First off, we didn’t help set anything up this morning, at all. I thought maybe they would come get us around lunch time or soon after and ask us to help them with some things, but that didn’t happen. Five o’clock in the evening rolls around and we still haven’t heard anything, from anyone. At this point, I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll even see campers arriving! I decided to go and practice the piano a bit and I was very glad to see some campers that had just arrived from Lilongwe. Immediately following my joy, though, was a moment of panic because I had no idea what to do with them! Thankfully, Pastor Mgunda (he came with them from Lilongwe) was with them and had already spoken with Pastor Nihaka about where they should put their things. Phew!
As I was practicing in the church hall, one camper, Ester, from Mpanda came up and introduced herself to me. I was glad that she was comfortable enough to come up and talk with me, even if it was just for a moment.
When I left the church hall, there were a group of boys sitting in the chairs and I tried to chat with them. I started by just saying ‘Welcome!’, but didn’t get much of a response. Oh yeah, and there was no electricity so I couldn’t even really see their faces because it was quite dark inside. I then greeted them in Chichewa and some responded back, others just smiled. I waved and left, feeling a little nervous about being able to communicate with the campers in English. :/
Kayla and I ate our dinner at the house, then went back to the church hall to see who else had arrived and what our program (aka schedule) would be for the evening. Anthony, Monica & Edith had arrived with Pastor Banda (he’s from Zambia) and so we talked with them about what would be happening. They didn’t know because Pastor Nkosi had the program for the evening and he wasn’t here yet. Lovely. So everyone, campers & leaders, just sat in the chairs set up in the church hall; about 4 candles were lit around the room to provide some light.
The biggest different between what I am used to on the opening night of camp and this night, was the quiet. The crickets outside were louder than the 25 campers sitting inside. We barely even heard them talking to each other & none of them came to talk with us or the other leaders. It was definitely different, to say the least.
I was losing a little bit of my ‘camp fever’ with the lack of activity from everyone, but then we sang a chorus, had a prayer & ‘registration’ began. I use that word lightly because the registration process included Anthony writing down the names of the boys & where they came from and Monica wrote down the names of the girls & where they came from. Remember, electricity is out as well so they’re doing this by candlelight & cell phone lights with everyone crowding around them.
Once that was complete, I began to get in camp mode a little more, especially when Anthony asked if we had any games – Kayla brought her playing cards & we proceeded to play cards for the next two hours. That is definitely a camp tradition for me – sitting around with the staff after the campers are off to sleep. It was fun and such a wonderful blessing.
I know that it is going to be difficult for me to not have expectations of what I am used to camp looking like for this week. I hope, though, that I can maintain my focus of loving on the campers and making sure they have as memorable a camp experience as possible. Here’s looking forward to Day 2!! :D
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