Lesson for today. Did you know the prophet Mohammed actually had 99 names and that most muslims are named one of those 99? Huh... I know, doesn't explain Joe.
Day 7 began with the breakfast surprise (which I skipped for an extra 30 minutes of sleep) then went into Ultimate Challenge Water Games. They divide into Alpha and Omega teams and lob food colored water bombs in plastic bags at one another. Think dodge ball with water balloons, except the water is colored and tye dye's your clothes. Luckily, most of us coaches managed to stay dry. When a kid gets hit with a water bomb they are put in jail and treated as prisoners. Pictures below.
Next water game was water balloon volleyball with beach towels. Kids paired up, each took an end of a beach towel, and they attempted to lob the water balloons over the net by bouncing them off the towels. Interesting experiment.
Our morning was fairly uneventful. Not much for us to do until Pool Time, which again is also High Ropes Course, Climbing Wall, and Zip Line. Zip line begins about 50 feet in the air and runs the length of a football field. Looks harmless enough until you get up there and strap yourself in and prepare yourself to jump off the 50 foot wall with all of your faith put into your safety harness. You can't fall, but kids, counselors, and coaches who go always have their heart skip a beat when making that leap.
Lunch was pretty good. Fried chicken, lots of fried and bone, not much meat on them. Pasta noodles with red sauce and watermelon. After lunch the campers go back to cabins for rest period. We can also rest if there is not other business to attend. Some of us lay down for 45 minutes, others get a bit of laundry done, and a few of us always seem to gather in our meeting room and hang out until the next assignment.
Treasure time / Cabin United is two full hours after rest. They divide camp in two, half in treasure time for first hour and other half in activities like high ropes. Treasure time is an hour each day where campers are taught an important value or lesson. Yesterday's lesson was on patience. Probably should have made that value lesson two hours! Man, these kids are rarin to go. Instant gratification and "me me me" is quite common it seems.
We all rush off to our sport majors after treasure time and cabin united. Brad O and I are enjoying baseball. Kids seem to really like the sport. "Coach, when are we going to play baseball." they don't like the drills and practicing. "I want to play a match," they say. I had two girls who had a very hard time with batting, but they stuck with it and kept swinging and swinging until they finally connected. Both of them (Malak and Darin) earned a dog tag necklace from yours truly (Coach Scott). Brad Bassett brought over a bunch of these for us to give away to kids when we catch them doing something extraordinary, giving extra effort, helping a friend, etc... rewarding the value based behavior we are trying to model and teach. Hey Leslie, can you believe I just said that? Sounds much too wise and mature to be me!
By the way, in case I haven't mentioned it, Scott Milder here, your narrator and tour guide. I am blogging from my blog site, http://scottmilderegypt.blogspot.com because it's easy for me to login and I'm familiar with it. My wife Leslie is copying my blog posts over to the church site. So kudos to Leslie Milder for keeping up with the church blog. Way to go, hon! Next year you come to Egypt and I'll manage church blog from Rockwall. Deal?
After majors we head to our nightly picnic dinner on the lawn, which is very nice because there are no lawn bugs to worry about. You can sit on the grass and not get bit by God knows what like in Texas. Lindsey and Justin kindly brought a jar of peanut butter and some crackers and a bag of chips for those of us who weren't interested in the sandwich surprise.
Nope, day is not over yet! After dinner we get a briefing on the evening competition. Cabins travel around camp to any number of about 20 stations and collect as many points as they can. This is a 90 minute activity. I can't remember most of the various activities, but I do recall that Boggle was one. Mine was gestures, which we call charades. They had to act out and guess right 8 different words (vet, Christmas, Africa, owl, USB, etc...) and if they got them all right they earned 100 points. All of these activities all week add up and in the end there are winning cabin teams and either Alpha or Omego wins. So it's a true weeklong competition.
Rest of the night from 11:00 p.m. forward is free time for us. A few sit around our gathering room and decompress/share stories after the very long day. Many of us just crash hard.
Enjoy the photos below. Have a nice day! :)
Dinner picnic on the lawn.
Lindsey rescuing a terrified, stranded
high ropes climber. Feels good to
rescue and kid and help them finish
the course. I have save two young
Egyptians myself!
Not a good photo, but this young
man, Youssef, was afraid to jump off
the zip line wall 50 feet up. Can't blame
him though. Kudos to Brad B and
gang at the top who spent 20 minutes
encouraging him to do it and not chicken
out.
Here are Brad and others gently
helping Youssef off the ledge. No,
Brad is not throwing him off, though
it does look like that.
Another shot of Brad throwing
scared child off the ledge.
I was at pole station 3 yesterday with an
apprentice, Hala. College student in Cairo.
Speaks four languages. Studying international
law. Think she'll do quite well in life.
John got a pole assignment as well. Here he is
moving toward his pole
Zach working with a camper at
30 feet up.
View straight down to Barry on belay. I caught
him drawing a rainbow in the sand yesterday.
Don't tell anyone about that. Might embarrass
him.
Our Egyptian friend IamMark on
pole duty. When I met him I asked
his name and in his accent, I am Mark
sounded like Immark. So, I call him
"IamMark".
Funny story. Did I type this yesterday?
Can't remember. One terrified kid kept
saying he didn't want to do it, but he did
it. I told him he did great when he made
it across first part of high ropes, that many
kids who freeze turn and go back. He says,
"I want to be one of those kids."
Brad, Chris and Brennan playing on international
phone. Satellite view pinpoints our location exactly.
Mission mascot! This is Chester I, I think named
by our dog lover Nicole.
Ah, here is Nicole with Chester II.
Hi mom and dad! It's us, Justin and Lindsey,
enjoying the morning gazebo meeting. Aren't
they cute?
Water balloon beach towel volleyball.
More waterballoon beach towel volleyball.
Bailey and Victoria killing some time in our fly
infested gazebo meeting place. Flies love the shade
too. So, if you want to escape flies, sit in the sun.
If you want to avoid the hot sun, sit in the shade
with the flies.
Father and son talk.
Kids in the jail after getting hit by colored water
bombs.
Another jail shot.
Nicole and I were stationed as prison guards.
That's Nicole's "tough prison guard" pose.
Random photo from couple days ago.
Had some fun with Bailey while
sleeping. She sleeps hard.
Our hosts, Maged and Kaska. They are expecting
child number two in about 6 months.
And last, this is for my friends who know what
I drive... seems the GLK has made it to Cairo!
Brad posing with classic after our Fuddruckers
experience in Cairo on Sunday.
Scott, thanks for the posts and updates. Wadi is near and dear to my heart. It was my first mission trip and now my family and I are full time M's in Europe. I'd love a pic of the camp form way up, I have one from above the cafetria (roof of that building)just to see all the changes since 2006.
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