Upon arriving back home after my the Brand Ambassador weekend at Cape Town,  I found that there was barely enough time to settle down and relax as anyone in my position would have liked to. This was because I had another outing scheduled just five days after my arrival back home. On Sunday the 9th of December I would be attending S.E.P Summer Camp 2007, a camp organized every year by my church, the Worldwide Church of God, for the summer holidays. I have attended this camp every year since 2005 making this past December’s visit my third year. However 2007 would be different as my sister, Dima Nkado, would be accompanying me on her first trip there. We arrived at camp in the late hours of Sunday afternoon and we made our way to the head office where my sister and I received our two different coloured shirts, were told which dorms we were in and who our councillors for the week would be. Dima had been placed in dorm G2 and I in dorm G1. Then we were off to find old friends to catch up with and new ones to make during the lull of activity that preceded dinner as a result of nothing set to do. However after dinner and the session of Praise and Worship that followed, it was time to go to bed to await the fun and activities that were due to begin the next day.

At camp the females and males were separated into two teams each so that there were four teams in total. For the girls there was G1 and G2 and for the boys, as you will have guessed, B1 and B2. The two dorms whose numbers corresponded considered each other to be their sister or brother dorms. Activities were already set and prescheduled and ran from Monday through to Sunday afternoon. There were those activities that didn’t change from day to day namely breakfast at 07:50 in the morning, praise and worship at 09:00, lunch at 13:00, dinner at 18:45 and the long anticipated ‘Milo Time’ where you could just relax and chill out.   In between these particular activities were the ones that varied from day to day and required participation as a dorm. These were swimming, basketball, volleyball (my favourite), softball, Christian Living talks, obstacle course and, best of all, dance class which we always participated in with either one of the Boy dorms and spent the time learning the different dance types, namely the Boogie, Cha-Cha-Cha and the Waltz. There was also the outdoor experience where, as a dorm, we travelled out of the main campsite to another much further away and got to stay overnight there. We cooked our own dinner and got to rough it out in tents for the night. We got up nice and early the next morning for a day of tedious rock climbing, canoeing across the dam that was part of the property we were camping in and some abseiling down the steep dam wall. After this we got packed and ready to return to Cyara where we were staying as the next dorm arrived for their outdoor experience.

Finally, on the last night of camp, we had a banquet evening, as is tradition. This required us to acquire “dates” who would accompany us to the specially set out and well planned dinner and to the prize giving ceremony afterwards. At the prize-giving individuals were given awards for their improvement or skill (my sister received most improved basketball player) and dorms were awarded for various achievements e.g. most punctual, most spirited, best dorms (there was dorm inspection every morning) etc.

Overall S.E.P Camp 2007 was a fantastic experience, a fun and memorable way for me to connect with my spirituality and strengthen my belief in God. A big thank you to all the staff and organisers who were able to make S.E.P the massive success it was last year. 

Watch this space to discover how I plan to tackle 2008…