Tuesday, July 19

Hello! This is Suki writing! (AKA Christina) Today was our 5^th and final day of training camp! We were allowed to sleep in this morning for the first time and had a slow and happy time getting ready for the day. :) During breakfast, (Oh by the way it’s Sami’s birthday today) all the boys marched in the kitchen and BJ announced that we had to follow the tradition of throwing Sami in the pool on her birthday. That announcement was followed by cheering of bystander and the screaming and pleading of Sami….. After Sami’s pleads, the boys stopped to reconsider. You see Sami was cold and tired and had just received her first cup of coffee in 5 days (big step for Sami!) so they were starting to feel bad. So in the pause I shouted “Let’s throw Zac in the pool in her place!!”  Hahahahaha! With a shocked look on his face, Zac was picked up and carried outside and with a fight he was chucked in the pool. A Price for a Price - her debt was paid. :)

Breakfast was followed by worship and quiet times and then we were off the church for another activity. We were going to the church to see the “No Hope Room” which is basically an intense interactive drama. This activity was designed to prepare us for intense situations and to learn how to deal with them.  The drama was several scenarios put together that the migrant workers could have been through. Some of the scenarios were of a woman being abused and people doing drugs and alcohol. The room was dark and smoky and there was loud metal music; there was a strobe light flashing and people screaming. It was the feeling of having all your senses being overloaded with extreme confusion and intenseness. The moment I walked in the room I was hit with an overwhelming feeling of fear, sadness, and helplessness. I imagined migrant children having to going through abuse and the horror of it. This thought killed me; to think of an innocence child being beaten for something they didn’t do or deserve.

We were sent into the room in our “family” groups and were only in there for maybe a minute, but it felt like a long time. After we left the room we joined other groups that had already been through it and talked about how felt about it. By the time the whole group was together again most of us were crying. We were allowed to go back in the room and interact with the people in the drama; each person had a moment of growth because of the experience. We all found strength and hope through it. For me, my eyes were opened and I had overwhelming compassion and mercy for people who have gone through stuff like that. I saw the boys suddenly become men and choose strength to defeat their “families”. We were all afraid of interacting with the people but the men of each family stepped up and led the way. Overall today was probably the most intense day of training camp but had the most strengthening moments for the team.