SPinjas, SPirates and SPOCs

Successful, fun and goofy, it was probably one of the best weekends I have had this summer. This was despite the rain that bucketed down the whole weekend that we were there.

We departed from the university on a coach and headed north, although not so far out of the city as I had anticipated. After arriving, we helped with unloading the bags and boxes of food and other supplies from the truck. We sorted out the sleeping arrangements before having a brief exploration of the facilities (very little) and started up some games due to the lack of things to do.

SPinjas
Or SPOC ninjas. The four of us group leaders had got it into our heads that it would good fun to introduce brief spot activities throughout the camp. We came prepared with personalised headgear. And a scroll.
a) The Cactus Dance: Arms outstretched like a cactus. Making noises of the wind in the desert. And dance! Variations can be made in speed and some arm movements.
d) Secret Conversation: The object was to hold a casual conversation with unsuspecting souls, which included the terms beluga whale, Gilgamesh, carrot, haberdashery and Goggomobil.
c) The Hokie Pokie: a classic.
d) The Square of Silence: There is a square on the ground. Outside it you can speak and be normal. Inside it you are silent and dance. Started out with a few people, but as we didn't tell people what was going on, we just did it to see if people would join. And they did. In the end, we just moshed. (^_^)/
e) SPirate and SPinja Speak: during camp clean-up to make it more interesting. So we swabbed the decks, hurled some bilge water, couldn't hear for the high stormy winds and ninja'd around.

Training/Information Sessions
The actual point of camp. Well, the more serious side anyway. As I had to present, I only saw two presentations as we were split into two groups. Apparently people thought they were good. Personally, I bored myself stiff while presenting...

Other Games and Trivia Night
First night was a games night with lots of games, including some old favourites.
a) Human Bingo: like normal bingo, but you go around asking people questions if they have the traits on the card/paper. Once you fill them all up without repeating anyone, then BINGO!
b) Charade Chains: you know charades right? Well this is like that, except in silence as one person passes it on to the next, then they pass it to the next one, before the last person presents to the group who have been curiously not watching the whole time. Amusement factor is high.
c) Newspaper Fashion Parade: You got newspapers, you got sticky tape, then you have to to supply the models and fashion designers. No two outfits were the same...next season you may be seeing codpieces back on the catwalk...
d) Toilet Roll Train/Boogie: Your group stands in a row à la Tunnel Ball (if you know the game). You get a flimsy, cheap 1-ply toilet roll to pass under between everyone's legs, then over everyone's shoulders. Rinse and repeat. When the roll ends, you shuffle down to the other end of the hall in a race. But the paper can't break, or you need to retie the ends.
e) and lastly, Pin The Face (and Flag) on the SPOC/Spaceman: seeing as the theme this year is Space Odyssey, there is a spaceman (named during camp as Buzz Firstyear). If you know the rules for Pin the Tail on the Donkey, then this one's a cinch.

Meanwhile, the trivia night is a tradition on the final night when we all get dressed up (this year's theme was Game/Cartoon), we have trivia, then we do karaoke and dance into the night. I was quite impressed by the effort people went to for costume this year. Operation, Monopoly, Lara Croft, Snakes and Ladders, Superman and Wonderwoman were all there. Personally, I became Miss Scarlet and for some reason, the accent and drawl came with the costume. Never got so into character before. Might have been the rain and feeling of seclusion. Or possibly the cigarette holder. (Some would say the wrench.)

My group has never won trivia night before. This year was no different.

Dancing was on and the songs were great. All that dancing made people thirsty though and it was not until then that we noticed that we had a water problem. No drinkable water in the cabin complex. We checked the shower block which thankfully still had water, so we could shower and brush teeth, etc. But after filling a few empty water bottles, we didn't want to drink such suspiciously coloured water. Some resourceful people took to filling some cups with the boiling water from the wall system and cooling them in the fridge. Thankfully, the water got fixed the next morning.

Various Other Tidbits
The Food. How can you talk about a camp without talking about the food?
They ordered 45+ pizzas the first night for about 30 odd people...too many? You betcha. Unless you happen to have about 45 people with my eating capacity present.
Long and the short of it was that there was pizza at every meal. With the cereal. With the sandwiches. With the BBQ. Reminded me of a similar situation a few years back at a biology field trip with tacos.

Leeches. It was wet and there was a decent amount of vegetation around the cabin complex. We also had to wander a bit down the way to get to the shower block. So some people got leeched. There were a lot of mosquitoes too. Actually, I heard that a leech got into someone's sleeping bag and they didn't noticed until the morning. Yeeech!
(There is a cactus dance variant called the leech dance. It involves frantically checking flying limbs for leeches.)

The Wall of Appreciation. We each got an envelope to decorate and stick on the wall. Throughout camp, everyone was encouraged to write pleasant anonymous messages to each other to place in them. Such enthusiasm! Some envelopes got quite pregnant. At the end of camp, we had a pouchful of compliments to read on the coach back to uni (one person received 10c, others got reusable free hug vouchers).

Precursors for the rest of the program? I sincerely hope so. It was terribly enjoyable, particularly after last year's rather unpleasant experience of camp. I only wish more of my friends had gotten involved as I had encouraged them to. Will need to work on my persuasive skills.