The first week of vacation Nicholas and I headed up to youth camp with the Stake. As soon as I was called to be a counselor in Young Women’s I asked if I could come help out at camp. It was the only part of YW I liked back then. Usually, only the stake leaders and a few volunteers are at camp. They say that the ward leaders do so much throughout the year, this is their week off, so to speak. But they were more than happy when I said I wanted to help out. However, if I had known exactly what we were going to be doing, I may have been less eager. 🙂
This was also the first church camp Nicholas had ever attended. He was NOT happy about us making him go. We kept telling him it wouldn’t be like school camps, these were all church kids. There would be standards of expected behavior that would be enforced. It would be great. He was still refusing to go. Finally, I had to promise him that he could go home after he had stayed two full days. I figured by then he would have gotten comfortable and would opt to stay the entire time.
Anyway, we left early Monday morning, with Chris driving us down to the train station. The camp was located in Brienz, more specifically, high up on one of the mountains above Brienz. It was called Planalp, and was about halfway up to the top. To get to camp, we rode a cogwheel steam powered train. It was quite a sight, since all the youth, leaders and equipment took over the entire thing, except for one two very bewildered tourists. It was a gorgeous area. Absolutely breathtaking. But I didn’t bring my camera for fear it would be lost or broken, so I don’t have a single photo. Sorry about that.
The first day we set up camp. For me, this consisted of carrying my bags to my quaintly decorated room in a lovely house, hanging my clothes up, and testing out the fluffiness factor of my pillow. It was excellent! For Nick, on the other side of the field, it meant trying to find a place flat enough to set up their tent. It was him and the two other boys from our ward. Unfortunately, three older boys joined their group, who weren’t exactly the most well behaved, shall we say. They ended up having to first remove several cow patties, some of which were not all the way dry, before they could find a spot that was only moderately slanted to set their tent up on. Much swearing and foul language ensued on the part of the older three boys. Nicholas HATES that with a passion and it made him really uncomfortable, on top of his regular anxiety. He was very upset by dinnertime, and it was all I could do to talk him into staying one more day.
But the food was excellent. All moms know that food always taste better when someone else has done the cooking. The ladies in charge of the kitchen were amazing. They had a wood and gas stove to work with, and a barbecue grill. They churned out some truly delicious meals. And fancy desserts, too. Raspberry tiramisu, chocolate fondue, chocolate mousse and homemade waffle cookies, lasagna, crepes, mashed potatoes and fleischkase, and salad with homemade dressing every night. There was even yellow cake with chopped up candy bar chunks mixed in the second night, which also happened to be my birthday. So awesome!
That second day we went higher up the mountain to work. We had been told we would be repairing hiking trails that had gotten damaged in the winter storms. I thought we would be removing debris, maybe repairing some wooden stairs, that sort of thing. Ha! First, my group had to hike for about 2 hours up the mountain. We were pretty much right at the top. This wouldn’t have been quite so bad except we had one girl with us who was severely afraid of heights. Like frozen solid, can’t move, shaking with terror, in tears, afraid. And the path up the mountain was this teeny, narrow walkway that had been washed out in places, with nothing but a sheer drop on the other side. Not exactly a great situation. The other leader I was with did an amazing job with this girl, talking calmly to her the entire time, encouraging her, pulling her along. I was really impressed. And to her credit, she did not give up. She kept on going forward, slowly, to be sure, but she did it! What a testament to her bravery, I was so proud of her. Oh, did I mention we were carrying our backpacks and heavy pickaxes and shovels on this tiny goat trail? Cuz we were.
When we finally made it to the top, up where the avalanche barriers were, there was no visible trail to repair. This is when we realized we would be building the trails from square one. Fortunately, it had rained quite a bit previously, so the ground wasn’t rock hard. But it was definitely rocky! Nothing like the feeling of swinging a pickaxe as hard as you can and having it bang into rock, shaking your entire body. Even my teeth would rattle. Oh, and it was sunny. Not so much hot, but we were definitely closer than normal to the burning rays. Good thing I had brought sunscreen, but I had to give my hat to Nick since he couldn’t find his and I didn’t want him to suffer any more than was necessary.
Basically, we were standing on a very steep slope, trying not to slide down the mountain, while simultaneously swinging a pickaxe into the side of the mountain, trying to pull away enough dirt that you could make a flat trail. It was insanely difficult. Several kids, and our boss, slid down at several different points. Fortunately no one was hurt. You had to stand sort of sideways, so as not to slip down, and then twist your back in order to get the pickaxe to go the right angle. When you had finally built a little path to stand on, it got slightly better as you didn’t need to worry about slipping down anymore. But now the degree to which you had to twist your back intensified. That phrase “backbreaking labor” now has an entirely new meaning to me.
We worked hard all day, stopping for about 45 minutes to rest at lunch time. Nick was amazing, and did a great job. I don’t think our group would have done half as much as we did without him. Finally we were able to stop for the day and as an extra bonus, we were able to leave the heavy tools up on the mountain. Of course, this meant that we had to hike back up there the next day. I honestly didn’t know if I could. Hiking back was less strenuous than hiking up, but more painful since every step pushed my toes further and further into the front of my boots. I ended up with three blisters each on both feet. Ouch! but after I popped them and put bandages on, if felt much better.
Nicholas, however, had had enough. He was exhausted from not sleeping due to the angle of the tent, the hiking, the working, and the emotional anxiety of having to be near a boy who wanted to do nothing but cause trouble and shock others as much as possible. So he packed up his stuff and headed home. I was just glad he stuck it out the whole two days, to be honest. That kid was seriously a negative influence. So bad, that he ended up going home the next morning. Which made me sad for Nick because maybe he would have liked camp better without him there, but the damage was already done.
At dinner, someone must have given a signal, although I didn’t see it, because all of a sudden everyone burst singing “Happy Birthday” to me. It was awesome! I love that kind of thing and felt so touched that these kids would go along even though some of them didn’t even know me.
The second and third days were much better, as we got driven up part of the way, the poor girl with height issues got to do something else, and we didn’t have to carry up the tools. It was still hard work, we were still exhausted by the end, but we also had lots of fun laughing, talking and being silly. I got to know some of the girls in the stake very well, and I liked every single one of them.
In the evenings, I would work on the quilt for Johnny, my friend Mary’s son. They would all gather around and chat with me while I stitched. The other favorite past time is what I dubbed “stump Amy time”. It was shockingly easy. These cute little 12-13 year olds would tell me riddles, and laugh hysterically as I only figured out about 2 of probably 15 that they told to me. I am just not good with that sort of thing, at all.
I also had fun hanging out with the kitchen staff. There were a couple of nights where we sat outside after everyone had gone to sleep, munching on whatever leftovers of dessert there were, and chatting. Super nice ladies, and one hysterical young man. I would go camping again with them anytime.
After dinner, there were always dishes to be washed. Whichever kids didn’t want to sing in the choir were assigned washing up duties, and I would go down and help them. It was purely selfish, as it was the only place that had music! 🙂 We would wash and sing and dance and have a great old time. Soon a little game developed, where I would wash the silverware and just toss it into the rinsing sink, without looking where it landed. Sometimes I hit a target, sometimes not. But it made them pull out the silverware to dry it a lot faster. bwahahaha!
The last night, I was in the middle of playing a card game with some of the girls, and missed the kids being sent down to wash. Well, a few minutes later Conchita came over to me and said I had been requested down in the kitchen. One of the boys asked specifically, “Where is Amy? Can she come help? It’s so much more fun when she is here.” Aw, they like me. They really like me. (Of course, I immediately got up and ran down to the kitchen to help.)
Saturday morning, everyone took the train down to Brienz. Then they got on another train to go to Interlaken for the day. I waved goodbye and got on another train to go home. We were leaving for Austria on Monday morning and I knew I would have a ton of laundry and packing to do before we left. I wanted to avoid doing it all on Sunday if possible. It was a great, though tiring, experience and I hope I will be able to attend other camps in the future. Just maybe not ones where we work quite so much. 🙂
When I arrived in Affoltern, everyone came to pick me up at the train station. They were super happy to see me, and I was super happy to see them. I walked in the door and this is what I found waiting for me. 
Gorgeous, beautiful birthday/welcome home flowers. Aw, so sweet! Thank you, Chris!