On Friday, I had all of my belongings - my hammocks, my blanket, my toiletries, my clothing, a flashlight, and a loaf of bread I’d made - packed in one long bag, which came with my coleman chair. I hitched it to school, then North on the 55. I was headed out to the New York Botanical Gardens to meet up with students who were headed to Ward Pound Ridge to go camping. I arrived first, then Aumi, and we started playing hackey sack. People trickled in.
Eventually, we were all there. Syeda, Frances, Georgette, Stephanie, Saudhi, Mathew, Bilal, Edy, Aumi, Adrian, Luis, Carlos, Chandy, Dime piece (because I can’t actually spell her name), Kimberly, Stephy, Steven, Andrew, Rocio, Joyce, and Jon. (and maybe others? sorry, so many!) We proceeded to load up a cheese bus, and board the bus. I sat with Sye, and handed around a notebook for picaptionary. Sye and I read David Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One Day. I ate some of Frances’ banana bread, and forgot to offer some to Sye. =/ Andrew handed out popsicles and took away electronic devices (what a smart idea. seriously. What is nature with a three-bar connection?).
We arrived. Andrew divided us into groups: one to build tents, the other to gather sticks and unpack food. I joined the sticks team, as I always like to get a lay of the land and that seemed the best way to do it. Indeed, we ended u heading into that segment of the forest for many reasons throughout the trip - the kids would build a shelter in there for a survival group, I would find dry wood in there after the storm, and at one point, I would even sit at a picnic table I found that had been dragged back there, and read a book.
Once the work was done, the fire was begun. Food that night was a can of soup over the fire and sandwiches. I got some muenster and bread, and made grilled cheese for myself and Georgette, who is now a pescatarian. Bilal had mentioned in the process of carrying sticks that he would have to pray, so I went with. Sye and Aumi went, as did Frances. It was a learning experience for me the first and second time, and after that, so many people were joining that I started to feel kind of bad for interrupting the prayer. To be fair, though, I don’t think Bilal, Aumi or Syeda shared my concerns, and going out to a grassy glade, laying out prayer mats, and praying in the direction of qibla (east, which we determined by simply facing away from the sun). When we returned, it was to sit around the fire strumming guitars and doing a dance around the fire (my, Luis, Carlos and Frances). Eventually, we all went on a night hike, which I tried to do with my flashlight. Somewhere in there, Andrew got us a bit lost, or was hunting an animal. Anyway, a few car honks later, we were out. =(
After that, it was time for bed. I set up my hammock, and proceeded to endure one of the colder nights I have in a while. It was still comfortable, nonetheless. That morning, though, Adrian got up early, and donated a plasticy blanket to my cause. After the sun had come up, Dime piece put a pink blanket on me, then a sleeping bag. I got some good sleep amongst the kids talking about me loudly enough that I felt the need to respond.
Chandy made turkey bacon, Rocio and Andrew made eggs, and I eventually got up. We ate, we gathered sticks, I did a rock dance, and we took a walk down to the flush toilets. On the way, we found a turtle missing an arm, and another that we didn’t pick up. We threw a frisbee as we walked and talked. When we arrived, I played frisbee with Luis, Aumi and Steven, we washed pans, I cleaned up a little, and Sye and Saudhi and I sat on the front porch and talked. Then, we walked back.
We were walking along a road, and every once in a while a car would arrive. Someone would yell car, but then when a truck came, we had to accept it was politically incorrect to yell car, so it became vehicle. hen Mathew pointedout that we’d also seen horses along the path, and thus even vehicle was restrictive. I then suggestedwe just make a loud guffawing sound, as though we were some primitive animals that made gutteral sounds to alert the other members of the group. I then proceeded to make this sound loudly to a group of us that was further behind, then asked what they thought I was warning them of. Dime Piece responded with a witty comeback that I now forget, to which I replied with a witty comeback that included her name, which I also forget. She then chased me, and as I pivoted away from her, she grabed just a handful of the back of my shirt, and TORE IT OUT. I was pretty impressed. That shirt ended up geting used in the fire the students had to make to survive (duh duh DUH!).
When we got back, we tried to have a siesta, which kind of worked. I read my book for a while, then Andrew got the kids together to announce a survival test. They were to pretend that Sye had stolen Andrew knife, and thus he kicked them all off the bus. Mathew had a box of wet matches in his pocket. They then needed to survive, which Andrew helped them define as find water, make fire, and build shelter. They managed to build the fire after some time, and got water from a stream that they intended to boil, but an evil penguin came and knocked over the first pot of it they gathered. They did eventually get more, and cleverly found a vine they could pull off the trees and use as rope, which they then tied around trees to form the basis for what could have become shelter. Andrew gave them the benefit of the doubt, and then we had free rec time.
I headed initially to my hammock, but then heard kids talking soccer. This eventually culminated in Luis and I grabbing four good-sized sticks from the forest, standing them up in the ground, and playing some five-on-five. I played some killer defense, and ended up scoring the only goal. The game ended after I took goalie, and had Georgete rush a shot Carlos was coming to make. Carlos junior needed a break after that, and the rest of us obliged.
Then Andrew called us over to help roll a massive tree stump up the road. A few of us helped, and Andrew and Chandy all took turns at cutting off a knot that was making it roll wrong with a brand new ax. Luis and I got it a good way up there before that, though, and after my shifts, I sat with Sye and watched the chopping. From there, I headed over to a blanket Bilal was laying on, and laid there too. Eventually, everyone ending up sitting around on the blankets in front of Frances’ tent, eating gorp and talking. After some time, I went to my hammock and read, and eventually laughed so hard that Bilal investigated and read with me. When he was done, Syeda cae over, and I read her the same chapter (You Can’t Kill the Roster - absolutely hilarious), and she held my hand so I could push the hammock and gently sway as I read. Ahhhhhhh…
After that, we had a mac’n'cheese dinner (and hot dogs), and the rain came. It came in torrents, and luckily I had time to pack all my stuff before eating. I put all of it in the boys tent. rances’ tent ened up geting soaked inside and takenout of commission; luckily, it was replaced with a large one which I think was brought by Pamy Manice, who stopped by later that evening. In the meantime, we built the fires inside the lean-tos (very cool structures that made this a very cool camping site; that, and there were portapotties with t.p. and hand sanitizer). By the time Pamy showed up, everyone was getting ready to make s’mores. I ended up talking to her for about 40 minutes, as she had just returned from Indonesia and shared my interest in the role of the non-traditional teacher, a frame she actually introduced me to. She even ended up giving me a book. Then she left to get blankets and other things, and by the time she returned most of us were ready for bed. I ended up huddling under sleeping bag with Saudhi and Sye for a bit, then Luis, mathew, Chandy, Georgette, Stephanie, and Rosa (and maybe others). We even tried to get Andrew into it. After a while, though, I got Chandy to hold a flashlight while Syeda and Saudhi helped me put up my hammock, this time with a tarp over it. I would sleep very well that night, and stayed perfectly dry and even warm under the tarp and through the rain. I read a little before I fell asleep, long enough to interrupt my reading to go tell the boys to keep it cool, and to see that effectively ruined when Andrew had to get Adrian up to got and scare a bear away from our belongings! I fell asleep somewhere in all of this, but the boys stayed up until 2.
I got up early the next morning, when only Aumi and maybe Carlos and Luis were up. Carlos and I first set up a fire in the front of the lean-to. Then I discovered that there were still embers in the fire (somehow), so I gathered twigs and sticks to kick it into gear. I collected and assembled my tree mater, and in due time got a nice fire started. During this, more people woke up. We eventually had a breakfast of cereal and dry milk with water (actually not so bad other than the fact that it was warm), then broke down our camp. I bought the hammock off Rocio, and was able to easily fit it into my bag now that the bread was gone. The kids were quite impressed with my packing, I do believe. I then orchestrated the cleanup of both sides of the lean-to, and somewhere in here had a conversation with Andrew about how effective he is as a teacher, and how fair he is in using force and power. Eventually, we packed up the bus, played picaptionary, got our phones back, and I even drew a few pictures.
When we got back to the gardens, after passing Sye’s apt, we unpacked, said goodbyes, and Sye, Matthew, Bilal and I went to Subways. We ate and talked about D.A.R.E. and divorce, then walked toward the transit stop. Sye caught a bus perfectly with my metro card, then I waited for Bilal’s BX10, and let him use it to. Then I headed back to Harlem on the D.
When I got home, I fed the cat, cracked a beer, and unpacked. I sorted my laundry, took it downstairs, got it started, and ran back up to discover I had pressed the bottom in the door that makes it always require a key that I had left, with my cell phone, in the apt. I ended up getting back in around 8:15, and I know my neighbors much better now… =)
