A Better Tomorrow

Unlike the days before, the fourth day wasn't filled with any fun activities and was very... void, so to speak, of any activities. As far as I can remember, all I remember that happened this day was the human rollercoaster activity and the awarding of groups.

The morning of this day started fairly ordinary, and, since it was the last day, all the teams basically had one big chowdown to finish all of their supplies of food. The other teams had bacon, chicken, and basically the tastiest food you could ever find. While, on the other hand, we just ate corned beef with some bread, or something. I don't fully remember. This was also the day, I believe, that we cleaned up all our items. In doing so, some of my teammates found the pot I brought to camp (a piece of kitchenware) and, oh my, it had some leftover adobo from our first day at camp. Man, they really neglected the pot I brought seeing that it wasn't touched ever since the first day. Some of my teammates jokingly told Kuya Pong to eat the adobo in it because it contains memories of the first day, or something like that, but I just laughed it off and washed the pot myself.

After/before all of that, we were at Rialtok and we were told to play one final activity before we left: a long human rollercoaster (or a WHOAllercoaster, as they call it). We went to the place near the campfire and we were separated into two groups, the boys and the girls. Basically, we would form two lines and we would link ourselves with the line opposite to us using our arms and form some sort of rollercoaster track using our arms. Someone would then move a person into the front of the rollercoaster and our tracks (arms) would then try to move that person to the end.

A group photo of us before we went into our respective groups.

This whole cycle continued until the last person would be carried to the back and then the game ends there. The funniest part of all this was when a really big guy was put on our tracks and most of us had difficulty in carrying him until he reached the middle part of our track. There were guys there who literally exerted 100% MAXIMUM effort in carrying the guy and they basically yelled out, "ONE, TWO, THREE!" before tossing up their arms in the air to move the guy. This whole situation was extremely funny because I was watching from afar and—get this—they tossed their arms and pushed so hard, the guy (who was around 200+ pounds or so) ACTUALLY DID A FULL 180° BACKFLIP IN THE AIR. I literally did not believe what I had just witnessed and the entire thing seemed so surreal. To simplify it, it was like watching the birth of a star. The guy's back was toward their arms and his face at the sky and he was thrown 2-3 feet into the air with his face landing on their arms and his back facing the sky. After watching that, I literally believed that anything is possible.

As far as I know, not much happened after that. The next guy followed and then the other, and it was basically like that the whole time. I do have to note that I rode the human rollercoaster and it was akin to being tossed around hard roller pins while a hot, bright light gleams down on you from above. It was every bit as uncomfortable as it was painful, but it was worth it and I can finally say that I've rode a human rollercoaster.

Not a lot happened after that, to be honest. We went back to Rialtok to clean up Super Kaland and we were told to wear our blue "love like WHOA" shirt (which was around 200 Pesos or so) and then awarding began. Our team had won the award for "Best in Kampo De Kusina" and "Best in Splash Dash," and one of our teammates—Sky—was given an award for the most sisterly camper. The best part was that we were the second best team overall and we were surprised because we didn't really expect to get an award like that. Naturally, we were all very honored and humble about it, and we took a few pictures afterwards.


And, after all of that, well, that was it. Once again, my memory has escaped me and I don't remember much after what happened. I remember packing my stuff and getting onto the van and almost everything else that happened afterward, but it's nothing noteworthy.

We boarded the bus at around 3 p.m. or so and we arrived at Valle Verde at around 9-9:30 p.m., and it was one hell of a trip. The whole ride, my phone was desperately clinging on to the last ounce of battery life it had and I'm happy to say that my phone was able to make it through. Actually, my phone lasted for 4 days on a 100% charge, but I only used it to listen to music while on the bus and take a few pictures. The other noteworthy thing that happened during our trip was that I requested to be dropped off at a certain area around C5. You see, Valle Verde is actually a far away place from where I live and I had to commute from Valle Verde to my home (which would take around 1 jeep, 1 train, 1 bus/van, AND 2 tricycles). If I was dropped off at that specific location along the C5 road, I would only need to ride 2 tricycles to get home, saving me a lot of time and money. Unfortunately, they didn't drop me off there which—needless to say—made my commute home a lot harder.

Once we got to Valle Verde, we said our goodbyes to each other and parted ways. The commute home was the hardest part, to be honest, since I was lugging around a camping bag that was nearly around my weight at night. I took a jeep headed to Shaw Overpass and, funny enough, the driver actually forgot to stop there and I got off at the Jollibee restaurant past PureGold Shaw. I was scared because I got off at a place I'm not familiar with, I'm carrying my phone and other valuable items with me, and I have around 300 Pesos in cash—not to mention that I was commuting home alone and I had no load in my cellphone so I couldn't call anyone. I really panicked at this point and I was just there wishing that I had been dropped off along that part of the C5 because it led to my high school and many of my friends' house, so I knew that stretch of road like the back of my hand, unlike this. I saw a jeep that was headed to Shaw Overpass and I got off at the overpass and rode the MRT 3 train going to Ayala. Once I finally arrived at Ayala, I knew I was safe because I know the road from Ayala to my house like the back of my hand, and I recall riding the bus because the I knew all of the FX vans going to FTI were all gone/not at Park Square. Luckily enough, I found a pretty spacey bus headed to FTI and it was pretty much smooth sailing from there.

I arrived home in the dead of night, went upstairs, opened my door, turned on my laptop, and sat back in wonder over how these were the best 4 days of my entire life—and that's how my story of Camp Calye 2016 ended.


P.S. YZA IS MY CAMP CRUSH! :^D

It was already my third day at Camp Calye and, for some reason, I was already starting to wear out from the trip. Rather sad to say, but I really didn't get enough sleep the past few nights and my there was this unbelievable pain on my left and right thighs, and on my biceps, too. Because I didn't bring a single pillow with me, for the past 2 nights, I've been trying to sleep with my makeshift pillow made out of—wait for it—a pile of clothes that I've randomly dropped on the floor; needless to say, it wasn't the best replacement for a pillow.

After I awoke, I experienced an unworldly amount of pain all over my body. Still, not fazed by the pain, I kept on going and went to Super Kaland with my buddy Marvin to meet up with the other members of our team. As we got there, we saw this devilishly handsome (as he calls himself) man with spiked hair and a red shirt—and he introduced himself as "Kuya Pong," our other team facilitator. I stayed with them and sat down to listen to some of Kuya Pong's latest hugots and very corny funny jokes. We played some word and mind games with him and we were fooling around and having fun while we waited for the camp's gathering song to sound off.

After playing a few games, the camp song sounded off and we all came rushing towards Rialtok where we were given our early morning talk, if you will. Then after that we were told by our hosts, Ate Charie and some other guy (sorry), to go and eat our breakfast and they specifically told us to eat a lot because we were going to go trekking around Kampo Trexo. That's all of the significant news for our morning in Rialtok, and I remember we all headed back to Super Kaland to eat some Pancit Canton or corned beef—and we took a few pictures while we were there, of course.


I don't really remember much after that. I remember that this was the morning Marvin and I went to Storeeland (it's what we call the nearby store in Kampo Trexo) to buy some hot water. The funny thing about our trip to Storeeland was that the water was too hot and I was using a plastic bottle (my Gatorade bottle, specifically) to hold the water and, immediately after Marvin poured hot water into the bottle, it capsized, warped, and shrunk. At this point, any sane human being would consider to just get a mug, but, being the person that I am, I insisted that we wait for a few minutes before we continue putting the lava water into the flimsy bottle.

After we had a hearty breakfast consisting of several loaves of bread and Pancit Canton, we were ready to wait for the camp gathering song to sound off again. Another funny thing about this morning that I can remember was that we noticed that our bread supply was dwindling even though we hadn't ate a single loaf of bread the days before, which struck us off. According to my teammates, they said they heard someone say "Sa kanila pala yun" ("It was theirs") and they said they were referring to their/our bread. This fueled allegations that certain teams—probably the Whoarange team—was taking some of our bread without our permission. This bread dilemma was escalated when we realized that, on the first day of camp, we had 6 packs of bread (I brought 3 packs of bread and Rhea brought another 3 packs) and we were taken aback when we noticed that we only had 2 packs of bread remaining. Our team facilitators were instantly disgruntled when they found out about this, but nothing really happened, they just stated out that it's wrong for different teams to take food from other teams without their permission.

The bread-fueled drama was quickly stopped once the camp gathering song sounded off. Once we got there, our lovely hosts for the morning told us the order the groups will be taking when trekking. We were second to the last (I believe) and, before we left Rialtok, we took a picture to commemorate our looks before the trip.


Now, trekking around the "unseen"/yet to be seen part of Kampo Trexo was fairly exciting for two reasons: it was hidden and we've never seen it before. On our way there, we were told by our hosts to go to "reflective mode" or, in layman's terms, to use the time to reflect on our past decisions and whatnot—and that's what I did. I tried, as much as possible, to keep quiet along the way and to not talk to anyone (not that anyone's going to talk to me anyway, but oh well) while trekking. The most fun part of this was we all went through the most beautiful, natural, and scenic part of Kampo Trexo we've ever seen.

If I remember correctly, we went down a few flights of steps going down to a small walkway that's close to the wall. On the opposite side, there was this huge and somewhat shallow river that leads to the end of the path, I guess. It was a little scary going through until we reached the bridge. The bridge itself was fairly sturdy-looking and it was made out of concrete, but what was unnerving was that there were no handrails on either side of it, so if I fall to the right or if I accidentally slipped, literally nothing would stop me plummeting down to the river. After we crossed the bridge, the second scariest thing in our trek showed up: the walkway. Now, similar to the walkway earlier, this wasn't made out of concrete and it had a weak-looking handrail to the left made out of wood/bamboo. What made me scared about this walkway was that it had a fairly good amount of mud on top of it and it rained the day before, which, needless to say, made the walkway pretty slippery. Adding insult to injury, this particular walkway had several ups and downs—just like life—and going through them was no easy task. Fortunately, we reached the end of our trip and we had to go up a very (extremely) small crevice that had a very slippery staircase leading to the top.

It was difficult going through, but it was worth it—until I realized that we had just gone through a longer, more difficult route and it actually led to the mountainous part of Kampo Trexo. We took a small break after that and I think I heard someone crying because they weren't able to breathe or that sort of thing; fortunately, none of my teammates suffered any injuries or any difficulties, so we pushed on. It's worth noting that, at this point, my skin color had significantly become darker—and redder—because I didn't have any sunblock on, but what can you do. After our short stop, we continued on heading upwards and we basically went through the same path we used yesterday, going through the same hanging bridge.

Our faces after trekking. It was grueling, but we all had fun as a team.

We had fun jumping on the hanging bridge (despite being told not to).

After a short walk or so, we all came back to Rialtok. I don't remember what happened after that, to be honest, but I'm assuming that we had a short break (which was around 3 hours) to do some squaddle sessions or to bond with our teammates. From what I remember, we didn't do any squaddle sessions and we just went to different locations in Kampo Trexo. I'm not sure if this way the day this happened, but I remember that someone had lost their iPhone while they were charging. Marvin and I desperately wanted to use our phones so we went back to the tent to get his charger and we would charge at the place where the iPhone got lost. The funny thing was that, while we were charging and casually talking, we watched two other guys clean up that area and they accidentally found the missing iPhone underneath all of the bags and towels. They gave the iPhone back and we just talked and rejoined our fellow teammates a few minutes later. We then changed into our recommended "Church clothes" and we had a Mass after that at Rialtok.


By this time, it was already nighttime and this was where the fun really began. I can't remember the reason why, but I had an emotional breakdown. I wasn't feeling very good that night and my teammates (as well as my team facilitator, Kuya Joed) noticed. The details were very vague and my memory had escaped me, but I remember I told him some really heavy stuff—stuff that was so confidential, I never told it to anyone else and nobody knew about my problem but me. What he did afterwards actually made me take back a few steps: He offered me some great advice, told me to reflect and he did the one thing that would cheer me up the most—he gathered my teammates and we had a squaddle session.

This was a pretty heavy squaddle session, to be honest, the heaviest out of all. The first to talk was me, I shared my problems with my depression, suicide, you know, the deep stuff. I think I actually broke down and started getting very emotional while telling my part, and the girl next to me—Sky—was patting my back while I was talking and I've never experienced that before so it made me even more emotional. At this point, my eyes were basically the embodiment of Niagara falls and all parts of me were scattered around onto the floor, showing my true, vulnerable, insecure, and deeply flawed side. What made me love the Carolet team was that, as far as I know, they all listened. They all listened no matter how sappy, emotional, or pathetic my story was, and—at the end of my story—they told me something that would make me consider them as my one, true family: they're there for me and they won't leave me behind. I don't have a lot of good things happen to me, but I'm sure that the Carolet team is definitely one of the best things to happen to my life.

After that, we took turns in sharing our equally heavy stories (which I won't disclose, by the way), until, of course, the damn camp gathering song sounded off. That was the worst time the camp gathering song could've sounded off and, to this day, I still wish that the camp gathering song sounded off half an hour or an hour later. Our camp facilitator told us that we would continue the session later, but, unfortunately, it was never continued and we were basically left on a cliffhanger because our other teammates didn't share their hardships yet (sorry Giselle, Yza, Gary, Marvin, Kaye, and Rhea). Once we got to Rialtok, we were told by our hosts to go to a special part of Kampo Trexo and to follow our team facilitators in going there.

We did a bunch of stuff while we were there. We wrote our problems and current worries down on a piece of paper and it was segregated by different groups; we book a piece of wood, got a pen, and wrote down our hopes/dreams for the future there and nailed it onto a cross; and were told to get our blankets and sit down around this big pile of wood which eventually became a gigantic campfire.

The plastic bags that we threw our papers in.

The cross where we nailed pieces of wood to.

After the lighting of the gigantic campfire, we were given a candle and I believe we were told to exchange and hug various camp members. I think I hugged all of my teammates, but if there is one I didn't hug, I owe them a hug (haha). I went around hugging other camp members that I personally knew and exchanged candles with them. The last person I exchanged candles with was a person from my original team (because I was supposed to be a part of the orange team, not violet), we hugged afterwards and went back to our respective groups. Our camp facilitators basically had a small sharing session afterwards and, funny enough, my teammate Rhea talked in front despite having a hoarse voice.

Our exchange-a-candle moment.

Although Rhea had an extremely hoarse voice, that didn't stop her.

We had our "E Night" presentation afterwards at Rialtok and basically it was this "show and tell" portion where each team would present/sing a Disney song in front. Our teammates thought that it was great for us to sing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by The Tokens. Since I was the only one in our team who knew the full song (I don't even know why I know the full song, I just listen to it on YouTube), they all thought that it would be great if I sang the song alone. This eventually proved to be a disaster (and a funny one, too) and our small prep time became the cause of our downfall; adding insult to injury, we were the first team to present. Our presentation was.. mediocre, but we had all fun and you could see it our faces.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the Carolets dance tonight.

We watched the other teams perform after that and we saw a mashup where all of the team facilitators would dance/do something silly in front and we cheered on our respective team facilitators. A few jokes were told after that, some sang and some danced, and we all had a blast enjoying our last night together.

This night ended in a very special way because, unlike the other nights, we were told by our hosts that there wouldn't be a "lights off" time for this night and we were basically told to do anything we wanted. Our team and I left Rialtok and went to Super Kaland to listen to a (very exhausting but) very inspiring story—which left us all in stitches. Sadly, Marvin was feeling pretty sleepy (and so was I) so we had to leave our group early and we went to sleep in our tent. Before we went to sleep, I realized that it was the most surreal night of my entire life: there were lights everywhere in the tent area, I could hear people and groups chatting, and some campers were running around and having fun with their fellow campers. Gary joined us in our tent not long after and he told us that the girls in our team went to their tents shortly after we left, so I'm sure we didn't miss out on anything.

We all went to sleep and, just like that, our third day at Camp Calye ended.


Unlike the other nights, this one was special. The days before, we were told that we would find out what a true family is, the answers to our current problems, and so on and so forth. Being the pessimist that I am, I didn't believe this at first as it seemed too big of a promise, but, despite the doubts I had, I was finally shown all of these magnificent things—all in one day. This day (and the other days leading up to it) genuinely are special, and I'll always treasure it in a special part of my worn-out and decrepit heart. Oh, and here are a few photos of us this night:

Our (embarrassing) team dance.

The most candid photo of us :^)

As I awake from my not-so-pleasant slumber, I slowly came to and immediately realized that I was still at Kampo Trexo, and it's already the second day of camp. After taking 5 minutes or so to "initialize my core services," I quickly opened my bag, grabbed my towel as well as my other necessary toiletries, and I dashed as fast as I can towards the shower rooms. While doing so, all of the sudden, I quickly heard my teammate's voice saying, "Dart, we're not supposed to take a bath in the morning." Although my clothes were still fairly clean and I had changed into a new set of clothes the night before, I still didn't want to accept the fact that I wasn't going to get the sweet taste of cold, running water early in the morning, oh well.

The camp facilitators began the morning off by letting us eat and then gathering us all at Rialtok and giving us an exercise routine to wake ourselves up. (I guess that's how the flow went, I don't fully remember.) After exercising, a few pointers we given to us and we were told to eat because a very busy (and by "busy," they meant a "really fun") day was ahead of us. So we ate for a while or so, I can't remember what we ate (sorry for that), but I think it was some sort of speedy meal—probably some corned beef or so—and then the camp gathering song, American Authors' "Best Day of My Life," sounded off and we were back at Rialtok once again. This time, they only told us to sit for a while and they lined us up and then we went off toward a "hidden" path near Rialtok (oddly enough, that "hidden path" also had a path toward our tent, which made a great shortcut). The path wasn't that long, and it led to a hanging bridge that connected to a different part of Kampo Trexo.

From L to R: Sky (the girl in the blue shirt), Phileen, Yza, Giselle, I, Rhea, Marvin, Kuya Joed, Kaye, and Gary.

The hike to the other side of the camp didn't take that long, and it was around 7 to 10 minutes or so. We finally got to the (what I call) mountainous part of Kampo Trexo, and I assume it's also the highest point of the camp itself. Our team facilitator, Kuya Joed, told us to put our necessary belongings in one place and to keep guard of the team's flag (because you also get a penalty if your team's flag got stolen by another team). Our first game, a game I remember vividly, was "Color Wars," and the game's mechanics were similar to that of the mechanics of Game of the Generals. Unfortunately, I didn't get the mechanics at first, probably because I haven't played Game of the Generals nor "Color Wars" before, but after a short demo was given to us, we all quickly understood the tools of the trade and soon we were ready to do battle with the other team, "Light Bluetathione." We played with all our might and strategy, and I was the first of our team to go into this sort of battle scene, and I had to compete directly with the leader of Light Bluetathione. As with most competitions I compete in, I, unfortunately, lost (as expected, haha). I felt bad at first, but seeing that my other teammates were getting leveled by the same player, I quickly felt a little better because I had some company with me (I probably like failing with my best friends). The game was short, sweet, and fun; in the end, we lost, but we were all happy about it and proceeded to the next game.

Tensions we high as the Carolet team was about to face off against the Light Bluetathione team.

We played a few less-than-memorable games after that: a game where you toss darts at balloons, a game where you try to knock over a tower of cans by making a ball jump from the ground toward the cans, ziplining, a rope course game where you go up to a platform and try to reach the other platforms by going through rope obstacles (the usual heart-pumping game show-like obstacle course), a game where you try to stand up while holding your team member's hand, and a game where you toss metal rings in a set of bottles.

That game where we tried to stand up while holding our team member's hand. I don't know why I'm not in this picture.

While we were playing various games, the facilitator of another team announced to us that we got a penalty for some reason, and our time in the shower was depressingly reduced to just 3 minutes. Since my teammates were a bunch of funny, creative, and out-of-the-box individuals, they made a very funny cheer that mimicked the tune of the Filipino song "Tatlong Bibe" ("Three Ducks," but often depicts ducklings) and I think it went along the lines of "May tatlong minutong ligo na lang tayo [at iba pang linya]" ("We have three minutes of bathing left [and more lines]"). The cheer really made me laugh a lot and I kind of felt some sort of feeling that I was in the company of individuals I can trust, and I felt some sort of assurance that I can trust them with anything along the way.

Our second-to-the-last game was called "Splash Dash," and the main goal of the game was to go through a path as fast as you can while your team was given two sheets of paper, and those sheets should not be wet or have any drop of water on them. We made a formation similar to the formation of the Dragon Army in Ender's Game and we positioned two of our smallest teammates in the center with the sheets of paper stuck to their backs, and the others essentially formed some sort of outer hull around our two team members. The formation was complete and we were ready to start the game, and—the second that the game started—we were immediately blasted with blue-colored water and with water guns pelting us with a gushing stream (torrent, if you will) of water. Ah man, we tried our best to get through easily and, by some miracle, we did and we didn't get a single drop of water on the sheets of paper. We won the game and we were told to take a picture afterwards.


After that, we were told to proceed to our final game, a wall-climbing game, but as soon as we got near the wall-climbing platform, it slowly started to drizzle and then it eventually escalated into a full-on downpour of rain—with real lightning for that added effect, too! My teammates didn't bother to get soaked in the rain, and I happily enjoyed walking in the rain with them. After a few minutes or so, we were told to gather around by our team facilitator and we had a "squaddle" session again. This time it was a little more serious compared to yesterday's squaddle sessions. I don't actually recall what Kuya Joed asked us to say, but he gave us a few choices: would you like to improve on your family relationships, your friendships, or few other choices, and you are only allowed to pick one. I picked the one about my friendships because I was currently facing problems with trusting people and also because I recently suffered a heartbreak at the time. It was fun to actually get a release and it was comforting, in a way, to hear that my teammates were going through similar situations as well (not with love, though. It seemed that I was the only one focused on romance.).

Our session was quick and we were told to go to another portion of the camp to continue with the next set of games—regardless of the weather. After hiking for a while, we were told to go through a fast-paced obstacle course and we were told to take our slippers off and then dash through the course as fast as we can. At the end of the obstacle course, there was this "mud crawl" portion—this is where we really got messy. Sadly, I had an extremely pure and clean white shirt (though, it was my P.E. shirt from high school, which I never use anymore), but I continued with the course regardless.

Marvin

Kaye

Me, struggling.

Yza

Giselle

Rhea

Phi

Sky

Since our team's facilitator didn't go through the course, someone thought that it would be fitting if we had a group hug.

The resilient members of team Carolet after a long, muddy day.

(By the way, while searching for the pictures online, I wasn't able to find Gary's picture. It wasn't in the album, so I guess the photographer ran late and wasn't able to take a picture of him.) Fortunately, it was raining a little during that time, so some of the rain washed out some of the mud on our clothes, but the mud crawl was fun nevertheless. Marvin and I tagged along (because the we also had a "buddy system," explained later) and we headed off toward our tent and got the necessary toiletries and clothes. Getting into the tent and grabbing our stuff proved to be extremely difficult because we weren't sure how to get into the tent without covering it in mud. With the help of another camper from another team, we eventually got our clothes and went to the showers. The wait took a while because we had an order on which teams would go to the shower first, and so on. Luckily enough, we were given 5 minutes of shower time and the girls were given 7 minutes, according to Rhea. We took a shower, got changed into our new set of clothes, and we were ready to go back to Super Kaland to prepare dinner, or so we thought.

(Camp Calye has this "buddy system" where, at all times, you are supposed to be in the company of another camper to bolster friendship between the camp members. The rule was to be with a member from your team, and the team member must not be of the opposite sex. If you are spotted walking alone, your team will get a penalty—a 2-minute or so deduction from your team's current shower time.)

After Gary, Marvin, and I were done taking baths, we sat for a while and lounged around Super Kaland and, once all of the teams were done taking showers, we were told by our team facilitator to prepare for another activity. We were given 5 sticks and we were told to prepare a dish using those 5 sticks and the ingredients we have. Gary, Kaye, and Giselle, came up with the dish. Giselle and Kaye started cooking and preparing the necessary ingredients for the dish while Marvin and I helped with preparing the ingredients and skewing them with the sticks given. In the end, we came up with this dish with bitter gourd, potato, eggplant, and some some parts of milkfish (bangus). The judges seemed to have liked our dish, but I didn't feel that confident about it since the others had bacon and other tastier ingredients.

The dish we made, with a small cup of soy sauce in the middle and with Yza's cool lamp on the side.

After the small competition, we prepared our dinner as usual. This night was unlike the night before, because this was the night where a few things went wrong—not with our group, but with the other groups. For starters, the group next to us (the gray team, I believe) were preparing bacon for dinner. Everything was fine until the girl sort of spilled the bacon onto their table and burned herself in the process. There was also this team (the pink team, I believe) that had a problem with their stove and butane gas and I'm not sure if a small fire started, but I remember a big bucket (or pot) of water being thrown at their stove and knocking over all of the food they had prepared onto the ground. Yeah, some really crazy stuff.

After a somewhat disastrous dinner, we were told to gather around Rialtok to listen to some talks about fellow camp members and how Jesus or God has influenced them in their life and how much He has helped them. I'm not sure if this was the night this happened, but we also sang some Christian songs. The two I can remember was "I Will Sing Forever" by Bukas Palad (a song I really, really like because the members of the Campus Ministry sings it during Mass at APC), and "Broken Vessels (Amazing Grace)" by Hillsong Worship (I never knew that the line "amazing grace" was actually from a Christian song).

After the short talk by Ate Charie and some other guy, and after our sing-along, we were told to go to our tents to sleep. Our team facilitator, Kuya Joed, told us to stay at Super Kaland to wait for our other team facilitator, Kuya Pong, there. (We were supposed to have 2 team facilitators, but Kuya Pong arrived late because of his work and other stuff.) I really wanted to meet our other team facilitator, but I was so tired and exhausted by then, and my body was close to "shutting down," so I asked if Marvin and I can go to sleep and we were given the green light. As we were preparing to go to sleep, Gary entered our tent (he also slept in our tent, by the way) and we asked him if he saw Kuya Pong. He told us no and that he was going to arrive late, so the others went to sleep instead. After we prepared, we immediately dozed off and our second day ended.


(I am really, really sorry for the delayed post. Other important matters came to me and I didn't have the time to finish writing this. Hopefully the other posts won't be delayed this much and I'll try to finish this series within the week. Once again, I'm deeply sorry if you were part of the extremely small minority that waited for the continuation.)

(I admit who my camp crush is in this blog post :^) )