MIC precamp and Day 1 (July 21/22)
Arrived at camp just before noon as that is when we were told check in was to start. Well, no. Finally got my cabin assignment and then we started working on geocaching materials. Finally was allowed to “check in” at about 4:30 p.m. The chief ranger is a particularly testy guy, and things don’t seem to run on schedule, at least during preparation time.
We spent the afternoon cutting apart flag stickers for the geocaches, and finally met Attila from Hungary (yep, Attila the Hun…) who is on our geocaching staff. Reminds me of Eric – tall, athletic looking, young (he is only 18) but unfortunately he is not a geocacher. We gave him a crash course today but it’ll take a bit more experience before he can take a group out on the course.
Dinner was spaghetti , salad, and garlic bread – and a short meeting afterwards. Just before dinner, we met Tom, who is from Roseville and thankfully an experienced cacher.
After dinner, we finally were able to get our geocaching supplies secure, and did some more cutting of stickers. A shower felt good and I was settled in for the night by dark.
I am in a cabin that holds 13 people. Since I was first in, I picked my favorite type of location, a corner bottom bunk. Electric outlet right next to the bed so I can keep my iPod plugged in and charging when I’m in bed. So far we have Bonnie, a unit commissioner from Michigan, Mary (not me) another unit commissioner from Michigan, Karla, media staff from Honduras, Sulma, also from Honduras and on the Media staff, and Denise, from Curacao, on the kitchen staff. Karla speaks very little English, but thankfully everyone else but me does speak some Spanish. I know very little, just a few words.
Sunday – Day 1
Woke up and had a good breakfast – egg casserole and bagel. Then had to join a caravan of cars – we had to move our cars to a campground several miles away so there would be room for participants to check in later in the day. That took a bit longer than I thought but eventually we were back in camp and headed for the geocaching headquarters. We chose a variety of containers and soon headed out to hike the route we’d laid out in April. We were joined by Paul, who was to be on our staff but has been called away to other scouting duties, though he was able to help us today.
Our route includes 12 geocaches and is about 2 miles long. As staff, we’ll be hiking it three times per day, though only twice tomorrow. We have a variety of containers and hides, though we’ve kept it simple as we assume we’ll have many beginners. We hid all but the last cache, at our headquarters, and then headed for lunch. Tacos hit the spot.
By now, many contingents had arrived and the sound of many languages was heard around camp. We headed back to the geo-HQ after lunch and that’s where Alex, our staffer from Austria, finally caught up with us. Nice guy, from Vienna, 24 years old and in law school. Also not a geocacher. We’ll get by.
Hid that final cache (Alex found the spot, great for a newbie!) and then Tom, Alex, and Attila spent some more time cutting flag labels. I put CITO containers together , and Michael entered information into GSAK so that we could load them into the GPSrs. Heard some rumbles of thunder so decided to move our operations to the chapel down the road where we would be under shelter. Got the GPSrs loaded then went back to our cabins to get ready for supper.
Supper was pizza, salad, and a brownie, served in four lines as the entire camp was eating together. All in their country’s scout uniform as we were going to the opening ceremonies after dinner. Really neat to see the many different uniforms and nationalities as we ate dinner and visited afterwards. Had really neat conversations with a man from Australia that works with international scouting , a woman from England that is really glad to be here rather than anywhere near the Olympics, and a scouter from Korea – we talked about Kunsan just a bit then he gave me his calling card which has a picture of his family in traditional Korean costume on one side and his contact info on the other. Many other conversations, too – and lots of pictures.
On to the opening ceremony. Flagpoles for every country – and the American scouts lined up by campsite, the international scouts paraded in one country at a time, we heard about the history of scouting in that country, then they brought their flag to the Americans in their campsite, and the Americans and the international scouts raised the flags together when all had been presented. Pictures afterwards, including a hovercraft equipped with a camera to get crowd shots.
After the ceremony was done, I headed back to my cabin and quickly gathered my things to get a shower in and avoid the crowds. Good plan. I’m sitting here relatively cool (Bonnie brought a box fan, and I brought my little personal fan) and comfortable. Got to know a new cabin mate, Chris from Louisiana. Traded patches with Karla from Honduras. Hope to get an early start on sleep tonight but not holding my breath as there are only three in our cabin right now.
Tomorrow’s schedule includes breakfast, a possible walk around the course to check the Magellans that the participants will be using, then lunch and our first group at 12:30 p.m. Looking forward to it though not to the heat!
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