Girls Camp and Peonies

I spent this week at Girls Camp.  The Young Women’s organization at church holds an annual camp for girls ages 12-18.  This year we celebrated its 100 year anniversary.  (You can read more about the history of Girls Camp here: https://www.lds.org/youth/article/young-women-camp?lang=eng) 

We were, well, 961 km from Bergen…and about 45 km south of Turku on the western coast of Finland.

Mariia and I were the “Camp Moms” for the 4^thlevel girls (15-year-olds).  Mariia was such a delight to work with!!  When the girls were up chattering well after the lights went out, I was about to just yell out, "It's time to stop talking and sleep!"  But before I did, Mariia climbed out of her bed and went over to each of the bunk beds and whispered, "Girls, it's time to go to sleep."  She has a gift for working with teenagers. :)

Perhaps the highlight of the week was Thursday when they had a few soldiers in the Finnish National Guard came and provided the girls with training on…

How to stand in lines.  :)  (You can see the soldiers standing under the pavilion.)

What kinds of plants, flowers, berries, and mushrooms you'd find in the forest that are edible.

How to build a shelter.

How to build a fire.

Funny story.  The fire building instructor told each of the 4 groups to follow his instructions carefully.  When he turned back to see if each of the groups had chopped all their wood, he saw a raging fire.  He raced over and said, “You started the fire already. You used all of the wood.”  Girls: “Yes.  And isn’t it a beautiful fire?” 

I’m confident that the girls’ response was even more surprising to him than seeing all of the wood burning.  :)  It was a beautiful fire!

Their punishment?  They had to make an itty-bitty fire using wood chips and slivers.  Pretty awesome.  I got a great kick out of watching their group.  

There was plenty of time to row and swim.

And even time to celebrate the 100th birthday of Girls Camp.

 

One of the best things about the camp, was that I was able to use all of the languages I know in very meaningful ways.  I’ve recently revised my response to “Do you speak Finnish?”  “I speak a little Finnish, but I speak a lot of English and Spanish.”  :)  There were two girls at the camp who speak Spanish.   One girl was born and raised in Bolivia.  Another girl was from Angola so she speaks Portuguese and a fair amount of Spanish.  It was AWESOME that Spanish was the language that connected us.  I also met Miia who knows Finnish Sign Language as her mom and sister are deaf.  She knows about as much English as I know Finnish.  So we were able to communicate in FSL.  

During one of our lessons with the girls, Mariia and I talked about the importance of education—of training our minds and hands to be able to carry out the work we each are here to accomplish.  (Can I just say that I LOVE Mary Cook’s address to the young women: http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/general-young-women-meeting/2012/03/seek-learning-you-have-a-work-to-do?lang=eng).  I shared with the girls that it was in Young Womens—at age 15 (that’s how old the girls in our group are!)—that I learned a song in ASL.  That simple act set me on a course that has led me to where I am today.  I set up a Skype chat with Marc, one of my dear friends, who is deaf so they could learn a few words in ASL.  Miia came to our cabin for the Skype chat as well so she was able to teach Marc and the girls how to say “Nice to meet you” in Finnish Sign Language.  Pretty awesome experience.  And Marc is such a champ for taking time out of his 4^th of July to visit with the girls.

And I even squeezed in some time to read.  Perched here.  On the porch.

 

This weekend Eija hosted a peony party in her garden.  The peonies are in full bloom.

 She had quite the spread for us.  She really IS the Martha Stewart of Finland.  Seriously.  She never ceases to amaze me with her culinary skills and the extra touch of elegance she adds to everything.  

The conversation was mostly in Finnish.  Jaana (seated to my left) turned to me at one point and said, “Riitta wants some worms.”  I repeated back what she said to make sure I heard correctly: “Riitta wants some worms.”  Jaana: “Yes.”  Me: “Ok.”  I was thinking, “Um, they had been talking about how irritated they were that there were so many snails in their gardens.  I guess worms some how factor into this conversation…?”  I must have had a puzzled look on my face because a few seconds later Jaana turned back and said, “Riitta’s son is going fishing tomorrow and needs worms.”  Oh!!  That makes much more sense.  :)

So Eija and Riitta started on a worm hunting adventure.  This is a great example of the love of mothers.  They were digging in the compost pile still decked out in their summer party attire.  They weren’t having much success.  So, Ella comes over to say that if you pour water on the ground and wait 5 minutes, the worms will come up.  

 

Sure enough, it worked!  It didn’t work so well in the compost pile, but in the plain dirt, we found the fattest worms.

I asked them if they ever fish with cheese.  “Cheese?!”  Yep.  Velveeta.  That was news to them.  They said they’ll try it.  I’m not sure if you can even get Velveeta here or not.  And, cheese here is quite expensive, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Riitta’s son was up all night watering their garden and doing some of his own worm hunting.  :)

On deck this coming week?  Writing.  Revising.  And cite-checking.  The second of four articles is due to the editors next weekend.  Bring it!