Game One: The Tallest Structure
We arrived at Hotel Radisson Medan late for camp. Well this isn’t like any summer camp you’ve heard of. This is Leadership Camp. This camp teaches you activities of Leadership!
I’ve never been to this camp before, so I’m pretty excited, yet a bit nervous. I’m also gonna have to leave my family and stay in a hotel and even get roommate! My parents look happy, but I know that they’re gonna miss me a lot and are pretty nervous too.
The hallway is empty, and I’m the only one who hasn’t come in and registered yet. I run through the hallway with my Mom and wrote my name on a name tag, that says Sparta.
Right, quick lecture here, in this camp I’ve been told that there are four houses, inspired by J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter:
- Sparta (my house): Known for bravery, strategy, and persistence. The logo is red with a Spartan knight helmet and four spears, two on each side.
- Ninja: Known for technique, speed, and control. The logo is blue with a Japanese Samurai with two star shurikens and two triangle shurikens (one star on the samurai’s left and another on it’s right, and the same for the triangle) with two kunai one on each side.
- Apache: Known for freedom, unity, and toughness. The logo is yellow with an Apache wearing their headdress with four tomahawks, two on each side.
- Musketeer: Known for talent, strength, and intelligence. The logo is green with a Musketeer and four muskets, two on each side.
As I get in the conference room, I join my house with our house coach, Coach Rene. She leads me to my seat, as Mom sits in the back with the other parents.
After the opening, they give us our robes. Ninjas are blue, Apaches are yellow, Musketeers are green, and ours are red. As they do, they MCs (called Coach Joche and Coach Mima) explain that we have to be active so we can get points (or what we call life dollars). Which house gets the most, will get the house medal at the end.
As soon as we’re done, it’s time to say goodbye to our parents. They play Sayonara (which means farewell in Japanese). I kiss and hug my Mom, Dad and sister goodbye.
Afterwards, I join my friend who’s been here before after he had finished saying goodbye to his family. We help take out the chairs and sit on the carpet.
Coach Mima says that whoever sits tidily first and say their chant, will get 5 life dollars.
We try doing that, but our chant is like a decade long, which goes like this:
(Sparta, Sparta!) We will fight, we will fight! (2x)
(Go Sparta, go Sparta, go!) Go Sparta, go Sparta, go! (2x)
(Bravery!) Sparta!
(Strategy!) Sparta!
(Persistence!) Sparta!
Go…Sparta!
(Sparta!) Go Sparta!
Super. Long.
Whilst Ninja’s just full of short Japanese words, we’re all full.
Of course, we didn’t get the extra points. The points are given to Ninja (obviously. Ninja’s coach is pretty competitive, but the Ninjas don’t seem pretty mean).
But my friend tells me to stay off them. He was in Ninja the last time he joined, and they won. Most of them were pretty mean.
He explains that for years, Ninja has always won the medal.
“Don’t be surprised if they’ll get the medal anyway.” he says.
But I take off my mind off it. The next thing we’re gonna do is make new friends. We all shake hands with our fellow house friends. I make friends with Fiona, Bunga, and Farrah. They’re very nice.
Next, Coach Joche tells us to stand up and make two circles, one circle for one house and one circle for another. We make two circles with Ninja, which makes a few of my friends not really pleased.
Our circle is inside whilst Ninja’s is outside, so graphically, it looks like a donut, us Spartas have to be in front of a Ninja, to make the game work.
We have to do some moves while doing a chant which includes stepping left and right and turning around whilst holding our partners hands. When the chant ends, we move counter-clockwise to find another Ninja partner!
So, on the count of three, we randomly make a circle, not knowing which Ninja is behind each of us.
Afterwards, Coach Joche tells us to turn around, and we find our partners. My first partner, is a Ninja called Michelle. She’s the same grade as me and she’s very kind.
Finally, after introducing ourselves, the chant starts, and I face forward to my circle as Michelle holds my hands from behind. The chant goes like this:
As we walk to the left (two steps to the left)
As we walk to the right (two steps to the right)
As we walk, as we walk, as we walk all night (step one step left and right according to the beat)
With the heels and the toes (Spartas show their heels and toes)
And a half turn around (Sparta turns around whilst Ninja turns them around with their hand – me and Michelle did it pretty wrong and we burst out laughing –)
With the heels and the toes
And a new friend found (Sparta moves counter-clockwise to the next Ninja).
Me and Michelle wave goodbye, and I wave hello to my next Ninja partner: Diva.
She loves snacks and learning history. She’s fifteen and in high school.
As soon as the chant starts again, we hold hands, and dance along, and as it ends, we hug each other goodbye and I see my next partner.
Her name is Florencia, whose nickname is Cia. She loves drawing, and she’s from Berastagi. I also say where I’m from, and we both laugh about how far we’ve come to join this camp.
After the chant I turn and meet other fellow Ninja partner: Wyatt.
He was also in Ninja the last time he joined and knows my friend who joined last time too. It’s fun talking to him, until the chant starts.
He’s a tad taller than me, and when we hold hands, it feels very stiff. And when he turns me around, our hands accidently get tangled. We laugh awkwardly at our mistake, and I don’t make eye contact with him until I meet my next partner.
My friend looks at me and ships us, but I literally tell him to stop.
After going through every Ninja, were all set for the first game: the Tallest Structure.
Here, we have to build a tall tower, just by straws. The house that builds the tallest tower which holds the longest for one whole minute will get more than 50 points!
We start trying to build a strong base, but it kept falling down. We quickly start speeding things up, because this challenge is only for thirty minutes, and honestly, it only feels like five minutes, but if we turn to the big timer projected on the board, WE ONLY HAVE TEN MINUTES LEFT!
“We have to build a stronger base!” our House Captain, Marcello says, so us girls take our straws and start building even more cubes.
Not long afterwards, we’re all done, and we’re like the second tallest, where Musketeer’s the tallest, and ours is second, whilst Apache’s is third.
Ninja’s tower, however, had collapsed to the ground no longer than a minute they had finished building it.
“That’s a good sign, right?” Fiona asks, but my friend shakes his head.
“They don’t give up so easily.” he says.
But what seems to be our victory, has ended too quickly.
Coach Mima had allowed two of our houses to fix their towers to the front, so Marcello and Bunga went forward to fix ours, but somehow (I’m sure suddenly, for Marcello and Bunga had just walked to the front), our tower collapses leading us to third place.
Coach Joche and Coach Rene soothes us down, but we did get more points than Ninja otherwise.After we’re done, we reflect the lesson that we learned in that activity, a leader needs a strong foundation to be able to lead. Afterwards, coach tells us about our next game…I wonder what it’s gonna be?
