The La Vida program, when I first found out about it, seemed to be the most difficult activity I could muster myself to do. I knew that if I completed the 12 day excursion into the woods without modern conveniences and with conflict and hard work, that I would not only earn respect from my friends and family, but strength as an individual and as a woman.
I went into the trip excited and interested not only in the actual process of my learning to cope with the outside world, but also what kind of people I would meet and what sort of activities the trip leaders would have us do. I went into the summer trip completely clueless. I spent the majority of the trip kayaking on two separate lakes, working my arms and burning my skin, but I fell in love with every second of it…give or take a couple minutes.
I not only grew as an individual but as a Christian, connected to everyone else as one body. I learned to work, pray, sleep, eat, laugh, sing, compromise and understand my fellow peers on my trip. The combination of these elements made this trip one of the most fantastic experiences I have ever had.
My trip with LaVida started out with the introduction of every member of the Kayak #1 group on our first night camping at Base Camp. We spent the next morning (a very chilly one at that) bonding and getting to know one another. This consisted of meeting at the porta-potty as one large group! We laughed immensely before, during and after this photo was taken.
Rock climbing and the High Ropes course were two activities that taught us how to trust one another and see how we deal with eachother in a working environment. I personally love how this photograph basically displayed our group: a tightly woven mass of strength and flexibility.
As our Sherpas (leaders) were teaching us to belay and climb the rock faces, a little less than half of us were completely enthralled. Hence the face of Lydia (girl in blue).
Our group really bonded, especially through laughter. We created a hand signal that depicted an 'L' and 'V' for La Vida. We continued to share the signal with one another the entire trip.
Our kayaks had to be packed a certain way, every day. So the first time we headed out on the water, it took us about two hours. By the end of the trip it took 17 minutes.
Dinner was our favorite meal; actually every meal was our favorite meal! But dinner was especially good after a long day of kayaking and setting up camp. Everything we ate was packed in our kayaks from day one. So we had to spice things up…literally with our gallon sized bag of spices!
Because we were working our bodies to death in the sun all day, we were essentially required to drink two Nalgene bottles worth of water. We consumed much more than that a day. Every night we would line up the bottles and filter the lake water to give us the next day's worth, or half day's worth, depending on how much you drank. Trust me, there was a lot of pumping going on.
I love this picture because I remember the specific conversation that was going on while it was taken. We were camping and moving everyday, so obviously food and meals were ones that could be kept in a kayak and not spoil without refrigeration. After the first couple days, we all started to fantasize about what we would eat as soon as we got back to civilization.
Here I was telling my Sherpa (in the single kayak) and Rachel how to make a Chocolate Soufflé. I remember distinctly how easy it was and all that was required was a double boiling pan and separating the egg yolks from the egg whites, etc. Liz and Rachel kept laughing at me, believing that when I said "easy" they believed you could mix two things together and it would be done. We laughed constantly about it.
Here you can see the 'beautiful' tents which we carried with us everywhere. Kayaking got us super wet, so we would lay our clothing out to dry during the second half of the day, provided that it didn't rain on us in the evening. They were quite cozy.
Every night we arrived at a new campsite, which we had to set up after a day's gliding on the lakes. One of the days we paddled into this mucky swamp area in order to get to our next campsite. It was such a trek to get through it as it was so thick that we would get stuck in the most disgusting water we encountered the entire trip. But once we got to the campsite--a wide open field with wildflowers and scattered trees--we all knew it was worth it. It was absolutely beautiful as was the sunset that night. It was a wonderful reminder of God's faithfulness to reward hard work.
One thing I will never forget is the kayaks we used. We had names for them by the end of the trip, each color was something different. The Pink kayak housed our mascot; a pink Flamingo lawn ornament named Hank.
La Vida was an amazing experience that I will never forget. I formed close bonds with the other students that participated, from my trip and others. We were 10 strangers, all starting a new chapter in their lives, spending 12 days in the wilderness with one another. Yet we all became so close and a part of each other's ongoing lives.
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