Sunshine, rainbows, and butterflies
So, we’ve decided that we’re not gonna wait. Some of the logistical details has been worked-out. But that doesn’t mean a smooth sailing from this point on. The aftermath of twen'y-twen'y still lingers...
By the time we figured out some of the logistics, it was already pretty late in the season. Not to mention, the well-oiled machine and system we had in the B.C. (Before Covid) era was no longer exist. We almost have to start all over again from the ground up.
As such, we had only about a month and a half to raise funding while shaking off rustiness, re-learning things again and figure out how to adapt what we do in this post-covid world. On top of those, we also have to deal with restrictions, health regulations, and many other challenges.
To minimize risk of exposure, we kept our meetings online. Whilst convenient, this also present it’s own set of challenges. Team members would not meet together as a team until the first day of travel where we met for the first time in Winslow, AZ — our first staging area. And due to some travel arrangements, the team did not meet as a whole until the next day in Farmington — our second staging area before heading to camp site.
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Usually, we mixed up car assignments, seating assignments at dinner time and such. But due to mitigation plan designed to minimize exposure, we were encouraged to stay within our own “bubble.”
Morning devotional and briefing were done outdoor, while we distanced each other 6-feet apart. With 20+ team members forming a huge circle, we could hardly hear each other talking. c'est la vie...
Building team chemistry is rather difficult because of that compared to any other years in the past.
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Team dynamics is also a little challenging. All of these veterans team members used to their own respective teams, meaning that most only familiar to the site they’ve been to. While we focus on similar things across different sites, the logistical details can be unique to each site and location.
I’ve been blessed with the opportunities to four different sites prior to this trip (3 of which were planting new seeds at a new site) that helps me tremendously with many aspects of this particular trip, it still doesn’t make things much easier.
With distancing and masks, communication is rather challenging, not to mention all the health ordinance we had in place in the interests of everyone while checking the people in.
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In the years past, most of our trips are Saturday to Saturday.
Leaving on a Saturday, and spend the day mostly on the road. Shorter drive on Sunday straight to attend a service with one of our partnering churches in the area. Unloading and camp set-up Sunday afternoon, with some cultural experience or sightseeing in the evening. Camp starts on monday, half-day friday, then we would head home. Shorter drive friday, and majority of the long drive on Saturday.
In twen'y-twen'y-two.... things are a little different.
Since we were given the week of 4th of July (with the 4th fall on Monday), camp did not start until Tuesday. And thus, we decided to travel Sunday to Sunday, shifting everything by a day, and extending the Friday camp to a full-day instead of a half-day like usual.
The implication of this is that we missed out on attending Sunday worship (since we were still on the road on Sunday). And this is one of the biggest thing I miss, attending service at a local church is something I’ve always look forward to on every trip.
Also, with a long weekend before camp week, many families were traveling and too exhausted to bring their kids to camp the next day. Day 1 of camp was pretty quiet, only few kids showed up and most are teens who’s been practicing with a local coach we’re partnering with. Things got better on Day 2 and 3 (Wednesday and Thursday) and some familiar kids came from nearby site of Huerfano (a site we’ve served for many years).
Then friday came, last day of camp. There were only few little kids as most of the older kids were participating and volunteering at a community event. — Something we weren’t aware of before we depart.
There are various possible reasons I can think of why camp attendance were low.
Some may still be nervous of exposure after a long period of shelter-at-home, and thus opted to keep their kids home.
In this area, it is a common practice for the school/church to send their bus to pick up kids from the residential communities for their events. Unfortunately the church/school bus were not in a great condition, and not wanting to take risk of getting the kids stranded in the middle of the road in case it breaks down, we decided against sending the bus and it was too late for us to make other arrangements.
Perhaps parents may be reluctant to drive the broken road with plenty of potholes and rains earlier in the week doesn’t help either.
There may be other reasons too, and of course all of those plays a factor here and there...
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If the previous entry is titled “Not Gonna Wait” I’m going to call this one... Not Gonna Lie.
Not gonna lie.... this is by far the hardest trip I’ve ever been in.
Yeah, it’s not always sunshine, rainbows, and butterflies...
