Helēnas stāsts: My eleven days in discover yourself

04.09.2013 TŪJA 23

Helen Wang

A lot of wonderful first-time things have happened to me in this unforgettable eleven days.

I had been always longing for a long walk along the beach and this camp offered me a chance to fulfill this dream that used to seem to be so unrealistic—-a twelve-mile round trip was a big challenge for my physical ability. But I took a chance and joined this activity, knowing that I had never walked over three miles continually in my whole life. During this long walk, I enjoyed the spectacular view of the pure blue sky and watched the tides come and go. It was the first time that I had been so close to nature. More importantly, as Kaspars said, I successfully came back without losing my direction. {Just for laugh. All I needed to do was to walk straight, turn around and come back.} But for me, I conquered this longest route ever in my life without quitting on the half way. {To be frank, I wanted to quit it like a million times. ;)} It was what I learnt from the training that kept me going on. Not only did I gain my physical strength but also I realized that using my inner peace and strong willpower can beat almost any obstacles.

Another impressive activity was the hiking in the forests. It was quite a long and hard walk with annoying bugs and mosquitoes. We were exhausted when we found the shelter place but we still managed to prepare for our dinner. I skinned and cut the potatoes with my friends. Though I couldn’t do it fast and nicely, with my friends’ help I managed on time anyway. I am the only child in my family so I am thoroughly spoiled. In this camp, I have learnt a lot of daily skills and forced myself to become much more independent. {My parents are quite happy about this.}The music team played their improvised songs, which were natural and happy, to encourage us to finish the long hiking even though they were extremely tired. I had never been so deep into the forests and I was glad that I got a chance to pick and eat the natural berries along way, recognize some rare snakes and butterflies and enjoy the freshest air in the world. {In Beijing, fresh air is a luxury for everyone. 

All activities in camp were carefully designed and prepared for quite a long time. With the full preparation, trainers were able to offer us unique group challenges. We needed to transfer all group members to a certain area by only using two ropes, one rope and a big wooden stick or a swing. Sometimes we made it. Sometimes we ran out of time or chances and failed. But it was what we learnt from the challenges that matters, not the consequences. After each challenge, we would form a circle and talk about our feelings. I got inspired a lot by what my teammates and my trainers said. They inspired us to look beyond what happened and thought much deeper than we could do by ourselves. I learnt how to do teamwork in a better way with others. It was actually quite hard for me since I didn’t know a single word of Latvian. I am really grateful that my friends had done a lot of translation work to make me participate better. They carried on translation even when they were really tired, which made me even more grateful. They didn’t need to do this extra work and they could have enjoyed more free time. But in order to make me understand more about this camp, they kept helping me kindly. That was why I felt so at home in this camp. I was the only foreigners here but I felt I was a part of this camp. I never felt lonely or ruled out. The participants and the trainers here were so kind-hearted and co-operated. This multicultural working experience was quite smooth and easy for me due to the help of my friends. I learnt to sacrifice for the interest of the whole team and tried my best to tolerate and comfort the naughty children. The challenges were not only exciting but also meaningful.

In this camp, I also had outdoors barbeque and I got so excited that I pulled my sleep bag and my blanket out of my tenet and made my bed by the fire. It was really nice to sleep with your friends chatting happily and playing guitar by your side. I was quite sad in the last day because I didn’t want to leave my friends. It is amazing that in such a short time, I gained real friendship and shaped myself into a responsible and strong-will power person. In these eleven days, I managed to take almost all of the training classes and learnt a lot of useful martial art movements. {It is a pity that I suffered from jet lag so I failed to join the morning training in the first four days. Otherwise I would have learnt more things about martial art to show off to my friends when I come back to China.

All in all, I have experienced loads of brand new and special things. I have made a lot of friends and I do hope I will have a chance to come back in the future. It is a unique camp in which you can improve yourself, challenge yourself and get close to the real nature.