Hiking, Painting, and Sacking — By Eric Hoff

            What a day. Our day started out with a short hike up to 11,000 feet and led to a gorgeous view that gave off a “Lord of The Rings” vibe. It also led us to a family of horses, a pair of cows, and a whole lot of poop. While the view was breathtaking, Raj’s driving was a definite highlight. He makes going 25 MPH quite the roller coaster on mountain roads. When we arrived back into camp, we ate breakfast which included the team favorite rice pudding, which is 1000 times better than the rice pudding in the states. From there we hiked up to our respective schools and started our service project. At my school, we had decided to repaint all the murals in school which had almost completely faded. Paint in India is a lot different from paint in the United States. When you buy paint in America, it gets mixed from you in the store and all you have to do is open and go. In India, you have to mix it yourself and buy the thinner separate from the paint, so it can be challenging to get the mixture just right. Mine had a little too much thinner and made a little bit of a mess on me and my brush and we may have some brain damage and gotten high on paint fumes due to poor ventilation in the rooms. Besides that it was such a fun time. After that, we came back to camp tired as can be and due to Tracie’s new policy of “no naps unless directed by an adult,” (Editor comment: the policy is actually not about naps, rather about not being alone and being with the group ) we sat around for about 30 minutes doing nothing. Then we got up and played 3-sack-whack, where the group has to hit a hacky sack a total of 3 times and then someone has to catch it and throw it at someone, and if the person get’s hit then they’re out. It was such a fun game we played it until we were forced (Editor comment: Rather, YMOM has reminded them that it is polite to go eat when the cooks have served dinner, rather than continuing to play 3-sack-whack ) to go eat dinner. I was pretty proud as I had never played it before yesterday and I managed to beat out Collin, Ian, and Bridger…once. It’s still crazy to think that we’re actually here. It is still very surreal and honestly feel’s almost like a more luxurious scout camp. At least the accommodations feel that way. The kids are so great and I love seeing the smiles on their faces when we walk into the schools. It’s one of the greatest things to experience and to just see how happy these kids can be with so little they have.

2 Responses to “Hiking, Painting, and Sacking — By Eric Hoff”

1. Tim Cinalli, on June 2nd, 2019 at 7:12 pm Said:

   Looks like you got the paint mixture just right. Great job and very colorful.

2. Brittaney, on June 3rd, 2019 at 1:04 am Said:

   Love the mural! So many little things we have here that we just take for granted!