Heepwah!

Hey everyone! I'm back from Camp Ondessonk, and it was amazing. Seriously, I'm so sad to be back home. I think I got camp-sick my first night here, like many kids get home-sick at camp. But I really had a great time. I got close with 5 girls, three were my age, one was a year younger and the other was two years younger. I also liked all of the girls in my cabin. I was really worried about that, but they were all pretty nice. The unit I was in was Lalande, and our color was red. The other girl units were Goupil, Lalemant, Garnier, and Chabanel. The boy units were Daniel, Amantacha, Brebeuf, Raganeau, and Tekakwitha. All the units are named after the North American Martyrs, except for Raganeau and Amantacha, who just happened to not die for their faith, and Tekakwitha. Tekakwitha (the only women out of the group) was a Native American who left the only friends and family she had left to go to missionaries and help teach people about God. She is currently one miracle away from becoming a saint, and if she becomes a saint, she'll be the first Native American Saint. Ondessonk was also a martyr (his real name was Isaac Jogues, the native americans called him Ondessonk which means 'Bird of Prey'.) Nobody knows why the camp is named after him rather then the others.
Anyway, when I got to camp, I found that the theme of the week was jungle. So basically, all the skits and cheers and whatnot incorporated jungle themes into them. The treasure (we always have some little item that the units compete to find for points) was a tiny plastic meercat, which my unit found. The points are for the Golden Arrowhead. At every activity at camp, you can take tests to get an arrowhead which are little patches shaped like arrowheads, with different colors and pictures for each activity. The Golden Arrowhead is like the House Cup at Hogwarts (if you read Harry Potter you understand that). So basically it's just an award to the best unit. I was really excited because at the end of the week, they announced that our unit had won! It was SO cool. :D
The activites at camp are nature, which includes all-day hikes and woodsmanship, riflery, archery, handicrafts, horsemanship, swimming, and boating, which includes kyaking, canoeing, and rowboating. My hike was really cool, we went to some split rocks and a natural water slide and some really beautiful spots. In woodsmanship you can either build forts out of wood, build fires, or learn about different types of water purification. The water purification is new this year, so I did that when we went, and it was really cool. I'm not very good at riflery, but I still really like it. I am, however, really good at archery, and LOVE it. When I'm a C.I.T. (counselour in training) I might major in archery. In handicrafts you can make boondogles (these little lanyard keychain things, very popular at camp), hemp bracelets, fuserbeads, or talking sticks (a native american craft which is made out of vines that smother trees (or something like that) so making them helps trees). I made a hemp bracelet and a boondogle, but I never had a chance to finish the boondogle and the hemp bracelet is too big. I really like handicrafts though. I love horsemanship, we get to go trailriding and it's really cool. I don't have a lot of experience with riding horses except for the trailrides at camp, but I'm pretty good at that too. In our lake for swimming we have a volleyball net on the beach, noodles and tubes for the water, two waterslides (a bigger curvy one and a straight one), a zipline, and a tarzan swing. We used to have a blob, but it broke and we haven't gotten a new one yet. I love swimming, but I didn't have a lot of time to do it this week. In boating I always kyak, and I love it. Boating is so relaxing and fun, and kyaks are really cool.
As far as night activities go, there is mass and opening campfire on Sunday night, a unit campfire on Monday night, the Tuesday Night Game (on Tuesday night :P), the overnight on Wednesday night, the Lodge Ceremony on Thursday night, and the closing campfire on Friday night. I really enjoy going to Mass (and the various prayer services we have during the week) even though I'm not Catholic. One part about Mass I really like at camp is that it's outside in the Grotto, where we have the opening and closing campfires too. The opening campfire is great, you see tons of skits, meet all the counselours, and learn fun campfire songs. At your unit campfire, you learn more about what you're doing the rest of the week, learn some cheers for your unit, and roast marshmallows. Those are really fun too. The Tuesday Night Game is awesome, and let me just say in advance that my unit got second place. Basically, you're trying to deliver these poker chips to different areas at camp. The unit with the most chips wins. There are walkers, who only walk around delivering chips, hardcore hiders, who hide in the woods and steal chips from the walkers, and slashies, or walker-hiders, who do both. If the walkers see hiders, they yell 'Busted!'. They don't get a chip from the hiders, but they get to walk by safely. If the hiders see walkers, they yell 'Ambushed!' and steal a chip from the walkers. It's really cool because everybody wears all black and puts ashes all over their face. On the overnight, you hike out to some designated spot and camp out. You make foil burgers (the best food on the planet) and sometimes get to go swimming or through a split rock, depending on where you are. It's amazing because you get to sleep out under the stars. Next night is the Lodge Ceremony. I can't say too much about it, but I'll try to explain Lodge the best I can. Lodge is a secret special society of people who really care about camp Ondessonk, the Earth, and God. They do lots of volunteer work and try to help out everybody as much as they can. You have to apply to get into Lodge, and can only do so after two years of going to camp. You send your application in, and if you're accepted, you get enducted on Thursday night at the Lodge Ceremony, and onto Friday. The Lodge Ceremony is kept secret unless you have seen it, and so is the enduction. I was enducted into Lodge this year, and it's a big honor. I'm really excited about it. I can't tell you about the ceremony or the enduction as I said before, but I wish I could. On Friday during the day, you have Marathon, which is worth big Golden Arrowhead points. Every camper has a job in marathon. Our unit got second or third in Marathon, I can't recall right now. Then, that night, you have the closing campfire. It's the same as the opening one except for the units do skits instead of the counselours. Since it's jungle week, we made a song about winning the Golden Arrowhead (we weren't sure if we were going to win it yet) to the tune of 'The Circle of Life' from the Lion King.
Most people think the food at camp, like food at school, is gross, but at camp Ondessonk it really isn't. The food is always great, and they always have a big variety. At your table in the Dining Hall, people rotate seats every meal. At on end of the table, the two people sitting across from each other are the hoppers. There is the food hopper, who has to go up and get the food for the table, and the water hopper, who refills the pitchers with water after whatever we were drinking beforehand is out. The hoppers also have to stay after the meal to clean up and come early to the meal to set the table. Meals are really fun at camp, even though you have to hike up a huge hill to get there. We also have inspection at camp before meals (much like the military) where we stand at attention and three inspectors go down the inspection lines for your unit to make sure you smell nice, are wearing appropriate clothes, have good form, etc. Three units win inspection, and we did really good this week. During inspection we also have the lowering of the flags where we salute the colors. We ALSO have cabin inspection, so we have to clean our cabins in the morning.
Sorry for making y'all read so much, but I really love camp and want to share it with everybody. Oh, and about the word Heepwah; it's a native amercan word that means 'everything good'. We say it a camp instead of cheering or clapping.

Heepwah!