Arrived 2days before the students came, for training and briefing about what to expect and our roles in camp as uncles and aunts. Below are all the staff still sane and full of energy, uncles and aunties, and international staff from Vietnam and Indonesia.
Monday morning, after cleaning up and setting up the campsite, we then waited...
and waited...
and waited for the buses to arrive. The main bus from KL was due to arrive, and each time a bus was spotted in a distance, one of the staff would bellow "BUS!" and everyone would run down to look see. We wanted to welcome the students and help them with their luggage. So after the many-eth false alarm, we just decided to hang around the side of the road.
Finally the bus arrived and I admit my heart was beating fast out of excitement and fear.
75 students. 20staff. 3weeks.
It had begun.
I was part of Chalet 8, the Lapanite family, and our theme for our home was coffee/cafe/a place to chill. The chalet is located down the slope, furthest from the main hall and all the other chalets, so we were a family that had time to ourselves without the distractions of other families.
I was very happy to be in my family, and enjoyed our family time, sharing, eating, laughing, joking, crying... To me it was a very different experience from my Camp Cam family 2years ago, and I kept reminding myself to put effort into the family. Yet, i also had to stay back and let them (the participants) take charge, but sometimes offer suggestions or ideas, something i think i managed to balance quite alright. I love all my nieces, and each night before lights out I'd be in their rooms listening to the day's excitement or update.
The lady below on the left holding the orange bowl is the bomb! She's Aunty Loh, the official Camp Cam cook for the past 10years! She was boss in the kitchen and taught me lots, I had a great time in the kitchen working with her.
Which comes to my duties as an Aunty. Kitchen duty is the main thing, where I'd spend most of the day in the kitchen cleaning up to 10kg of veggie from the market for lunch and dinner, washing kuali's, rice pots and pans, cutting up beef, etc etc. Though it was hard work, that was my purpose for being there and i knew it, so it wasn't actually as tiring as i imagined it to be. I really enjoyed kitchen duty. Its fun to watch staff go crazy peeling bayam for hours and hours or cleaning up watercress chatting and laughing. Even doing it alone is relaxing because its an escape from the hustle and bustle of camp.
First day on the job and i already did a boo boo, causing much laughter in the kitchen. I was told to peel and rub the ends of the cucumbers. Thinking to myself "Rub the cucumbers? What on earth is that?", and having no clue i just peeled everything, 'rubbing' the ends with the peeler... Hahahaha... Anyone reading and know what 'rubbing cucumbers' mean will understand why what i did was hilarious.
Turns out, you're supposed to chop off the ends of the cucumber and rub the chopped bit in circular motions around the newly exposed tip, to get a waxy, white goo which supposedly will make the cucumber less bitter.
I discovered 2 things about myself, i HATE tumbuking onions and ginger. It makes me depressed and feel physically sick. Maybe cause its so repetitive and endless pounding, bum-bum-bum-bum-bum... The second is i can't handle worms. So sad, i thought i was braver than that, but during one occasion where the cabbages were FULL of worms, and they popped out at me, i freaked out and Grandma Grace has to take over.
My other duties were to wash clothes, prepare the morning tea, marketing, help out with some leisure activities and be the extra set of hands to take work off the grandparents. Things like being a driver, and i went up and down from Habu to Tanah Rata many times- to fetch and send students to the bus stop, send 2 students to the hospital and buy items that couldn't be found in Ringlet. Since I like driving, i enjoyed these trips up and down.
Camp was filled with sessions, bible studies, games, leisure, Camp Specials dan lain-lain. Time flew by.
I was quite surprised that when the last day of camp came, and we were back at the same spot sending the students off, I felt so sad and as the bus pulled away i must have caught a whiff of onion from the neighbouring farm because my eyes were watering (a bit).
Overall, I'm really glad I decided to say yes to being an Aunty. It was very fulfilling helping out, knowing that my contribution somehow helped in the big picture. It was also such a pleasure to be part of the students lives as they went through the 3 weeks of learning, growing and discovering.
CAMP CAMERON 2008 - Give me life in Thy ways...
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