Camp 2024

My camp diary

Day Four

And the highlight of today started before I even got out of my tent this morning. I woke up and found a slug on my sleeping bag and slug trails all over it. Sadly, this is not the first time a slug has been attracted to my sleeping bag.

As expected, one of the earliest announcements of the day was that after breakfast, Kika would be blindfolded, taken deep into the Czech Republic (spoiler alert, you can’t get lost here) and dropped off with nothing more than her backpack, water bottle and a few maps and expected to return to camp on her own. And to be clear, she also had money and her phone in case of emergency, so it wasn’t that dangerous to any of you Girl Scout minded individuals out there. (And a first aid kit, that I myself had stocked up the day before.)

We had breakfast and most people were sort of waiting around for the ambushers to return. Soon after, they returned with a lot of entertaining stories to tell. The short version is that the didn’t manage to steal the flag and all of the kids were captured. Marky returned covered in black soot and ashes - apparently a case of mistaken identity and a boy at the camp thought she was a boy…and was then appalled to discover that he’d tackled a girl and was rubbing soot all over her face. They all returned happy though and enjoyed the crazy experience. The kids were intrigued and couldn’t wait to be old enough to participate.

Lunch today was homemade brambory knedliky with meat, onions and sauerkraut.

We’ve been having more wasps today, they’re really vicious. Today was fairly laid back, a lot of which had to do with the fact that Klara and the 10 ambushers were exhausted and Profa and Neptun were working on getting the fire going so we could take showers, which was actually the highlight of the day. Surprisingly, not for the actual obvious reason of being clean again but because the shower making process was so interesting.

I’ve got a separate post about the layout of camp and how the water/cleaning systems work and so you can see more details there.

Despite my doubt, the showers really did work well, but they worked best when the barrel at the top of the hill was full. Water pressure and all that.

In the afternoon, I started sewing patches onto my uniform. The goal is to have them done before the Slibovy Ohen (Promise Fire), when I will officially become a Czech Skaut!

During that time, the boys were working on setting up an additional tee-pee that the section owns.

Kika successfully returned around 4pm from her hike, only slightly sunburnt. After some discussions, it seems that I may be allowed to do the same challenge! I’ve always loved things like this but again, never been allowed to do it in US so I’m really hoping that Klara can make it happen!

I’ve been working on some czech while I’ve been here and making some notes about new words and names.

Lat’ka is a diminutive for Ladislava splinter = tříska beads = koralky (like coral)

cooking stove (like the one in the kitchen) = polní kuchyň (field kitchen) water heating stove = brutar blister = puchyř (I learned this from Kika since she had one after returning)

As evening approached, the girls started making bead bracelets, following patterns that are traditional indian design.

I’ve been having such a problem eating all of the bread and potatoes but I completely caved in when dinner came around : pasta salad with vegetables and I don’t know what else. I was so hot, tired and hungry and it definitely fit the bill.

I talked to Klara and the plan for the solo hike is for Thursday!