FUN at the YMCA

I fought against him. Gave my everything. I bent in ways I didn't know I could bent. I tried to get away. I would not give in. But he was stronger than me and took control.
I screamed but no one seemed to hear me. Everyone around me slept peacefully. No one seemed to hear me, no one seemed to care.

I was trapped. There was no way out.
His ice cold hands, slid over my body. It felt like they were cutting through my skin. There was no escaping. The only thing I could do was, wait until it was over. I bit on my lip, pressed my jaw together and closed my eyes as firmly as I could. I had to be a big girl now.

The hours went by slowly. But the instant I noticed that it had gotten lighter outside, the birds sang their first songs, I stood up from my 'bed', a simple mattress I had been laying on using a plastic bag, filled with clothes, as my pillow. In my attempts to escape I had rolled from the mattress several times, landing on the floor.

I stumbled to the shower cabins, wearing socks did not make walking on slippers easy, but, I had a plan. I would let the warm water run over my body. It would wash away everything that had happened the last night and it would warm me inside.

It was an unbearable night. I bet that I had been shaking all night long, talking and screaming in my sleep. If he had only left me alone. But he was ice-cold, what a cruel monster, he was.
The following was written in the email they had send us about the camp preparations:' Bring a warm sleeping bag and warm clothes.' My clothes and my sleeping bad had seemed warm enough while I was packing them, but didn't seem to make much difference on that ice-cold night.

I looked in the mirror and burst out in tears. Tough, I seemed pretty ok for a person who had tried to sleep for 3,5 hours but found herself in a constant struggle against the cold.

I did everything I possible could to try to get warm. I moved about on my bed, pulled my sleeping back all the way up, bent and stretched my legs, curled myself up, nothing seemed to work.

When I arrived at the shower cabins in the morning I was confronted with yet another disappointment, besides the barbecue that they expected us to be satisfied with yesterday (more information about that will follow in a minute).

But what had happened this morning? What had me so dissapointed? What was it that made me sad in my pants?
I stood there, in front of the shower cabins and kept staring in front of me. I couldn't believe my eyes. Unbelievable, no warm water!

I refused to shower with that water, over my dead, ice-cold body. I would not take an ice-cold shower, after the horrible night I had been trough. They would have to shoot me first.

If their idea of a barbecue wasn't bad enough. It was nothing compared to this. They must be kidding me?
Their idea of a barbecue differences from mine, in almost every aspect. Yes, there was bread en yes there was sate-sauce.
The big difference and the whole idea behind a barbecue, let me know if I am mistaken, was the meat. The only thing we had gotten was a hamburger and 1 screwer of chicken. There were no second rounds. The meat was gone in no time.Why was the meat gone?

Ok, no American sized portion of juicy barbecue meat. I could live with that. It was not the end of the world.
But, no warm water after a FUN night at the YMCA, where fun stands for FUCKING UNBEARABLE NIGHT.

My body felt cramped up and soar and my nose was running.
Great FUN. Great succes.
My thought on all of this: I want to go home!


(but the next day wasn't that bad and it turned out to be awesome and there was warm water! )

Do you want to read more about my adventures at the YMCA? (mostly in Dutch tough)

• de nacht
• fun at the YMCA (English version of 'the nacht')
• overleven, ontlopen, samenwerken
• groeipijn
• al zou de wereld vergaan