Iiiiiiii'mmm baaaaack!!!!

Work Camp (see entry below) was great! It was spiritual, enlightening, energetic, creative, studly (inside joke), rockin', comedic, tiring, etc, etc, more than just (and not limited to or focused on) "fun" and "working."

In brief, the Catholic (can I say that word? ) Diocese of Arlington holds a WorkCamp each year to gather teens from around the Diocese (can I even mention that?) to go and do service to help the community, mostly by fixing up the homes that really need it (wheelchair ramps, fixing roofs, making sidewalks, etc) and the residents can not afford it.

This year, there were over 500 teens that gathered in Orange County, VA, to form 94 crews that spread out to 92 homes/locations to spend 4 days working out in the hot sun to do good and service in the name of....well, you know, hopefully.

My parish arrived Saturday night with everyone else. We did some praise and worship stuff before going off to meet with our crews. Each crew had 5 (maybe 6) teens (two each boys and girls and one more or either) and one or two (two in my case) adults.

After that, we did some ice breakers with our crew and hung out for more program.

The next day we did some teambuilding games and pretty much hung out as a crew for the whole day so we could bond. My crew was great. There was me (rising freshman) along with two rising junior girls and a rising sophomore girl and boy. There was also an adult male and female. We got along very well, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and each other's company the whole week. With each crew, it gets to the point where you don't want to say good bye at the end of the week, that's how close everyone grows.

On our work site we built shelves and a sidewalk. (Each crew is also given a contractor who knows what they're doing more than we do on the projects given. He knew what he was doing.) Building this stuff involved wood cutting, cleaning out moldy rooms, more wood cutting, cement making, digging, and bonding with each other. I also taught the other teens how to work a mitre saw and encouraged them to try out some new things. (We all were encouraged to "Lean in to it" this week--to try new things.)

A lot of it is too amazing for words. The other amazing stuff is spiritual, and we all know I can't discuss that here. I also grew as a person, but we can't get into those details.

There's so much more to tell, but that's the jist of it. There is soooo much more that I would love to share, but I'd probably push the BZP censor/conform (hey, Ca!) limits. If you have any questions on how great and uplifting my week was, go ahead and ask so I know what topics I should address.

On another note, I was gone a week, I had 22 emails, a bunch of blogs read (I finished the BZP ones, but there's that one run by 6 AFOL's to still catch up on), and only one Word Perfect document was opened while I was gone. (My "Quotes" file was #2 on the list. Am I the only one that uses the "family" computer?)

-CF

(Currently rockin' to Caramell Dansen)

Quote of the Day from Nukora: The more you say, the less people remember.

-François Fénelon