I stopped, right in the middle of loading a boat, and watched as a wall of rain came towards us from down the road. That painful anticipation of getting wet kept me immobile until the first drops hit my head. Luckily, we had already put our yellow rain gear on as a preventative measure. I've always loved our "banana" suits, as we fondly refer to them on course, but after the next week, I wasn't quite so lovey towards them.
Now that the inevitable rain had come, we continued loading the remaining boats, with Hunter and I getting ours set last. All six boats were packed to the gills with our gear as we began our journey through Hell's Bay canoe trail, aptly name as the mosquitoes soon made it hell for those of us who had to pause to wait for boats ahead or behind us.
We slowly made it through the twists and turns of the canoe trail, following the white PVC poles that blessedly marked our way safely through. Navigation in the Glades definitely isn't my best skill, so having these wonderful beacons made my life much easier and enjoyable.
Our progress was slow, but I was impressed with the fact that the kids were getting anywhere at all what with how narrow the trail was. They were a determined little bunch.
We stopped for lunch and had to get creative when we realized that some of our food hadn't gotten packed out, and we were short a lunch. Cheese and salsa burritos! Woot woot! While everyone else thought this was extremely strange, I found it to be quite normal. Guess that's what happens when all your dad eats growing up is cheese sandwiches and all you eat for lunch as a kid is peanut butter tortillas.
By 4:00pm, we were looking for a place to board up in Hell's Bay because we wanted the kids to have the opportunity to board up for the first time while it was still light out. We managed to get the anchors set and the boats lashed together before Tony decided that he wasn't about to follow any directions whatsoever. We eventually got him into my boat, and he and I paddled away from the group while they continued the board up process with five boats, causing Liz to have to adjust her plan for the missing boat.
Tony and I paddled around the corner from the group, and he snuggled down into the bow compartment of the boat with his rain gear and PFD on and an e-mat as a blanket. He soon became impatient though when it started to sprinkle out and get dark. It was obvious his survival need was going to be difficult to meet out here. I mean, this is a kid from Miami plopped out into the middle of the freakin' Everglades! Of course he's going to be scared out of his mind.
Tony kept asking to go back to the other boats, but I patiently told him that we couldn't because he would not follow expectations.
"Fine, then I'll swim back," Tony threatened, as he stood up in the boat and put his foot on the gunwales.
"Tony, stay in the boat," I firmly told him, not about to jump in or go after a crazy kid swimming through creepy ass dark water at night.
"No! I'm not staying here! I want to go back to the group! I'll climb in the trees then," he shouted as he shifted his weight to the other side of the boat and started to grab onto the mangroves that our boat was loosely tied to.
"Tony, there's no ground there to step on. You'll fall in the water as soon as you start to climb through those, and the mosquitoes will attack you," I calmly told him. But inside, I feared the kid would actually do it.
I could tell he was frustrated, and he once again threatened to jump out of the boat and swim back to the board up. I eventually got him to sit back down and told him we would go back soon to get him warm clothes and out of the rain. We started paddling back, and as soon as we were within arm's length of the board up, Tony was out of my boat despite my instructions to stay put.
In our absence, the group has constructed a five boat board up, which basically amounted to the five boats tightly lashed together, all the five-gallon water jugs moved to the middle boat, and boards loosely laid across the boats. It's definitely not as sturdy or preferable to cats, but we had to make do that night. The group had also managed to get a tarp up over the raft, and while it wasn't the best set up tarp, it did manage to keep us somewhat dry (although, I still did not, and would not, take my rain gear off for quite a few days yet).
The kids moved slowly through the evening, or rather, the rice cooked slowly which slowed everything else down. It's very different at night on the boards because there's not as much for the kids to do like when you're camping on the river. There's no fire to build, there's no hundred hole/buckets to set up; so the majority of kids are sitting and talking while dinner is cooking and water jugs are being filled up. Luckily, for the most part on this course, our kids were pretty good during this time on our course (except for day 7, which I'll get to later).
Tony had agreed to not talk to the other kids, which was extremely difficult for him, but I didn't feel like there was any other option because I knew we would never get him to sit on the loose boat tied to the raft that wasn't covered by the tarp. He was too scared for that. For the most part, I was able to keep him separated from the group, but as the night wore on, his agreement to follow separation expectations wore thin and he was soon moving about and talking with them.
For some reason that night, probably because it was their first night on the boats and we wanted them to be comfortable and feel safe, we had the kids get out their sleeping bags and healy hammocks. Within 15 minutes of setting up their healies and getting their sleeping bags out, the kids sleeping bags were all soaked. Then the mayhem began.
I don't remember all the ridiculous things the kids were screaming that night, but I do remember that it was a very long night.
"F### THIS SHIT!!!"
"F### OUTWARD BOUND!"
And the obscenities just kept coming all night long from all but two of the kids. I literally thought Tony was possessed and had gone crazy that night. At one point, he shot up and tore out of his healy, not even bothering to consider using the zipper that was supposed to be used to get in and out. I told him he'd have to wait until the next night for me to attempt fixing it.
Our instructional team took shifts sleeping, as the kids refused to be quiet and sleep. Two of the girls, Aleni and Lauren, refused to get in their wet sleeping bags or even cover up with them, which left them sitting uncomfortably in their healies, cold and miserable.
I think it was close to 4:30am when my turn to sleep came around. I laid face first in my rain gear on a soaking wet emat on an outside board and passed out until 7:00am, when Liz, God bless her soul, who had only slept for about a half hour, woke us all up.
It was by far one of the more miserable nights I've had on course. Not the latest I've gone to bed, but it was definitely the weirdest circumstances under which I did.
Liz, Mark, and I all woke up with weird small, painful white bumps all over our hands and feet. None of us had any clue what they were or what they were from, but they definitely made themselves known. A few of the kids had weird rashes too, namely Brandon, who had just recently gotten over a case of impetigo (which for those of you who don't know, is a very contagious skin infection). Just the thing we needed for our kids to catch in a wet, enclosed space like we were.
The rain slowed to a very light mist that morning as we took the tarp down and moved through our morning routine. By the time we started paddling, though, we were back in the rain. It was like a cruel joke the way it would start and stop. Someone up there was having fun with us, or as Yaniya liked to say, it was karma coming back to get us for something we had done, although, I couldn't imagine the atrocities we must have committed to deserve the horrible weather we had endured so far.
We continued to follow the beautiful white PVC pipes out of Hell's Bay and into Pearl Bay, where our first glorious chickee awaited us. A chickee is a covered wooden platform/shelter of sorts that are placed throughout the Everglades. Sometimes they are single chickees, with just one platform, and sometimes they are double chickees, with two platforms. But the most wonderful thing about chickees is that attached to them are porta potties, which means no having to poop in a bag in a bucket. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't poop for probably the first five days of course, which was extremely strange for me.
My team and I initially made the plan to shuttle students over one by one to use the porta potty on the chickee because Tony, who was separated, we knew would be impossible to control once we got on there and we figured the other kids would probably refuse to leave the chickee's shelter if we let them on it out of the rain. After a moments thought, though, and with Tony separated with Eric away from the group, we decided it would be safe to lash up next to the chickee and let the kids use the bathroom while they ate lunch in the boats. We got through lunch and the bathroom, with the kids complaining the entire time about having to sit out in the rain, but otherwise, being mostly compliant, before making the call (after talking to Phil) to stay on the chickee that night (despite having paddled hardly any miles that day).
It was probably the best call we could've made given the situation. As soon as the kids all got on the chickee, the skies let loose, and it was barely possible to see across the bay. I was so glad we had made the decision we did, and we could tell the kids were, too.
That afternoon, we got our kiddos in dry clothes, attended to their medical needs, and had them work on their action steps. Of course, before doing all of that, we made the kids have a little fun with us in the form of the banana dance and Bob, the weasel.
The banana dance was fondly introduced to me back on my second course by Jason Schmidt when our crew had to endure several cold, rainy days. To keep us warm and keep our spirits up, Jason taught us the banana dance (which, of course you have to be wearing your banana suit to do) which goes like this:
1st verse
Plant bananas, plant plant bananas (x2...w/accompanying planting motions)
2nd verse
Grow bananas, grow grow bananas (x2...w/accompanying growing motions)
3rd verse
Pick bananas, pick pick bananas (x2...w/accompanying picking motions)
4th verse
Peel bananas, peel peel bananas (x2...w/accompanying peeling motions)
5th verse
Eat bananas, eat eat bananas (x2...w/accompanying eating motions)
6th verse
Poop bananas, poop poop bananas (x2...w/accompanying pooping motions)
7th and Final verse
Go bananas! Go, Go Bananas! (x2...w/accompanying jumping around and going crazy motions)
I love this dance. It makes my heart happy.
The other game we played was called Bob, the Weasel. The kids were so adament about not wanting to play and that it was stupid, but by the end, we had all of those little wanna-bes bobbing up and down to the tune of "Bob, the weasel. Bob, Bob, the weasel," as we all stood in a close shoulder to shoulder circle and passed an object around our backs while the person in the middle tried to guess who had "the weasel." It was so funny. The kids started adding in their own beats to the song, and my heart swelled with happiness.
The rest of the night went relatively smooth. We had a delicious dinner that night cooked by yours truly of mashed potatoes, canned chicken, and gravy. Must say, I can cook a mean course meal. Ha! Who woulda thunk it?
That night, we separated on the two chickees into girls and guys. At one point during our instructor evening meeting, Aleni started making weird moaning noises and talking in her sleep. Liz and I thought something was wrong and tried to wake her up to no avail, which made me think she might be dead or going hypothermic but in the end, we concluded the Benadryl we had given her earlier must have really just knocked her out.
It felt so amazing to take off my rain gear that night. I, too, was starting to get a weird red rash on my knees from being enclosed in a wet space for so long. It was so gross.
The familiar patter of the rain continued through the night on the roof of the chickee, and the gentle mist and occasional gust of rain kept us cool throughout the night. But we were safe, which was all that mattered.
Tonight, I'm writing this from the comforts of the upstairs of the Five Rivers base in Fairhope, Alabama. I drove here yesterday after a wonderful morning run on the beach and packing my car. It was an uneventful trip, which is good. As soon as I pulled up, the two Impact courses that had just gotten out of the field were starting their graduations. On the girl team was three of my favorite girls: Kristin, Alexis, and Alisa while the boy team consisted of Nick, Phil (from MN), and Adam. I got in my hugs from my base family (AJ, Katie, Laurel, Wade, Britt, and Amy), and was soon blasted with demands that I spend the day here today, which was contrary to my original plan to leave today to go to Dallas. In retrospect, I'm glad I stayed today.
I spent the morning fixing tents with Wade and Meryl, then spent the afternoon going to WalMart for pepper spray (which they didn't have), writing a letter of recommendation for Alex, and going for a wonderful run along the bay and stopping to watch the sunset. It was a wonderful day spent with lots of people that I love, my family away from home essentially. It will be extremely hard to leave them all tomorrow.
But tomorrow I head to Allen, Texas, to see my dear friend Melissa, who I don't think I've seen in just over two years. I'm excited to see her, but not so much about the long drive that awaits me. Plus, Nick said it's pretty boring (he just made the drive in September to go see his dad in Dallas).
However, it does mean that my journey has really started, and I will be off into uncharted waters! Scary! But like my mom told me, it's kind of like a rite of passage. It will be good for me. A bit of spontaneity and adventure and me time. An extended, moving solo if you will.
Well, this entry has turned into quite the epic one. Sorry to bore you all who are still reading! I should start to interject my posts with random, outrageous, totally unbelievable things just to keep everyone's interest. Lol. Wait for the next one!
A thought to remember as I begin my drive tomorrow: So often, people are so focused on getting from Point A to Point B that they forget there is a whole line, a whole space in between them that needs to be explored. Don't forget about that space. Don't forget that, while the beginning and the ending point of a journey are important, so are the spaces in between. It's not all about the destination but what you do to get there, too, that matters.
Sending out lots of good juju and love! <3
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