Intro 

The much anticipated moment had finally arrived. The moment I had spent all week preparing for. The moment that every scout looks forward to. It was officially… CAMP WEEKEND! More specifically, it was officially Scouts of America Annual Muslim Camporee weekend. This was an even more exciting weekend for me, as this would be my first ever camporee. In case you’re confused, a camporee is basically when a bunch of different troops get together and hold a giant camp filled with fun activities and late night campfires. While I would have loved to talk about everything that happened at camp, that would make this article a bit too long. So, instead, I’ll talk about just a few things that I felt were the highlights of my trip. Let’s dive right into it!

Friday

Friday came, and the butterflies in my stomach were having una fiesta loca (Spanish for “a crazy party”). Today was the first day of camp. We had been up since 5:00 am, rushing around like crazy to make sure everything was ready before we left for camp. By 5:00 pm, we were on the road. Now, I would’ve told you about the beautiful scenery I saw, except for the fact that I was taking a siesta (nap) so I didn’t see any of it… (It was an amazing nap though!). By the time we arrived, I was refreshed and ready to help. There weren’t any activities happening on Friday so that we could have time to set up our campsites. My friends and I set up our tents, prayed, and ate dinner. At around 11:00 pm, my buddy and I closed up for the night and went to sleep. 

I have no idea why I woke up. It must have been 3:00 am. I turned around, shivering with cold, and faced my buddy. She was wide awake. We started whispering, trying to get warm and comfortable enough to fall asleep again. Suddenly, my friend lifted her head away from the tent wall. I frowned. 

“Are you okay?”

Then I saw what she was looking at. A paw was pushing at our tent wall, trying to get in. I chuckled nervously.

“I-it’ll go away.” I tried to assure her.

It didn’t. Whatever it was decided to stay and circle our tent- to try and scratch the living daylights out of our tent. My teeth were chattering out of pure fear. My friend and I had scooted so close together that I could feel her shoulder on mine. 

To make matters worse, I had forgotten to close the first door on our two door tent. It decided that the tent door would make a nice play toy and started playing with it. Suddenly, at the same time, I heard desperate scratching from the other side of the tent. There were two of them. I racked my brain for every prayer I possibly could. My breath shortened and my hands shook so hard I probably could have used them to mix a batter. The cold was not helping. After what seemed like hours, I couldn’t keep my eyes open for any longer. Slowly, slowly, my eyelids dropped heavily, sleepily. The next thing I remember was waking up the next morning. 

Saturday 

The next morning, my friend and I rushed into my moms tent and told her the whole story. After that, we got ready for the big adventures of the next day. Camp was quiet, and very beautiful. The only sounds I could hear were zippers, people softly whispering, and birds starting to chirp. I loved how peaceful it was. It seemed like there was nothing else other than you and nature. 

My troop then headed out for prayer, breakfast and flag ceremony. The flag ceremony was most definitely a funny memory that I think everybody at camp will never forget. The morning announcements had just finished, and everyone was eagerly waiting to be dismissed for breakfast. Suddenly, the lead volunteers started… singing? After a couple seconds, there was a full blown dance party going on and the song was about lifeguards, swimmers, and people getting burned? I thought I was the only one who missed the memo, but it turns out that no one knew this was happening. Honestly though, it was so fun! And the song was really catchy, too. They even had dance moves to go with it. It wasn’t very long, and after about 5 minutes, it was over. We all stood there in a confused daze until they announced that it was breakfast time. That got everyone’s attention again. And with that, the dance party came to an end.

Fast forward to the evening: after a day of activities and adventures, we were all looking forward to a relaxing campfire time! The campfire area wasn’t like a normal campfire. The seats were like a mini football stadium, and they were built into a hill. The stage was at the base of the hill, and it had mini fake fires in the fire pits. They weren’t able to light a real fire because of the fire ban. However, there were also some religious talks and videos from last year’s camp, and each troop that came to camp got a chance to present a skit that they had written. The troops’ skits were all very engaging! Some were funny, and others taught me valuable lessons. My favorite skit was about someone who was trying to find their change underneath a lamp even though they lost the change somewhere else completely. I also really enjoyed one about leaving your gum on the bench. It was kind of gross, but still really funny. During the skits, volunteers went around with trays of fried oreos. They were perfectly fried, crispy on the outside and gooey, melty, chocolatey goodness on the inside. I could only stomach two though, because they were oh so rich. It took me a good hour to feel better after eating them. 

After the campfire, I waddled back to the campsite stuffed with fried oreos and ice cream (they gave us ice cream as well). Satisfied and tired after our long day of adventure, I wiggled into my sleeping bag and instantly fell asleep.

Sunday

Sunday was probably the best day in the whole of camp. It was competition day! Each troop got to run a different competition. There were some really creative ones, like a water filtration challenge and even a tent building competition! I was in charge of doing the competition for our troop. We did a matching competition that was, surprisingly, a huge hit! Troops lined up by our small picnic table, waiting for their turn to play. We not only had to play the game with each troop, but we also had to score them based on skills such as leadership or speed. There was chaos, and people even started arguing about who was in line first. After a bit, we managed to get the chaos under control, although I do think that we may have scored some people wrong in the confusion. But still, it was an amazing experience and I had so much fun! 

At around 12, the competition came to an end. Everyone started cleaning up their tables and heading out to lunch. Sunday was the last day of camp, so they served pizza on napkins instead of a full blown lunch. My mom and dad had picked up our things from the campsite, and a lot of people had already left. My family and I also decided it was time to leave. 

Conclusion  

As we drove off, I rested my head and thought about all the amazing memories I had made with my friends. This was definitely an eventful, amazing, and fun-filled camporee that I will never forget. There were so many valuable lessons I learned that helped me with my schoolwork and daily life, like perseverance and patience. I really wish I could have covered everything that we did at camp, but that would have taken a long time to write!

I hope you enjoyed reading this article! Salam (peace)!