by. Make sure to put the team name and number on the envelop. We will also email her but the emails cost a quarter per page for them to print out in the office and take to the kids; Lauriana has about $5 set aside to pay for the emails during these three weeks of boot camp, and we figure the 3-4 emails per week we, her immediate family, send her will use up her $5.
Boot Camp will be hard in some ways, lots of rules to follow some of which seem silly, quite rustic camping conditions, bugs galore, and food that is, well, less than delicious most of the time. For Lauriana, even recognizing all these challenges the first couple of hours, she was pumped to be there, to have the chance to bond with her teammates, and to be part of something bigger than herself.
Keep Lauriana and her team mates in your prayers and write to her from time to time. We'll try to keep you posted here as we hear from her.
Blessings!
In : BootCamp