Once upon a time...

We were told that they would pick us up at the trainstation in a minivan. I arrived at the trainstation in Amersfoort after a trainride that was too long because I had accidentally taken the wrong train. Because I had taken the wrong train I had missed the opportunity to join the Dutch group. But that was not a problem, I could join the group from Romania who would arrive at 14:45 hr. 

So, the first people I met was the group from Romania. You could say that I found them. I had been looking around for a while and then I saw a group of people walking, looking a bit foreign and a bit lost and they looked as if they were going camping, so I walked up to them and asked them if they were the group from Romania. They said they were and I was glad. So I joined them and we waited and waited and waited.

Some guys who looked just as foreign as the people from Romania walked up to us and introduced themselves as the group from Kosovo. We said we were the group from Romania, except me, I was Dutch.

Kosovo? I had never heard of that country before and instantly looked it up on google. Ah, there it was. It was a small country and I knew absolutely nothing about it. Oh well.

We followed the people from Kosovo to where we were supposed to be. More people were waiting there and the person who was supposed to pick us up had already been waiting for us. We loaded our stuff in the van and were on our way.

The first thing I noticed in the van was that it was really warm. The guy behind the steering wheel, who was Dutch and who would be one of the trainers for the upcoming 5 days, was wearing a white t-shirt and probably didn't think it was necessary to let some air in. I really felt warm but I didn't say anything and the windows stayed closed. The second thing I noticed was that the girls who were sitting next to me loved singing. They sang along with the music on the radio and it didn't sound bad, at all. I wanted to compliment them on it, but I didn't. So they sang and I sang along or just listened. 

We arrived at the camp and unloaded the van. This is where we met one of the other trainers. The first thing she said was: 'O, so you're the Dutch girl who was late?' She was from Romania and showed us the way to where we would stay the upcoming 5 days and on our way there she told us that we would have to remember to always pass the trampoline and that it should be at our right hand, so we would not get lost at night or any other time of the day. I wasn't worrying about getting lost, I was worried about the fact that our camp-side was far away from the bathrooms. We would have to walk at least 200 meters every time and I would have to at least walk 2000 meters in total, since I tend to visit the bathroom a lot.

The Dutch group was already there. One of the other Dutch trainers showed me where the Dutch tent was. I could put my stuff there and choose the mattress that was left. The other Dutch girls were already expecting me. 

The Dutch tent?  I felt like joining the Romanian group. Couldn't I join the Romanian group? The second Dutch trainer, a girl who I had spoken with one the phone a few times and had mailed with, said I could do that, but I didn't.  Sleeping in a tent with 4 people from Romania would mean that they would talk in Romanian most of the time, not intentionally but it's what comes naturally and I would be the odd man out. Even though I was really curious to get to know these Romanian people whom I just met, I eventually chose for the comfort of the 'Dutch tent'. I would still get the chance to meet and greet during all other activities.

I met the other Dutch girls soon after I arrived and we sat together and worked on our name tags, which we could design ourselves and talked as if we had known each other forever. We had to write our name and draw something that represented us. I tried not to put too much work in it, but of course I did. And for what? Well, at least I had fun.

The groups, from the different countries, arrived one by one. That night we, the Dutch group, ate dinner with the group from Romania, Macedonia, Kosovo and Lithuania. The seats where the group from Moldova was supposed to sit were empty and the plates were untouched. We joked that maybe they were wearing Harry Potter's invisible cloak

Everyone sat with their own group. A friend of mine, who I had organized a camp with before, happened to be at this trainingscamp too. What a nice surprise! She said and I fully understood that for the first dinner she preferred the safety of her own group. It's weird but the truth is that the Romanian group felt like my own group already, so I sat next to them and the Dutch group. 

The other languages that the others spoke around us sounded like Chinese. I'm usually good at languages but I couldn't understand a thing. I thought: Great, just great...but in a way it was also relaxing to be surrounded by stories you could not understand.
We had also played some introduction games. I'm usually good with names but these were difficult names...

The food was good. Afterwards we did not discuss the rules. The reason for this was that were considered grown ups and grown ups do not need to discuss rules.

Dutch group YMCA presentation

Instead every group got some time to prepare a presentation about the YMCA in their own country. We, the Dutch group, got to work and used all the information the 6 of us had. It turned out the other groups had been well-prepared. It also turned out that the YMCA in Romania, Macedonia, Kosovo and Lithuania did a completely different job than the YMCA in the Netherlands. The YMCA there was actually focused on promoting a positive (psychological) development for the children and helping them to become strong youth while our YMCA organizes summer camps and other activities, just for fun. 

It sounded like they were all doing such a good job and I personally thought they had great English language and presentation skills. It also seemed like they, as youth themselves, were carrying a lot of responsibility. It seemed like they were really involved and knew exactly what the YMCA in their country does while we, the Dutch  group, felt like we only knew half of what was going on.

The competences we would work on during the week were explained to us and we were told about the Youth pass. I had honestly never heard of the youth pass before, but cool!

We then sat in reflection groups. The first thing we had to do in our group was to take out a personal item that we had to bring along. Not everyone in our reflection group was part of this become some people arrived later than others.

A blond guy from Macedonia, who looked handsome and Swedish, brought a small plastic ball, that had the size of a golf-ball, with a dent. This ball represented his love for sports. We promised him that we would all write on his ball, and I started laughing when someone said that, so he could bring it home as a souvenir. He told us that he wanted to try as many sports as possible and that he did not do sports for the victory, not for the win, but because it was his passion. I thought that was really great and decided to remember it.

The trainer from Romania who would be the leader of our reflection group brought a necklace with a long blue stone as a hanger. She had kept it in her pocket so we would not see it before she showed it to us. The story behind the necklace was that she had won the necklace by watching too many episodes of Naruto. At least 200 in one month, even more but I don't recall exactly how many. She told us she did not do anything else than study and watch Naruto for a month. Since I'm not a fan of watching series and think it's an absolute waste of time I thought: This girl has no life. But then she told us that you can learn a lot from Naruto like fight for what you want and protect what you love. 

And I loved that and somehow I suddenly understood why she loves to watch Naruto so much. 

A girl from the Dutch group had brought a small teddy bear. The little bear looked ruffled as if it has been through a hurricane and I almost felt sad for the poor thing. It was a bear that she had gotten from her boyfriend to replace the one she had lost. She always brought the teddy bear along. It had been to Macedonia with her, if I'm not mistaken, and was now here. I've never been a fond of teddy bears or any other stuffed animals but I thought it was really nice of her to share the story of her bear with us.

Another girl, one of the first girls I had met from Romania, had brought earrings, she had made herself out of colorful guitar picks. She played the guitar but couldn't bring it along in the air plane. The great thing was that I don't think I would have noticed that they were guitar picks until she told me that they were and than I saw it. The guitar picks reminded me of my twin brother who seems attached to his guitar sometimes, and wants to take it everywhere he goes. He favors using his nails over guitar picks and lets a few fingernails grow especially so he can play and it looks horrible. But how I love the sound.. The earrings were so colorful, just wonderful. 

There was also an older lady from Lithuana in our group. She had brought money from her own country. She showed us the coin and told us that she was still attached to her own coin even if they had replaced it by the Euro. Maybe it felt like a part of her identity was taken away and replaced by something that was shared with the rest of Europe. I personally think that having the same coin in different countries makes a lot of things easier. I can also understand that it must be difficult to have your 'own' coin replaced, also considering the fact that this only happened about 1 year ago.

A young girl from Lithuania, who helped the older lady by translating had brought a bracelet. Well, it was supposed to be bracelet but she had never finished it. It represented that she loved making bracelets.

I had brought my little notebook with me. I brought it along because it represents my love for writing and my love for learning, in a way it also represents that I'm like an open book, but I didn't say that back then.

The group from Moldova walked in very late and they didn't really look happy. It looked as if they had a rough day. They ate after everyone had already eaten and we had all given a presentation about the YMCA organization in our own country, but they didn't. Turns out that something had gone wrong with the communication.

That night everyone went to bed pretty early with the intention to have a good rest to be prepared for the next day. Everyone, except us from the Netherlands, was tired of their trip.

The temperature had dropped immensely and it was very cold outside. 

We got a few tips to stay warm at night:

1. Don't put on too many clothes (I think they were trying to convince us to sleep naked)

2. Do some push ups (or other exercises) before you jump into your sleeping bag to get your heart-rate up so your body has to work less hard to warm your body up once you're in your sleeping-bag. 

3. Take a shower before you go to bed because your body has to work less hard to warm your body up when you're clean.

I washed myself before going to bed because I usually do at home too. No way I was doing any exercises before going to bed, but I crept into an extra thin sleeping bag and then into my sleeping bag wearing only a shirt and leggings. I had borrowed the sleeping bag and the first thing I noticed was that it did not allow me to move my legs. I felt like I was a butterfly, that likes to fly through the night but was stuck in a cocoon. 

I slept in a shirt and leggings that night and lend the extra fleece sheet I had brought along to one of the Dutch girls that I shared the tent with because she was cold: Biggest mistake of my life!