Kickstart Camp! (1-3 March)

 Where do I even begin to describe Kickstart? It was as one person described the 2022 camp "a taste of heaven". Getting to be surrounded by people with whom one fundamentally agrees, taking in the beauty of nature and laughing and singing together-- is there anything better than that? 

I drove to the campsite with George (and all the sound equipment) and discovered that like Helen, he is a fan of the Gray Havens. He also seems to enjoy Switchfoot's music, so all round it was a wonderful trip of singing and chatting. Around the halfway point, George insisted I take over the Aux cable and so we listened to Christi Van Niekerk, Joshua na die Reen and some golden oldies like Mamma Cass and "Lean on Me". 

George is such an interesting person to talk to and I feel that in one short hour, I got to know him much better. It was quite interesting to hear about his love of Shakespeare, his time at school, and plans for next year. Hearing about how he came to decide on Ministry as his career, or perhaps how his calling came about, was also a real privilege. There are some conversations that one doesn't often get the opportunity to have in a group (or perhaps this is just because I struggle to ask the questions in groups), so I am grateful to have had the chance to badger George with questions for a while. 

We were the first car to arrive, and so we had to wait for Sean and Lauren to arrive with the keys. Once on the camp grounds itself, I was quite keen to explore. I was thrilled to discover that two horses roam free on the camp as well as several chickens and a very young border collie. George was quite amused by how excited I was about this (he had laughed earlier on the road trip when I had excitedly exclaimed "Look! Cows!" and said that I clearly was from the Northern Cape). 

As other people arrived, the volleyball net went up and the camera came out. I played a little volleyball but also helped set up the band area and prepare the salad for supper. We only ate much later, long after the sun had gone down which also meant that our first session only began around 9pm. This meant that Dana and I only hopped into the shower around 10pm and were both exhausted. Somehow, we seem to end up speaking in German sometimes when we are tired, I am not sure why. To give you an idea of just how tired being final year teachers has made us: i sleepily told Dana, "Ich bin mude!" to which she replied, "Ja, und ich bin Dana." and then proceeded to laugh her head off. I landed up in a dorm room with Liesje and Relabohile which was rather lovely. The beds were all springy and being on the bottom bunk felt a little risky! 

On the Saturday morning, we had pap for breakfast much to Dana's delight. We had two sessions before lunch, between which I tried to do some work. For lunch we all made our own sandwiches; hunger does wonderful things to one's taste buds because I am sure I did not make a very interesting sandwich really. Over lunch, a plan was formed to go hiking in Fernkloof. It ended up becoming a very large group who went although it was originally planned between George, Liesje and I. I do so love it when impromptu adventures turn into such fun social outings! It started to drizzle just as we arrived, and we were soon all soaked through! Nevertheless, there were still some crazy souls who deccided to go swimming in the dam and some even crazier who jumped from the ledge. I was less happy about the jumping though and felt my heart leap into my throat each time I heard the loud "Doef" of their bodies hitting the water. I was always checking that the head appeared again. 

By the time we got back to the car, we were all certain we would have flu for the rest of the week but knew it would be worth it for the memories. George stopped via his house to grad some dry towels and we all analysed the lyrics of the sokkie songs Liesje played on the way back. 

Once back, I changed into some dry clothes and did some work before heading to the gymnastics hall for the sokkie. Liesje and I landed up teaching some line dances too and she joked that we had become the MBLDS com 2.0. After the sokkie, we had supper and then moved into the hall for the Q & A. I left the Q & A early to sit by the fire a while. Liesje, Armand and I roasted marshmallows and George strummed on his guitar. It was lovely and peaceful, all that was needed was for a few stars to appear to make it truly perfect. Liesje and I went to bed "early" by comparison to everyone else who stayed awake long into the early hours of the morning. We intended to wake around 6am to walk to the beach, but the weather was cold and cloudy when we awoke and so we crawled into bed instead.

On Sunday, my heart ached at the thought of having to go back to reality. There is something about going on Kickstart that makes you believe life would be perfect if only one could live in a small commune of Christian friends on a farm forever. We completed our last session and in the absence of any other band name suggestions, our band of 2024 was dubbed "Trudes and the Dudes" (since Trudette was the only girl in the band. We took a group photo, packed up and played some volleyball. And just like that, the camp was over!

George had to transport the sound equipment back again and so it was once again just the two of us on the long road home. We had much less to say on the way back, but it was rather nice to sit in the tired quiet of it all and just remember. 

Our Bible study group was on serving that evening so I had little time to rest before heading over to the church. I was not feeling all that well and so I did not stay after the service. I landed up having another cold all that next week, but I did not much mind, the memories were worth it! 

Here is the huge photodump! :)