Days 27-30: Camp days in Alberta, Pt.1
- adamsylvester55
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
From October 12-18, we were graciously hosted at Camp Little Red. We arrived at the camp late on October 12, the same day that saw us spend time with my brother's family. We met Gordon, the camp director, who immediately won over the kids with his wacky behaviour. All of the boys would be in one cabin while the girls were split into two cabins. My parents and I slept in one cabin together, while Mike got a cabin to himself.
Speaking of Mike, I never gave him a proper introduction. Whoops. Mike was our bus driver in the United States during last year's tour, and for this year's tour he took over from Rob at the tour's halfway point. The kids enjoy him greatly, especially Theera who now has two bus drivers to look up to.
For Thanksgiving we drove to the home of Jennifer Stinson, a woman who was part of the most recent vision tour. Upon arrival, the kids were treated to the full winter experience. A large front and back yard covered with snow, along with a slope to ride sleds down. The kids immediately began throwing snowballs and using shovels to propel snow at each other, while Tong ran around harassing the kids. This backfired for him as he was not aware of how cold air makes you tired quicker, leading him to withdraw into the warm house quickly, breathing very heavy the whole time.
We spent a long time at the Stinson's. Once the kids got fatigued from playing outside, they came inside and enjoyed a large assortment of board games. We were then treated to a curry chicken meal that Trakuan helped prepare alongside Jennifer. It made for a unique Thanksgiving experience! I then spent the rest of the time relaxing while the team interacted with a variety of other guests who came as well.
Once we wrapped up our time at the Stinson residence, we returned to Little Red, where we were in for another great meal. Gordon brought some of his family out to help prepare a traditional Thanksgiving meal for us! This would become a pattern at Little Red, something for which we were greatly appreciative. Delicious meals would be provided for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with each being a hit. Only the taco salad threw the kids off, as they had never tried anything like it before. Thankfully, they adapted easily and enjoyed the ingredients separately from each other.
The next day was our most relaxed performance-day yet. Because we would be staying at the camp, we would not have to pack up any of our sleeping suitcases, and because of the short distance from the camp to Innisfail Alliance Church. It was a special performance, as we were joined by Carman and Twyla Dutz, the English teachers for Rescue 3. They would be joining us for our performances for the rest of the tour, much to the team's delight. The performance itself was another hit, although the chaperones on the team did notice that some of the kids were looking a little robotic on stage. This makes sense when one considers that they had now been performing for close to a month, with performances occurring every two days roughly. We gave them a gentle reminder to be more fluid, with no ill will present on either side.
After getting a before-bed snack back at camp, the team got rested for the fun day that awaited them when they awoke. We would spend a significant amount of time at Kraay Family Farm, where a multitude of fun activities awaited us. We met up with Carman and Twyla, as well as Carman's mother before we entered the park. The kids split off in every direction, and it was up to us chaperones to try monitoring them. It was a challenge. The kids were told to stick with a buddy, but that quickly fell apart, so it became the duty of us chaperones to wander aimlessly, making sure we could see what at least three kids were up to.
Thoughts on and moments of our visit to Kraay Family Farm:
I had no idea cornhole would be so popular. A group of kids spent a good amount of time playing the game.
The technology behind a single-track mechanical racing horse baffled Sarah and I. The kids didn't care, as they greatly enjoyed going back and forth repeatedly.
The girls on our team (not the chaperones) are lazy. They constantly expected me to carry their innertubes up to the tube-slide. I did so twice before telling them that they were on their own.
There is a rather large corn maze at Kraay Family Farm. I have never seen Sarah become so frustrated as she was when trying to corral the kids who wanted to try it. The kids insisted on entering after being warned that it could take over an hour to complete, only to become bored within 20 minutes. They also tried eating the corn. Sarah was mad. I thought it was kind of funny.
I did not expect the trampolines to be the most popular attraction. Most of the kids bounced on them for well over an hour.
Pumpkin launching is harder than I thought it would be.
When we returned back to camp we joined Gordon for a sample of camp shenanigans. Alongside a small group of former Little Red campers, we sang fun worship songs (the kids continue to sing 'The Sheep Song'), watched a funny skit involving Gordon and one of the campers, listened to a short devotion from Gordon, before finally having the Cambodian kids perform the 'Stick Dance' and tell the former campers their names. In a fun twist, we had two of the campers try a part of the dance, before Gordon himself tried. It was a very fun way to close the day.
The next day saw the kids get another treat, as we went to DINOS Centre, a Christian run recreation center with mini-golf, laser-tag, and an impressive Bible history museum. We played a game of mini-golf that saw us break into four groups with three kids each plus one or two chaperones. I was with Srey Top, Gabriel, Veenang (or Vin), and Sovaneat. I was in stitches for most of the game, as Sovaneat's play style for mini-golf can be described as "all gas, no brakes". She could not fathom how putting worked, leading her to an astronomically high score, but she did not seem to care and enjoyed making me laugh.
We then took a short tour of the museum portion, which was quite impressive in its presentation. The kids were led through a history of the Biblical world, seeing a representation of Jerusalem in Jesus' time, as well as a timeline of creation. DINOS then allowed us to eat our own food on the premises, with a chicken and rice meal prepared by Trakuan filling the kids' stomachs.
After our lunch at DINOS, we went to Rimbey Christian School to perform an abridged version of our program. Due to the timeframe of our performance, our set-up portion had to be done extremely quickly, which the team did so rather impressively. The performance itself was another success, with the school children greatly enjoying the three dances performed. Srey Top also took a moment to explain what school is like at Rescue before taking some questions from the school children, which resulted in some hard-hitting questions like "are there swings?", and, "can the girls wear makeup?".
After we took our marketplace down, we went outside the school for another special treat. Some of Carman's old RCMP buddies agreed to let the kids see their police cars and try out the sirens. One of the RCMP officers put Moses in handcuffs, followed by Carman doing the same to Tong. The adults were quite amused when the second officer arrived, as we found out through translation that Sreyleaak announced that he was handsome. We tried to get a photo with just the two of them, but Sreyleaak suddenly became very shy.
We closed the day with a visit to Carman and Twyla's home, a nice rural estate with lots of open room for the kids to run around. The real attraction for the kids came when Carman offered to take the kids out for rides on one of his ATVs. When it was discovered that Mike knew how to drive ATVs as well, Carman and him began to take the kids out on rotation, driving across a large open field. It was quite humorous watching the kids hop on, as the idea of lining up for a turn seemed to be completely lost on them. Instead, it would become a free-for-all every time Carman or Mike pulled up, with lots of shoving and accusatory pointing over who should go next. The funniest moment was when Sany used her authority as the dance instructor to remove one of the kids so she could take a turn.
As has become tradition for this blog, I apologize for the lateness of its posting. The next entry will cover the last two days at camp, as well as laser-tag and waterpark shenanigans. I'll also try to include some stuff that happened at the camp that I was not present for, as Gordon really tried to give the kids a taste of the camp experience.
See you later!
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