It happened in Sagana, a small place about an hour outside of Nairobi, during eight days in December 2006. The Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) had gathered two chosen volunteers from each branch and as always, also invited the two Norwegian youth delegates. To be honest I had dreaded this for long, and it was an experience I could have done without. At least that is how it started.

Games, games and even more games

The theme of the camp was ‘Youth: Stepping up to the challenge’ and it couldn’t have been more fitting. It started with a couple of hours where the hundred plus played various games to get to know each other better. That was challenge number one for someone who hates such things, and number two followed soon afterwards. Beforehand we had been told that the National Youth Officer was going to tell us more about this week’s programme, but he didn’t tell us anything about this week’s programme. Instead we were told to respect each other’s opinions, to stay away from dangerous areas such as the Tana River who was right next to the camp, to promote friendship and understanding and to abstain from sex, alcohol and cigarettes.  "You are not supposed to know what will happen the next day", the Youth Officer said.

That was challenge number two for someone who loves planning and who absolutely hates not to be prepared. When you have to you however find survival techniques, and during the week I made sure to get to know prominent people who knew the programme.
 

First time in a tent

Before I arrived in Sagana I had never in my life slept in a tent, and I did not look forward to this challenge number three. Ragnhild was placed under the same ‘roof’ as Patricia from our branch, but I was told to go to another tent full of unknown faces.

"Hi, I am going to stay here with you guys this week", I said and tried to smile as I looked into the (to me at least) already overly full tent. The girls inside on the other hand smiled brightly and moved further inwards to give space to their new addition. I even got the corner spot, and the Kenyan hospitality proved itself once more. To my great surprise I also somehow managed to sleep, even though there were ten other people in this tent.

Lines, lines and even more lines

Every day at 5.30 am it was time for morning exercises in Sagana. When one heard the whistle one had a few minutes to throw some clothes on, find a gum and get started. Then followed about an hour of running and various other physical activities. The evaluation after the camp showed that this was one of the least popular activities, but I though it was magnificent. We got a very good workout and we really woke up. What followed was however far from magnificent. We were about 60 girls, and two showers between 60 girls become what? Challenge number four – and especially when one has only one hour to get ready for breakfast. Words can hardly describe how stressful this was. Everyone was of course sweaty and smelly after the morning workout and wanted to shower, and it was almost essential to have allies and friends who could hold one for you. This of course worked both ways, and if you actually were in front in the line, you could still end up far in the back. After the line process was over with came the countdown. When you finally hit the shower, impatient girls stood outside counting the time you had spent in there. Three minutes was all you got… After some days when we knew each other better, questions like this one came along:

"Lene, who are you showering with today?" "Nobody", was the answer they always got. One has to draw the line somewhere.

Some factual stuff but then…

The programme for the first two days was very good. We had sessions on HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, water rescue, blood donation and yes, we LEARNED something. After that it however went downhill with the youth camp as the Presidential Award Scheme came along.

"You have to do exactly what these people tell you for the next three days", Youth Officer Moses ordered us.

Those who are part of the Presidential Award Scheme have gone through terrible challenges such as for instance survival hikes with minimal resources, and we were all afraid of what would come now. It turned out not to be so terribly bad, but for someone who doesn’t like team sport, creative performances, role plays and many MANY cooperation-exercises in groups that are too large it was a bit bad after all, and this turned out to be challenges number five to twenty. Amongst other things, we had to transport the whole team over a tall wall with no resources, transport a glass of water on a wooden plate held up by only threads, throw ourselves from a wall and fall down on the others, transport the whole team through a spider web of threads without touching these threads and climb over a pool on a rope held by our team mates (yours truly by the way fell into this pool and my only pair of sneakers were wet for no less than the next three days). The aim was team-building, and our three days with these instructors was finished up by a hike where the teams had to navigate themselves onto two mountain-tops and to a water fall. The official lessons from these days were that one has to aim for the sky and that some opportunities only present themselves once. In addition, one should be better at facing challenges on individual and group levels after this and one should be better at building trust in a team.

Ok so some lessons were learned…

During these eight days I did things I never in my life thought that I would do, such as for instance to go camping at all, to voluntarily participate in a role play, to survive about 30 hours of games and group work which I don’t exactly like, to give blood in spite of an enormous fear of needles and blood itself, to have a dancing performance in front of a crowd (never mind that my steps got messed up) and what not. I am so very very content with myself for surviving and for doing everything I was supposed to do and more, and I have actually come to appreciate challenges more after this camp. The KRCS in other words probably knew very well what they did when establishing the theme. Also, it was actually quite cosy to be camping, in spite of lack of various facilities.

Challenging or boring?

From the alternatives informative, interesting, challenging and boring most of the participants found this camp challenging. It was only one person who had crossed for the alternative boring, and that was me. Why? Simply because it was too much playing and too little learning, the opposite of what the Norwegian Red Cross Youth are being criticized for concerning their camps. But of course, I did learn something: Sometimes it is better to do things together with others, and even though something looks impossible at first glance it might not be. The most important lesson was however that it is important to challenge oneself from time to time. That is the best way to evolve, and it is incredible what one can do if one only tries. That Ragnhild and I have discovered several times as youth delegates here in Kenya.