Stenga!Drapta!Jost!

Last time we saw our adventurers, they had just finished the hike down the mountain. All the students and leaders were tired and needed a rest, but we had to drive down before we could really rest. As we climbed the metal ladder into the back of the big blue communist era truck, the rain was fairly light. People were still taking pictures together but some of the flashes didn't seem to come from a camera. Once loaded, the straps were brought in to give us something to hang on to. Just before we pulled out, someone overheard the driver say, "No, we should go now before the storm gets any worse"

Because the thick steel bed of the truck was both cold and wet, no one dared sit down. So we all found our place standing in the back. Ariel and Laneya were able to grab seats in the cab, which was more of a bench than a seat. From there vantage they could see the road ahead for us. There were still a few people who could not hold on to either the front, the sides, or the straps, and quickly they held on to the others who had a secure hold. In turn each held on to one another. This made for one of the best examples of unity anyone has ever seen. No person was without support, each with some sort of bond to someone else.

As we lumbered down the road, the rain picked up. The dynamics of holding on was a bit different as we went downhill. Before the driver would spend time in low gear to pull us up the grade of the road. But now, the brakes were used to control the speed, which were sensitive to the driver's toe as we felt when the truck would jolt slightly, sending our team lurching forward from time to time. I thought someone took another picture but the sound of thunder focused my attention. Its then we realized that a bunch of wet people standing in the steel bed of large truck was a science experiment even Benjamin Franklin would be jealous of. The only improvement we could have made would have been to hold up our aluminium ladder we used for loading. But holding up a ladder was impossible because of the area coming ahead. The rain saturated the trees and made each branch a little heavier from when we fist passed them. We were making better time down as driver of this 3 ton truck rode on the brakes as gently as possible over the potholes made bigger by the flow of new water.
The branches coming from all sides began to get thicker and more frequent. One young man, a former gymnast from the Romanian national team took the roll of calling out from which side the branches were coming from. Not all people could look to see ahead so this young man, Iosif, gave the warnings and commands:

Stegna,Jost!...Drapta,Jost!...Stenga!...Drapta,Jost!

This quickly became the most intense repetitive language lesson where the consequence was a wet deciduous branch upside the face. We quickly learned that "Stenga" means "left" - or specifically in this context "Here comes a set of branches to smack you from the left" while "Jost" means "get down". This leave "Drapta" - you guessed it - means "You people on the right watch out, you're about to receive an organic caning."

We began to get used to these lessons as we approached the areas of the road where there was sharp drop offs on one side. I warned Ralph not to look down at the daunting precipice just starting to be eaten away with the flowing water. He didn't appreciate my detail of this or of the rock-slide areas where some bowling-ball sized stones were observed in between tree-branch gauntlets dropping just behind us.

After about an hour of this, some were getting cold and we took what dry cloths we had help cover ears and hands. Also, we continued to hold on to each other through the remainder of the trip and a huge cheer erupted when the camp came in sight. Similar to storming Normandy from a Higgins boat, some guys went over the edge of the truck instead of waiting for the aluminium ladder to be set up for disembarking. Luckily the camp crew had stoked the wood fire to give us heated water for hot showers. There we began to process what just happened to us.

We returned from this mountain a unified set of people welded together by a rare experience. This set the tone for the remainder of the week, where each discussion and lesson and prayer time were more indicative of a close-knit family. After Rich gave the lesson on forgiving one another, many people used this opportunity to get and give forgiveness, or begin the process when they returned. The Lord put us through a camp experience (not available at Hume) which formed a strong body of Christ that was sent out to do a great work.