The last 10 days
Getting to Adelaide
Just before catching the bus to Horsham on April 7, I bought a camera. I was the last person on the bus, meaning I had to sit with one of the many people who had intended to sit by themselves. The bus left at bout 10am.
Arrived in Horsham at about noon. Took some photos and had lunch.
Discovered that in Horsham they have red and green cyclist lights along with the read and green pedestrian lights, which seems kind of pointless since the pedestrian and cyslist lights always seemed to be the same colour anyway.
Also discovered that eveyone in Horsham drives at about 20km/hr.
Listened to an old lady at the bus stop tell me about the 'adopted son' she was visiting in Adelaide who spends all his time on the computer. She also told me all about why smoking's alright and why you can't trust politicians like you once could.
The bus to Adelaide left at about 2pm.
The next break was in Keith, South Australia. This old guy sitting behind me reckoned he was going to pick up one of the old ladies during the break. I took some photos of the silos and got a drink.
Not far out of Keith the driver put How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days on. It was rather crap.
Arrived in Adelaide at about 7pm Central Time. However the timetable had said 7:30pm, without saying that this was Eastern Time. So I'd had to message Bonnie, telling her that I'd be there at 7:30 Eastern Time, or 7:00 Central Time. However, when they (Bonnie, Kiah and Bonnie's mum) got to the station, someone told them my bus had actually arrived at 6pm!
Getting to Thuruna
After we had packed my stuff into the back of Bonnie's parents' car, we got in and headed out of Adelaide, for Riverton, where we were staying the night.
On the way out of Adelaide, we stopped at Hungry Jack's. Bonnie's mum had never been to Hungry Jack's before. She liked it, except for the thickshake.
I think we got to Bonnie's grandparents' old place in Riverton at about 11pm. Bonnie's mum had been emptying and the house so that the new people could move in.
In the morning we packed most the stuff that was left in the house into the back fo the car, and then went to see Bonnie's grandma at the nursing home.
We left Riverton when it was still pretty early, heading through the Clare Valley to Port Augusta.
We stopped for lunch at a roadhouse in Port Augusta.
After lunch Kiah took over driving, going down the Eyre Peninsula till we got to Cowell, then I drove from Cowell to Arno Bay, where Bonnie's mum took over again, until we got to the farm, about half an hour from Port Lincoln.
We unpacked all stuff from Riverton, had tea, and then drove down to Thuruna, near Tumby Bay.
Easter Camp
The tent
Since Gilbert and Garry (Bonnie's brother and cousin) were sleeping out in the tent, and they were the only guys at the beginning of the camp I decided to sleep out there. It was an old army tent from the Second World War. There were some huge gaps in the roof, but the weather had been great so there wasn't much chance of rain.
Or so we thought. On the Saturday, at about 4am it started pouring. I just happened to be right under one of the biggest gaps, and was getting quite wet, so I decided to evacuate into one of the halls, with about four other guys from the tent.
The people
Before Wednesday night I'd never met anyone at the camp in person. I'd started talking to Bonnie on MSN over a year before, and we'd spoken on the phone a couple of times but that was it.
So going to Easter Camp was a very exciting experience. To start off it it was pretty hard because I hardly knew anyone, but everyone was so friendly that it wasn't very hard getting to know people like:
- Squid, Bonnie's friend from YITS, who is now doing an industrial design course at Uni SA, and shares my admiration for The Living End.
Kiah, another friend of Bonnie's, who flew over from Perth the day before me, and left her pillow on the plane. She's thinking of moving to Adelaide to study nursing.
Brett, who works in Keith for the Department of Agriculture.
Jordy, who moved to Adealdie to go to study, then came back to the EP work on his parents farm when he finished. Jordy offered to pray for me for the next two months, then decided that just two months was to stingy.
Stacey, who has just recently moved to the EP, to work as a teacher, but sees her main purpose as evangelism. She's also a great encourager.
The music
This guy called Abe, who runs an ad-production business in Devenport, Tasmania, was in charge of music, and did a great job of facilitating worship, in a way that's relevant to most young adults; that you can mosh or skank to. It's something I really miss at my own church, when I go back from Christian camps and conferences and stuff.
Beach walks
Every night we all went on a walk up the beach in the drak, which was great for getting to know people better. The interesting thing is that often because its so dark you can't really tell who you're walking with and talking to.
Teaching
This guy from Adelaide called Leigh Cunningham came and spoke to us about having direction, our identity as children of God and something else that I was to tired to understand.
Challenges
There were a heap of challenges for us to complete in our small groups.
One was that each member of a group had to co-operate in pushing a giant, inflated, tire tube out into the water, taking it around a buoy, and then bringing it back to the shore. However, the girls in my group decided that since we were in the country, and 'guys are sexist in the coutry' (ignoring the fact that statement itself is actually sexist) the girls should sit on top of the tube, and the guys should push. Right.
Bonnie's group decided to roll the tube down the sandunes, with Bonnie inside. Unfortunately she ended up stuffing up her ankle.
Theme night
Saturday night was theme night. This camp's theme was cartoons, so we had to dress up as cartoon characters for dinner. I'd been thinking of just making up a character and pretending that everyone else just hadn't heard of, but on the way to Riverton I'd decided to wear a black t-shirt with masking tape spider web stuck on - Charlotte's Web.
The cross
Saturday night, before the beach walk, Leigh got us to write down the things that were currently distancing us from God, and nail our piece of paper onto the big cross, outside on the beach. Later they were all taken down and burnt.
Sunday morning service
On Easter Sunday we got up at 5:30, to sit on the beach and contemplate the resurrection as the sun came up behind the clouds, over the gulf.
When the sun was up we shared the communion, meditating on the symbolism of the wine as the blood of Jesus that bled so we could be made clean, and the bread as his body that was broken for the same purpose.
Baptisms
On Sunday afternoon, Leigh baptised five people who had decided on camp that they wanted to be baptised. One of them was one of the people who had had chosen on camp to become a Christian. As they came up out of the water, we cheered and clapped, then prayed for them, then cheered and clapped as they came back to the shore.
Sunday night service
On Sunday night we had a kind of church service, which a heap of people who weren't at the camp came to. Each small group had to organise a part of the service. My group did a drama, which was quite good, if I say so myself.
Down on da farm
After camp, Bonnie, Squid, Kiah and I went back to Bonnie's family's farm for the night. Squid, Gilbert, Garry (his family live on the same farm) and I went in Garry's car, along a road made from quartz, of all things.
When we got to the farm we spent until tea listening to Kiah and Squid play recorders, which was quite amusing.
When Luke, Maryanne and Seth arrived we had tea.
After tea we went out in the ute to shoot some kangaroos. I shot one. Altogether we shot six, plus two two rabbits.
Back to Adelaide
Tuesday morning we (me, bonnie, Kiah and Squid) got down to the bus terminal in Port Lincoln at about 8:00, and caught the bus to Adelaide. We were amazed by the vast array of possible seating positions.
We stopped for lunch in Port Austa, once again. However, before we went to get lunch, Squid had to go to the toilet. So he went itno the toilet and came back out soon after, saying, 'It's full.' I presume he meant that it was full of people who'd been ont he bus all morning. So we waited until it was no longer full, he went ina nd spent about 10 minutes inside. So we ended up having to rush to Woolworths and eat what we got there it on the bus.
Giant Squid (Squid's dad) met us in Adelaide at about 7pm, and offered to drive Bonnie, Kiah and I to Bonnie's place, in the southern suburbs.
Adelaide
Didn't do much Wednesday morning. Bonnie was at work and Kiah was alseep still, so I sent some postcards and finished reading The Dressmaker.
When Bonnie got home from work, the three of us caught the bus with Kez (Bonnie's nextdoor neighbor) to Marion Shopping Centre, and considered the absurdity of a couple of lines in a certain Hillsong song.
At Marion Bonnie and I got some spiky, plastic wristbands, Kiah got some CDs (Powderfinger, The Darkness, Jet) and Bonnie got this cool CD rack at JB Hi-Fi for $10. However she left it in Rebel Sport, and Rebel Sport were unable to, ah, find it.
We had tea at an Italian restaurant. I ordered a bruschetta, which was really really good.
After tea we went and saw 50 First Dates. I was expecting it to be a typical Adam Sandler film, but instead of being stupid, most of the humor (and there wasn't heaps) was just gross. And Sandler the one being wasn't funny. I actually quite enjoyed the 'niceness' of the film.
On Thursday I went into the city. Took a lot of photos. Went to the museum and a few art galleries. Got yelled at by the curtor at the Experimental Art Foundation for walking into their gallery, which wasn't meant to be open. Also went to Polixeni Papapetrou's Dreams and Whispers exhibition at the Nexus Gallery and the Art Gallery of South Australia, to see the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art's Contemporary Photo-Media exhibition.
Back to Ballarat
Friday morning caught the train to the city. Left at 8:25am. The trip was uneventful. It was a bus of ordinariness. Arrived in Ballarat at about 7pm, and dicovered that the Coke I had left in my cupboard was still fizzy, although it had already been opened.
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