Team RYLA 06 - Sunday
Sunday proved to be an interesting day. All the Christians (and there were a lot more than i thought there were!) gathered on Sunday evening for a makeshift worship time, just praying and sharing, it was nice. We agreed to have a prayer meeting to start the day everyday at camp.
On the Sunday Night we were given the large task of putting together a Dinner for the Rotarian men. It was also an extremely lonnnnng night!!! All of us ended up grovelling our way into our beds. It was a very long and drawn out night, lots of waiting around and sorting through plans, explaining how a Rotary meeting ran etc. and our eyeballs started hanging out of our heads!!! We were required to organise ourselves into teams of logistics, program, entertainment, decor, etc etc.....we were also asked to nominate people to do the job of MC and SAA's (Sargeant At Arms) . So it was a big decision whether i wanted to be an SAA or apart of the entertainment team. I had Sarah nominate me for SAA. We got up, had to give 4 words why we should be nominated and then all trekked into the kitchen like slaves with a ball and chain to wait while the rest nominated. Whilst in the kitchen, it came to my attention that we were being voted for the role of MC. This wasn't what i wanted to do. Thankfully i wasn't chosen as it but again i had Sarah nominate me for SAA, something which i thought i was being nominated for before. This time, i thought, i would take more of a salesperson approach about why i should be nominated. Up on the stage i said this:
It seemed to get a bit of a laugh, thank goodness, otherwise i woulda looked like an idiot! Away we trekked again into the kitchen and waited while everyone else voted. We came back out and i honestly did not expect anything so i sat back down....low and behold, i was chosen as one of the SAA's for the Tuesday night dinner. There were two boys and two girls chosen as SAA's, Scuba Steve, Lil, Luke and myself. It was such a thrill and definate comfort and added bonus to have Luke on the team. Mostly because i was familiar with him and know what he's like to interact with.
What does an SAA do you might ask? Well they are kind of like the Jesters of the dinner. For those of you who don't know, Rotary Dinners are formal and there are formalities that are followed. The SAA's are supposed to add light humour to the evening and make people feel comfortable and relaxed. They also lead a section of the dinner to enforce fines. A light-hearted way of raising money for a good cause.
Our fines were done very last minute, all the group meetings we had were relatively unproductive for the SAA's and mostly focused on the MC's getting it right. So Luke and i ran around crazily gathering silly things to 'fine' people with, gathering 'dirt' on well-known Rotarians (which should've probly been done during the meetings!). Meanwhile, during the whole preparation process, i was starting to wonder what i'd gotten myself into and wanted desperately to opt out because i didn't want to be seen as a try-hard comedian loser....insecurities overwhelmed me leading up to the dinner and something that Fleur (RYLA admin leader) said to me (something along the lines of people voting me in because they believed in me, and thought i'd do a good job) really made me stick it out and persevere. So i did...
It was funny, coz at the dinner, each RYLArian sat at the table with the Rotary club they'd be sponsored by but our Rotarians didn't come!!! So we had two of the mothers sit with us. In the end it was a 'salvo' table because the two who weren't salvos didn't sit at the table for the whole night as they were serving meals etc most of the night. It was amusing. So thanks to Helen Nowell and Julie Campbell (the cloned Salvo Celeb Elyse talks about) for making it a special night for the RYLArians from the Campsie club.
The night went off without a hitch and we managed to raise over $300 for our nominated youth program - the Youth Insearch Team.
We also had a guy called Ron Lee talk to us about more stuff. I think he was giving us a lesson on communication and how we could become better communicators. He was actually quite fun, although there were a few things i didn't exactly agree with, but that's ok, he still had a lot of relevant stuff to say. One thing that stuck out to me with alot of the speakers was the common theme of serving others and making sure we're always looking out for others. The reason it struck me the way it did i guess was because they all lacked a faith in God. When you have a faith in God, serving others follows on from the teachings of Jesus. It was interesting how they had that same purpose, but lacked a belief in Christ, it confused me.
I enjoyed listening to him because sometimes it's interesting listening to someone who believes in something totally different to yourself. I find i learn alot from people like that. it doesn't necessarily mean i believe what they're saying but it surely educates me about other people. I was really engaged and 100% attentive to his activities (except the 'martial arts' ones, which were dumb because, they were more self defense rather than cool karate moves!!!)
He did some skit activities with some volunteers, that was funny to watch. He also had some volunteers break some wood in a karate chopping way - think past the problem, i wasn't game enough to do it in fear of doing some serious wood slapping but other people actually smashed the wood in half!!! There was another excerise which scared the heebie jeebies outta me! He had a real arrow and positioned the point of it on his neck near his collar bones, right in the middle, he then had a volunteer apply enough pressure onto the other end of it so that it sat comfortably on his neck. After he was ready, he then counted to three and walked into the arrow!! Shrieks and gasps came from his captured, attentive audience as they thought he had just walked into his death. Before long we realised that he was still alive and had, in fact, snapped the arrow in half. To our astonishment and my temporary disapproval, he beckoned a volunteer to come and try it. I was mortified. I could just see someone killing themselves on this arrow. Great, weirdo camp! Lianne tried it and not surprisingly, was very uncomfortable with it and opted out - smart girl!!! The second volunteer, Kandis, attempted it and walked so fast into the arrow that Ron Lee even commented saying that most people don't usually walk into the arrow that fast - however, she snapped it in half as well! Craziness, absolute craziness?!
Either Sunday or Monday night, i ended the night by chatting with Sarah, Michael and Lorie....it was a great chat and i was highly educated by Lorie inparticular. WOW, is he a wealth of knowledge.....and it's not because his dad's a doctor!!!
Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog about Monday at camp RYLA...
Tink xoxo
On the Sunday Night we were given the large task of putting together a Dinner for the Rotarian men. It was also an extremely lonnnnng night!!! All of us ended up grovelling our way into our beds. It was a very long and drawn out night, lots of waiting around and sorting through plans, explaining how a Rotary meeting ran etc. and our eyeballs started hanging out of our heads!!! We were required to organise ourselves into teams of logistics, program, entertainment, decor, etc etc.....we were also asked to nominate people to do the job of MC and SAA's (Sargeant At Arms) . So it was a big decision whether i wanted to be an SAA or apart of the entertainment team. I had Sarah nominate me for SAA. We got up, had to give 4 words why we should be nominated and then all trekked into the kitchen like slaves with a ball and chain to wait while the rest nominated. Whilst in the kitchen, it came to my attention that we were being voted for the role of MC. This wasn't what i wanted to do. Thankfully i wasn't chosen as it but again i had Sarah nominate me for SAA, something which i thought i was being nominated for before. This time, i thought, i would take more of a salesperson approach about why i should be nominated. Up on the stage i said this:
I'm crazy (which i used before) but the reason you should nominate me is because i am good at engaging old men's attention!
It seemed to get a bit of a laugh, thank goodness, otherwise i woulda looked like an idiot! Away we trekked again into the kitchen and waited while everyone else voted. We came back out and i honestly did not expect anything so i sat back down....low and behold, i was chosen as one of the SAA's for the Tuesday night dinner. There were two boys and two girls chosen as SAA's, Scuba Steve, Lil, Luke and myself. It was such a thrill and definate comfort and added bonus to have Luke on the team. Mostly because i was familiar with him and know what he's like to interact with.
What does an SAA do you might ask? Well they are kind of like the Jesters of the dinner. For those of you who don't know, Rotary Dinners are formal and there are formalities that are followed. The SAA's are supposed to add light humour to the evening and make people feel comfortable and relaxed. They also lead a section of the dinner to enforce fines. A light-hearted way of raising money for a good cause.
Our fines were done very last minute, all the group meetings we had were relatively unproductive for the SAA's and mostly focused on the MC's getting it right. So Luke and i ran around crazily gathering silly things to 'fine' people with, gathering 'dirt' on well-known Rotarians (which should've probly been done during the meetings!). Meanwhile, during the whole preparation process, i was starting to wonder what i'd gotten myself into and wanted desperately to opt out because i didn't want to be seen as a try-hard comedian loser....insecurities overwhelmed me leading up to the dinner and something that Fleur (RYLA admin leader) said to me (something along the lines of people voting me in because they believed in me, and thought i'd do a good job) really made me stick it out and persevere. So i did...
It was funny, coz at the dinner, each RYLArian sat at the table with the Rotary club they'd be sponsored by but our Rotarians didn't come!!! So we had two of the mothers sit with us. In the end it was a 'salvo' table because the two who weren't salvos didn't sit at the table for the whole night as they were serving meals etc most of the night. It was amusing. So thanks to Helen Nowell and Julie Campbell (the cloned Salvo Celeb Elyse talks about) for making it a special night for the RYLArians from the Campsie club.
The night went off without a hitch and we managed to raise over $300 for our nominated youth program - the Youth Insearch Team.
We also had a guy called Ron Lee talk to us about more stuff. I think he was giving us a lesson on communication and how we could become better communicators. He was actually quite fun, although there were a few things i didn't exactly agree with, but that's ok, he still had a lot of relevant stuff to say. One thing that stuck out to me with alot of the speakers was the common theme of serving others and making sure we're always looking out for others. The reason it struck me the way it did i guess was because they all lacked a faith in God. When you have a faith in God, serving others follows on from the teachings of Jesus. It was interesting how they had that same purpose, but lacked a belief in Christ, it confused me.
I enjoyed listening to him because sometimes it's interesting listening to someone who believes in something totally different to yourself. I find i learn alot from people like that. it doesn't necessarily mean i believe what they're saying but it surely educates me about other people. I was really engaged and 100% attentive to his activities (except the 'martial arts' ones, which were dumb because, they were more self defense rather than cool karate moves!!!)
He did some skit activities with some volunteers, that was funny to watch. He also had some volunteers break some wood in a karate chopping way - think past the problem, i wasn't game enough to do it in fear of doing some serious wood slapping but other people actually smashed the wood in half!!! There was another excerise which scared the heebie jeebies outta me! He had a real arrow and positioned the point of it on his neck near his collar bones, right in the middle, he then had a volunteer apply enough pressure onto the other end of it so that it sat comfortably on his neck. After he was ready, he then counted to three and walked into the arrow!! Shrieks and gasps came from his captured, attentive audience as they thought he had just walked into his death. Before long we realised that he was still alive and had, in fact, snapped the arrow in half. To our astonishment and my temporary disapproval, he beckoned a volunteer to come and try it. I was mortified. I could just see someone killing themselves on this arrow. Great, weirdo camp! Lianne tried it and not surprisingly, was very uncomfortable with it and opted out - smart girl!!! The second volunteer, Kandis, attempted it and walked so fast into the arrow that Ron Lee even commented saying that most people don't usually walk into the arrow that fast - however, she snapped it in half as well! Craziness, absolute craziness?!
Either Sunday or Monday night, i ended the night by chatting with Sarah, Michael and Lorie....it was a great chat and i was highly educated by Lorie inparticular. WOW, is he a wealth of knowledge.....and it's not because his dad's a doctor!!!
Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog about Monday at camp RYLA...
Tink xoxo
posted by Unknown at
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
1 Comments:
LOL
Sounds like a great time.
Good on you for not wimping out on the SAA duty... sounds as though you did well :-)
By
Naomi, at March 03, 2006
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