"How far I'll go"
From Disney's Moana
This is a little tale from before the blog started but we thought we
should share it.
The Camp started on Monday,
July 6, 2015 and ended on FridayJuly 10, 2015
So Meritre decided a
while ago that this Camp Gowonagain would be fun and asked us if we wanted to
take part. All four of us – Arie, Rosie, Annis and I – were overjoyed. A real
adventure out in the world! We had to fill a form which was a lot of fun but
the question about our age was tricky. How old are we actually?
’At least 15 months
old’ thought Arabella. ’But I’m not sure how long we’ve been at the store.’
’15 months? But that’s
still a baby and we are not babies!’
argued Rosie.
’How old are the
characters we are made after?’ asked Annis.
’Ariel is 26, Jasmine
is 23, Rapunzel is 5 and Merida is 3’
’No you are totally
wrong, Ariel’s 16, she mentions it herself in the film!’
’Jasmine is said to be
15, almost 16 and Rapunzel is celebrating her eighteenth birthday. Oh and
Merida is also in the 16 years old group.’
‘But Rapunzel was
created 5 years ago so she is 5!’
They discussed it for
a while and were as noisy as possible for even Meritre noticed it and asked
what we were quarelling about. When we explained, she thought for a little
while and said that we all should give 18 as our age.
’It’s not that
important you know. You go to that camp to have fun.’
I guess she was right about
that. We started to prepare. Annis got a new dress since Meritre thought she
can’t go camping in that ballgown she came in. Everyone packed their stuff and
precisely on the 6th July, we started. Meritre choose a nice, sunny
spot for us. We let her decide where we shppuld camp since she knows the garden
better than any of us.
Arabella of course had
to complain.
‘Do I have to carry
those bags? They are so heavy!’
‘This is it, we are
there’ I said, not really paing attention to what she was saying.
Rosemary came a bit
closer.
‘It looks fine. I like
it’ she commented.
Then Annis arrived,
too, carrying a huge black backpack.
‘So this is it. We are
going to find lots of flowersbecause it is not at all windy and quite sunny. Perfect
for camping.’
Arabella had already
thrown herself on the ground and stretching out her limbs.
‘The sunshine is so
pleasant.’
Of course, I thought,
Jasmine comes from a warm country so no wonder Arabella likes the sun. In my
opinion, it was quite hot. Tired from the journey we all fall asleep quickly.
The plan for the next
day was to do some crafts, anything we liked.
Annis, practical as always, tried
to make a little hut, where we would be protected from the sun. It kept falling
apart so in the end we had no hideout. Arabella collected some flowers to make
a flowercrown.
‘Arent they beautiful?’
she asked.
Rosemary found
something else to protect her fom the sun.
‘Look, these flowers
are like hats! I’ll get everybody one so they won’t get sunstruck!’ And with that,
she was off to find more big, hatlike flowers. This seemed indeed a good idea
if one planned to stay outside all day, like I did. I put on the flowerhat she
gave me and started my adventures. Climbing trees, exploring the yard, watch
the cats come and go, listen to the birds singing, it was quite an eventful
day. I went back to the camp, expecting to find a nice dinner. But everybody
was still busy with their own crafts, Rosemary dropped off to sleep with the
hat on her face.
‘Looks like it’s my
turn to craft something, preferably dinner. But I can only make an omlett.’
‘That’s fine with us.
Let’s go find some eggs!’ Annis answered.
I was the lucky one to
find some eggs first.
‘Now, we need a
campfire.’
‘’Here is the wood I
collected for the hut’ said Annis and broght all the wood she put aside. Then
she went away to find more since she knew that inexperienced campers will need
more firewood than necessary.
It wasn’t as easy as I
had thought it would be but the four of us working together, we managed to cook
a decent dinner.
‘Hmm, Chris you are a
fine cook. You are hired for the whole week!’ said Rosie after we ate.
‘Fine, you’ll have
omlett all week’ I gave back.
Nothing helps getting
sleepy as a good meal and a cup of tee we prepared with a little help from
Meritre. We all slept without stirring until next morning. Another fine day I
thought and went off looking for adventures again. It was quite hot so I
returned quite early. But what did I find! Everybody seemed to be sad and lonely.
Arabella found an arabian-looking
pot and was staring at it.
‘What’s wrong, Arie?’
‘Huh? You are already
back, Chris? It’s nothing just… I was thinking… you see, I found this vase
today that reminded me of Agrabah from Aladdin. And I just thought that I’ll
never, NEVER get to see it…’
That was indeed a sad
thought.
‘Uhm… How about we
bake some cookies?’
‘That’s very kind of
you, but I would like to be alone just for a little longer.’
Well, I respected her
wish and went off to find the others. Turned out they were kinda homesick too.
Rosemary at least. Usually she is the one to make everybody smile but sometimes
she remembers that friend of hers from the factory. She wanted to go back home
and help Meritre look for that friend or at least write something down, she
felt like she was going to burst if she can’t do something about it. Poor
Rosie.
Annis was trying to comfort her and I left them, too. Annis was better
at this then me. They’ll be all right. The best thing I could do to make all of
us feel better is to bake some cupcakes or something similar.
And I was right,
they all loved them!
‘What do you plan to
do tomorrow?’ Arabella asked.
‘It’s likely it’ll be
another hot day so… I’m not sure. I wish I could use the cool night hours.’
‘’That’s it!’ Annis squeaked
‘Let’s do that! How abut some star gazing tonight? Who’s coming?’
Everybody of course.
We
spent a lovel night looking for shooting stars.
I spotted an especially bright
star but that wasn’t actually a star but an aeroplane.
We had so much fun
together exploring, talking things over and strengthening our friendship.
Then the last day came
and we had to leave the camp. Arabella of course started again.
‘Do I have to carry
thos heavy bags again?’she asked.
‘Mine is just as heavy
as yours’ Annis said.
Rosemary didn’t say anything
but she turned away rather quickly. But not quickly enough. I saw something shiny
on her face. She was actually sad to go.
‘Don’t be sad, we’ll
come again next year.’ She smiled.
‘And we will bring
Pihilppa and Hazel, too?’
‘But of course!’
The four of us walked
happily home.
I turned back before
going and waved the place goodbye.
‘Goodbye, Camp
Gowonagain! We’ll come back, I promise! And with new friends, too’
(Now I can add that we
did keep our promise, we returned next year and brought along Phil and Hazel.
But perhaps not like you imagined it. Look out for more of our camping adventures!)
