I eventually came to the realization that spending any time in Fredericksburg was a bust. I realized that I was asking a lot of people I didn't know to find a place for me to stay for free when they were already housing a dozen people from India. I was really very upset about that. I missed my kids! They were in my country and I wouldn't be able to see them! I went to bed Wednesday night, July 25, feeling defeated and upset.
But then an idea occurred to me: They were going to Rockbridge Young Life camp, which is 45 minutes from my house. I thought it was a ridiculous long shot, but I figured I could call the camp the next day and see if they would let me come visit on Friday.
I called Rockbridge on Thursday morning during my first break, asking if I could come visit the next day. Miraculously, they said yes, just as long as I coordinated with Michael about coming. He would be 'hosting' me, meaning that I would have to stay with him or other camp leadership for the day. I spent the day waiting for Michael to call. I didn't hear from him. I called the office back right before they closed, asking if I could come anyway because they were expecting me (well, kinda . . . Michael had some clue that I would try and pull this one, and I didn't mention that he had never *actually* met me). They told me that I could come anyway, and I said that I would be there for breakfast at 9.
I packed a bag with a change of clothes (I just knew I was going to get dirty) bathing suit, toothbrush and toothpaste (because hey, you never know) and left for camp. When I got there, I heard a train whistle. I figured that this was the 'breakfast bell', so after checking into the office, I made my way over to the dining hall. I rounded the corner and saw a beautiful sight: Balaji and Sunil.
It was pretty obvious that they had not been warned. They both just stopped and stared at me like they didn't know what to do. I waved and said, "Hey guys!" We walked toward each other, closing the distance. Balaji reached out to shake my hand. I skipped it and hugged him. He said it was so good to see me, and that he was very surprised. Sunil hadn't said anything. He was still staring at me. He was actually making me a little nervous. When I walked over to him, he gave me a hug and said he was happy to see me too.
I turned to walk back up the hill to the dining hall, a little surprised at the lack of familiarity I was getting from these guys. When I caught up to Balaji, I checked him sideways with my hip. That finally broke the ice. He elbowed me and started squawking that I had hit him. We got into a hip-checking contest and suddenly we were laughing again, just like the way it was in India. I glanced over to my right and saw Sunil in his usual spot: right next to me, grinning at my craziness.
Sunil introduced me to the girls, who I hadn't met yet. They initially acted shy around me, but I was hoping that I could eventually break the ice. I turned and saw Kunal, Sanjay, Kartik and Inder heading up the hill. I ran over to them and gave them all hugs. These guys were a little more animated, probably because I was already acting like a nut when I saw them. At breakfast, I introduced myself to Michael and Jyoti. They were happy to finally meet me. I had only gotten a few sentences out to them when the 'programming' kicked in with a vengance.
We were all interrupted by somebody dressed up like an old fogie, waving his cane around and dancing past my table to 'Gettin' Jiggy With It" or some facsimile thereof. There was another guy dressed in the same getup, dancing on the other side of the room. They made their way up to the stage and introduced themselves as Winston and Wilbur Weatherby, no relation. "Oh wait,' I said, "HA! I'm at Young Life camp. Let the insanity ensue."
That it did. Right after breakfast, we went to a morning session that culminated in the introduction of the "Klaus Oon Deeter games" (say it out loud, it makes sense), where these same two guys were onstage, this time in lederhosen, blonde wigs, and Schwarzenegger accents as Klaus and Deeter. They introduced a crazy game relay we would do for points. These were not ordinary games. These had stuff like leapfrogging and blind bike riding and an inner tube roll, where a team member had to brace herself in the hole of two tied-together inner tube while the team rolled her across the soccer field. I had just met these good Indian girls and suddenly I'm running around, yelling in a ridiculous German accent, getting them to do all these crazy events. It went well until the girl didn't brace herself well enough in the inner tubes and face planted on the gap between the tubes. Her head actually got stuck in the gap. She could have probably eaten the grass on the field if she tried. She cracked up, so it was all good.
At the very end of the games, they told the leaders to stand in the soccer goal. I turned around and noticed that there was caution tape spread from one goal to the other. I knew I was in for it. I didn't know exactly what was going to happen, but I knew I was about to get dirty. I went and stood in the goal and immediately noticed that Michael and Jyoti were on the sidelines, not really sure what was coming. It was just as well, I could take one for the team. The horn was sounded and I started running the gauntlet.
It was fine for a about 3 seconds. I was pelted with water balloons from my boys. But then suddenly there was a thick white cloud. I felt like I was covered in glue and I was coughing. Then I realized their dastardly plot: flour bombs. I could see flour caking up on my arms. It was stuck in my eyelashes. I just knew that my ponytail looked like a biscuit. I made it to the end, uncertain if I had lost my contacts or if the flour had rendered me temporarily blind.
I staggered over to where my Indian kids were gathered. Predictably, Sunil was once again doubled over, squeal-laughing at me. Balaji snapped pictures with his camera. Michael busted out his IPhone, started filming, and asked me, "How do you like Young Life camp?" I responded, "I love Young Life!" He said, "Are you going to look like this when you come to India?" I was like, "Yes, but I will probably be less white. If you'll excuse me, I have to get this junk out of my eyelashes because I can't see."
I later told Michael and Jyoti that the whole point of Young Life camp is systematic humiliation. Everybody is doing ridiculous things they would never do anywhere else, and everybody is having a great time doing it. Just embrace it and don't be afraid . . . when you go for it, that's when things get good!
Thus began the most awesome time I have ever had at camp. Right after the Michael Jackson lunch, complete with flash mob to Thriller (that I was able to ad-lib because I actually know the dance), Sunil took me down the 1,000 ft zipline with a lake landing and then sent me into the stratosphere off the blob. At this point, I knew there was no way I could leave that day. I went to the store and bought another t-shirt and some shampoo and conditioner. I was set.
The evening program was a hoe-down. I had to explain why everyone was singing "International Harvester" and why somebody would write a song about a tractor. Two of our guys ran a relay where they pulled one of our girls, sitting on the spade of a shovel, around a cone and back. I watched Sunil spin around with his forehead on a bat 15 times. When he tried to run back to our team, he ended up careening off into the sidelines, mowing people down as he went. Kartik totally rocked on the bucking bronco competition and won it.
At dinner, we were served chicken, mashed potatoes, macaroni and corn. The girls and I sat down at our table. They began picking at the chicken, but they complained that it didn't taste like anything. I glanced over at the table next to ours and noticed a bottle of Tabasco. I got up and announced to those guys, "Hey, my Indian girls are complaining that their chicken tastes like nothing. There is no spice. Can we borrow your Tobasco?" They all cracked up. You would have thought this was the funniest thing they had heard all day. Some of them followed me back to my table and watched the girls slather this stuff all over their chicken. The girls kept sampling their chicken and pouring more and more on. Finally, when their chicken was swimming, they declared it hot enough.
At club that night, we sang "Call Me Maybe" and I taught them the motions that my crazy youth group girls do. Then they started playing "Baby". It was here that I discovered that ALL my Indian kids, guys and girls, know Justin Bieber. Why, I don't know. I sufficiently berated them.
At the end of the night, there was a massive Country Fair where the kids played games for tickets. What my Indian kids didn't initially catch was that these tickets could be redeemed to 1) pie your leader, 2) slingshot your leader with a water balloon, 3) dunk your leader or 4) shower your leader. I just stood off to the side with Michael, praying that they wouldn't catch on. We had never been so glad that English isn't their first language. Kartik and Balaji eventually caught on, but by that point it was (thankfully) too late.
The program leaders, now dressed up as hillbillies, were asking the kids to get into groups of 4 guys and 4 girls. My kids jumped right in. The girls and guys separated and ended up in different groups. The program leaders started a square dance. My Indian kids linked arms and danced around with the other campers. After teaching them a simple square dance, they joined groups together for the Virginia Reel. This was hilarious. The first guy to run the reel was a leader from Green County with some of his guys in the line. His guys smacked his butt as he went past. Then Kunal was up. Sure enough, they all smacked his butt as he went past. I about died. Sunil ran next, and they did it to him too. Before long, they were all doing it to each other. Yay, culture clash.
The next day at the leader's meeting, they said that it was going to be 50's night, complete with a sock hop. There was no way I was going to leave before then. Michael and Jyoti said I could stay for another night if I wanted to, I just had to clear it with the leadership. When I went by the office, they told me that they would normally charge me the full amount to spend that much time at camp ($570! Eeek!) but since this was a special circumstance they would charge me the 'adult guest' rate of $55 a night. So worth it, thank you Jesus. When I called out of work, they were like, "You're where?" I basically told them that I just wasn't leaving. There are very few things in this world that I will drop everything for. These Indian kids are one.
This day was amazing. It started with a "water regatta", where those same goofy guys were suddenly 'mer-men" with flipper tails. People competed in crazy pool games, made synchronized swimming routines, blobbed for height and style and threw watermelons off the zipline at a target. It ended with everyone in the pool, starting a 'human whirlpool'. They told all 400 kids to walk in the same direction. I was thinking, "is this seriously going to work?" Sure enough, it did. There was a really strong current. Then they asked us to run. Everybody was flying around this pool. Then they asked us to turn around. Cue train wreck. We were now fighting this huge current to go the other direction. I pity salmon that have to swim upstream. I tripped over and smashed into a dozen people trying to get my footing. I had never seen anything like this, and it totally rocked.
That evening at dinner, we all dressed up in 50's clothes (that I didn't have, but tied a scarf in my hair and made due anyway). At the end, they cranked "The Twist". I knew this was coming from the leader's meeting. I jumped up and danced in the middle of the room, next to the guy's table. 3 milliseconds later, Inder was up dancing like a maniac next to me. Michael looked surprised. Apparently, Inder doesn't do stuff like this normally. He busted out his IPhone to film this for posterity. The other guys jumped up and before long, I was surrounded by Indian guys, dancing in the middle of the circle. They were like, "We did not know you could dance like this!" The guys started tossing in Bollywood moves with The Twist. I looked up and noticed that the other groups near us weren't dancing, but instead were standing on their chairs, cheering us on. I felt like I was in a musical.
This was the most fun I have ever had at camp. Ever.
Later that night, the dancing continued at karaoke. The other groups did every major karaoke hit that has ever been done while Inder and I did goofy motions and Sunil was teaching American kids some dance moves. Sunil is seriously the best dancer I have ever seen. They gave us all freezy pops at the end of the night, many of which ended up being thrown at me by my lovely boys. It's so wonderful to belong.
The next day, the camp presented us with breakfast in bed. They delivered a tub of cereal and fruit to our cabin and we sat on the floor and ate it. This day had very little programming to it, which we were thankful for. I spent a lot of time just hanging out with different kids. At lunch, they served tacos. The girls complained that the chapatti tasted bad. I had to explain the difference between tortillas and chapatti, and that you eat them very differently.
Right after dinner, I got all my stuff together and said goodbye. Kartik once again threatened to break my legs so I would stay. Inder hung off of my backpack. Eventually, Kartik, Inder and Sanjay walked me out to my car. Sanjay grabbed onto the front of my car and tried to make it so I couldn't leave. Eventually, we said our goodbyes and I was on my way back to my house, only to leave for my church's week-long camp with my students from Church On the Hill the next morning.
God knew what he was doing. The entire year I had spent dreaming about what it would be like to see them again paled in comparison to what actually happened. I couldn't have asked for a more amazing time with all of them.
This was truly amazing, and I was so grateful.
