Also, this last week marked the passing of Christmas, or Orthodox Christmas if you prefer. Ukrainians, for the most part celebrate Rizdvo (Christmas) on January 7th, which is December 25th by the old Julian calendar. Julius Caesar made a year of 365 days with an extra day every 4 years, but the actual year is about 364.2422 days long and after about 1 500 years, it was out of sync again. Therefore, in 1582, Pope Gregory IX played with it a bit and gave us the modern Gregorian calendar. For one reason or another, orthodox Christians maintained the Julian calendar for religious purposes, hence the differences in dates. In addition to Ukrainians, Russians, Serbs, Romanians, Georgians, Armenians, Copts (Egyptian Christians), Ethiopians and a few others, all celebrate Christmas on January 7th; not bad company.
The Ukrainian tradition is to have 12 meatless dishes for dinner on January 6th, called Svyat Vechir (Holy Evening). At home, our dinner would consist of bread with honey with my dad wishing us all a good year, borshch (beet soup) with mushroom stuffed dumplings called vushky (ears), shrimp with sauce, varenyky (like perogies) and something for dessert. We never got to 12 dishes, but it was delicious anyway. We would usually stand around the table for a minute and listen to a Ukrainian carol (kolyada) on CD. I suppose every family adapts traditions to an extent and it worked for us. By the way, if you've ever heard the Carol of the Bells, it's actually a Ukrainian shchedrivka, a song sung after the Christmas season and is, ironically, not a Christmas carol.
Anyway, here in Australia, Ukrainians and I had to adapt. The hearty meals are traditionally meant for the raging winter and are somewhat unsuited to the hot antipodean summer. One thing that has been adapted is the start of the meal time, traditionally at the appearance of the the evening's first star. In Ukraine and Canada, that's around 17:00 but in Australia, that can be as late as 21:00, so families usually gather around 19:00. As well, meals may be modified somewhat so that the dishes aren't as hearty. I adapted by going to a local restaurant and getting some calamari and barramundi, an Australian fish. I suppose in my own way, I honour some of my favourite traditions.
And now back to camp. I stayed up until 05:00 New Year's Day, though not entirely by choice as I had to deal with one thing after another. I was allowed to sleep later in the day. Actually, I found that I slept better as camp wore on. My first night, I didn't sleep well at all and I kept waking up and I don't know why. I'd never had that happen before, even when I was a camper. I couldn't sleep too long as there was a 1-day hike planned around Mt. Canobolas.
In the afternoon, after the kids had had a time to rest up after the festivities, we were driven to the summit of Mt. Canobolas and then hiked to a place called Federal Falls. Along the way, I was quizzed by Pyro regarding various flora he found. I made up names on the spot, but plausible ones, and he believed me. I even suggested that he try some "canobolas sweetgrass" and he tasted it and got others to try it too! We instructors had a great laugh. Later that day, as well, Pyro got me across the shins again while we were playing 3-team soccer. He just stuck his leg out and got me from my right thigh to my left shin. It hurt, but we got him back later.
The next day, January 2nd, saw the Great Challenge for the 3 teams, in the vein of The Amazing Race. The teams had to complete various challenges that day in order to win a chest full of goodies. The challenges involved semaphore, swimming, canoeing and a little brain work. The blue team, owing to their phenomenal ability with semaphore jumped out to an early lead and seemed poised to win it and would have, if not for some bad luck. Although the finished 2nd coming out of the final challenge, a team member spotted the X for the treasure, stood on it and tried to call out to her team members. Before she could, the X was spotted by the yellow team and they won. Because of their teamwork, though, the blue team was awarded with a "Best Team" award later on.
There was also a marching competition where each team selected a piece of music and came up with some creative marches to it. In the end, the red team won with ABBA's Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! They really did deserve it, though many thought that the blue team's 3rd place finish according to the judges was a little harsh.
Later that day there was supposed to be a go-cart race but the red team's left rear wheel came off and it was decided that the go-carts, which the teams had built themselves, would only be run on their own --- no race. Stacks was the driver of the red go-cart and managed to stack himself again. It wasn't the wheel coming off that directly led to his injury, though. After the wheel fell of, he tried to chase after it, but tripped on the go-cart's reins; it's almost too funny to be true. We also got Pyro back during a game of dogdeball by targetting him and giving him some marks to remember us by; all in good fun. At night, there was a trivia competition involving the whole camp which I helped administer, so I couldn't play. The questions were challenging, though not too difficult. The kids even surprised us with some of their knowledge.
The last day was very quick in that after breakfast, the camp was brought to an end. It was quite an experience for me and a pleasant one at that. My co-instructors were a great bunch and I look forward to working with them later. Ukrainian scouts in Australia is different to Canada, but it works for them and that's all that needs to be said. I can't wait till next year.
That's it for the camp stories but there will be more to come, though not for some time. My brother is arriving in Australia on Monday and I'll be meeting him in Sydney. We'll be there for a few days before going on to Brisbane and then back to Canberra. I've seen New Zealand and now it's his turn to be the guest and mine to him parts of this country. Long story short, I won't be able to update until about January 24th. Make sure to check back through these most recent posts to be certain you haven't missed anything. Until next time, take care.
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