Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Camping

Did you guys know I'm not much of an outdoorsman? Heh, that wasn't any more apparent to me until the beginning of July.

I had seen the signs about this for a week or so around Durihana about a camping trip, but hadn't had it referenced to me. I kind of played it off as a "Dumb Foreigner That Can't Understand What He's Reading In Korean."

I don't like camping. I don't like bugs. I don't like "roughing it," I don't like being piled into a confined area with multiple bodies pressed up against you attempting to sleep. The last time I went "camping" was at Cornerstone Festival a decade ago from the day of Durihana's camping trip, and I wound up watching Ben Thomas be thrown down Main Stage hill, ate some bad Mike & Ike's (long story), had to go to the first aid area for exhaustion after a bad mosh pit experience, had no food within two days, and had to borrow money from a musician named "Moron" to eat on the last day. I swear to you, none of this is fictitious.

So yeah, my previous attempt at the act of camping wasn't quite the utter success one would like to have in camping. Previous attempts weren't much better. So I wasn't sure if I wanted to go, as much as I enjoyed time with everyone from Durihana. But then, I can't remember if it was the exact day before or two days before the trip, both Joseph and Sul mentioned the trip to me and wanted me to go. So mouth said exactly what I was thinking, "Ok."

My mouth was having technical difficulties at the moment. But I was committed to going, and enjoying myself, or trying to.

Assuming we were roughing it, I packed every battery I owned for every electronic device I owned, so my Droid, my Korean phone, and my AA batteries for my camera. Your definition of roughing it may be: Bring a lighter for a fire, a gun for raw meat, a swiss army knife and a book; mine is making sure my smartphone doesn't die in the middle of rocking out to Stavesacre. Sue me. I also packed some bottled water, stocked up on a few bags of Jagalchi, a change of clothes, swim pants, and my Bible. At least I'm somewhat sensible. That and I knew the other major supplies would be provided by the church.

We all pack into the vans early in the morning, ready to roll out. And of course, I'm in Gwangjin's van, which meant easily that we were getting there around 5 hours before everyone else. Let me say this, you haven't LIVED until you've taken a 45 degree curve at 80km/h in a Hyundai 15-passenger van and survived it. If he wasn't in preparation to be a worship leader, he'd make a killing in NASCAR.

We get to destination 1, where everyone got to harvest potatoes. Now for me, this isn't exactly new: I grew up in the sticks doing this with my grandfather, so I let everyone else take over while I took pictures and dodged mosquitoes.

After that we took off to somewhere else for lunch, which consisted of Bibimbap. And sat and relaxed for a while before heading off again, this time to catch fish that I can only describe as looking like eel more than fish. But, everyone was really enjoying all of this.

We then packed into the car and headed further out, at one point hitting a pothole or a speed bump, and (never being able to find the seatbelts in the backseat of the van) sending my head into a confrontation with the roof of the van. The roof won.

We finally made it to our last destination for the night, where we would be sleeping. It was then that I realized my definition of camping trip was slightly different than Durihana's, as I found out we were sleeping in Hanok (Korean traditional style houses) as opposed to the tents I had invisioned in my mind. So all those chargers I left at the church could've been used. Derp. Ohs well.

We ate then had free time. I took the opportunity to walk around the area, and look around. It was a small village area, so I mean really quiet. Like, Ridgway quiet, except for one thing that Ridgway lacked: A waterfall. Yeah, I stood out that way relaxing to the sound of the crashing water before heading back, where everyone gathered together for games and later, preaching and prayer, then it was to bed we went. I was given one of the beds, some people were sleeping in the floor. Someone else was in bed with me. At one point the door was open, and there was a nice breeze in the room. There were 9 or 10 people in the same room sleeping, I just want to clarify this.

At one point, maybe around 3 or 4am, I woke up in a dead sweat, my entire body soaked, and my mouth completely dry. I looked up to find that door had been closed, no windows open, in a room with 9 other guys. This quaint hanok bedroom had turned into a sauna. And apparently I was the only one in agony. American curse.

At that point, I knew I needed to make a change, and found another blanket took my pillow, went into the other room, found a spot on the floor, and laid down, where it was actually slightly cool. But I could barely sleep at that point, that dead sweat had made me fully awake.

I woke up around 7 or 8, with my stomach cramping to the point that I was almost PRAYING I would throw up. Joseph found me and could tell I wasn't comfortable, and asked if anything was wrong, and I told him about my discomfort, to which in one quick motion, he grabbed my hand and just started massaging my hand in one particular spot, obviously a pressure point connected to the digestive tract, to the point where I thought my hand would explode. I was shocked at how bad it hurt, but I did notice one thing, my stomach pain subsided as he switched hands, then immediately started praying for my stomach. Such an amazing guy.

Stomach now no longer awaiting its time to purge, we headed out again, this time to swim. Not at a lake or a pond, or a pool. To a waterfall. Let me say this, it is beautiful. I wish everyone in their lifetime to have this kind of opportunity.

It was at this time I discovered I may already be getting arthritis. This is way too sad a discovery, because we got to the water, and I tried to get in, and the water was so cold, that my ankles were trying to lock up, and tremendous pain shot through them, so ankle deep was as far as I could go. So I headed up to the top and sat around and relaxed and watched everyone enjoy themselves.

A little while later (and after maybe an hour of swatting away sweat bees), I was en route down for a little while, when I got asked to come back up for a group picture. I was halfway up when I slipped on a rock, and landed on the rock, straddling it, and cutting and hitting my leg so hard I thought it was broken. Everyone else was up at the top, taking the picture, so I was literally there, bleeding and in severe pain for maybe ten minutes, just trying to hold myself together until I was found, and Joseph was there first, praying and keeping me calm, then a couple of the strongest guys there helped get me down off the waterfall, and into the vans, as we headed away from that area.

I was of course, embarassed. "Oh hello Mr. American, bumbling baffoon, ruining the camping trip by having an accident."

Yeah, did I mention how I don't like camping? If I go back to camp with Durihana or anyone ever again, rest assured I'm bringing bug spray and some football pads. And my electronic chargers because you just don't know when you're going to be camping in a house.

It wasn't too much longer that the trip was over, and we were back in Seoul. I assessed my leg back in my room, went to the pharmacy, and grabbed some hydrogen peroxide and gauze and wrapped it up as best as I could. But there was still pain, especially walking downstairs at the subway. The next day, Yoonmi and I had lunch with Pastor Kim, who saw my leg, and insisted she take me to the doctor, who inspected my leg, told me it was just a contusion (thankfully), applied more disinfectant and covered up the cuts with an elastic bandage, and all was well there.

I still have a scar on my right leg from the camping experience. My first mission-based scar? Heh.

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