In our life we encounter many experiences that are either memorable or embarrassing. In the experiences that we come across, we socialize with others and we have an adventure with them.
Camping time! Finally we were ready to go. Clothes were prepared, foods were ready to be opened and I already felt the excitement inside of me.
Everybody was ready and we left Bontoc. We rode on a jeep. Genalyn, Leah and I shouted at the top of our voice when we started and left the town. We were so excited that we didn't notice that the road was getting rocky and dusty and the ride was getting bumpy. While we passed by a barrio, I heard the children playing and crying and even the dogs barking. I smelled the feces of carabaos and chicken and even garbage and decaying animals, as if people didn't mind about it. We reached our destination, Ba-ang, Banao, Bauko. I saw booths and people enjoying and excited to meet us. My heart was beating faster and faster because of excitement. It was as if my heart would explode that time.
The field was green and wide. I heard the birds chirping, cows mooing and insects buzzing. Near was a river where you can see people washing clothes and taking a bath. The great thing about the field was surrounded by pine trees which gave fresh air.
People were sitting, putting up tents and some were cooking. I smelled delicious foods that were cooked, even from a distance. I heard the laughter of people excited and who enjoyed being there. Excitement was in the air that time.
Then the jamboree proceeded. There were contests such as search for the cleanest tent, slogan contest, poster making and search for the troop that recycles almost everything. We all joined the contests. We tried our best in maintaining our tent clean. We submitted four posters and recycled most of our wrappers. Among these competitions, I got involved in the last contest, the slogan contest. I tried real hard to let our team win. We submitted five slogans and among these was my work.
Every troop was determined to win the contests. Some roamed around to see for themselves the work of others. Some didn't mind if they won or lost, they just enjoyed what they were doing. All contestants, coaches and co-coaches were very persistent; some were panicking that they might not finish their work on time. But all of their works were completed before the judgment day.
After all troops had submitted their outputs, the judges evaluated these. We looked at all the work of the others, they were all beautiful. They made hats out of papers and newspapers. They also made a purse out of food wrappers. Some of them made use of nature and others used artificial beauty. All of the works have their own originality.
The most awaited day come. They were announcing the winners in every contest. In poster making, we ranked the second place, where we made use of nature as our theme.In recycling, we won fourth place, because we made place mat out of wrappers of juice which they said it's very common. In search for the cleanest tent, we ranked third. While in the slogan contest, my work was included in the top five. My work ranked number three. After hearing the result, we were so happy and overjoyed. But when we received our prize which was a bag of biscuit, most of our expressions turned sour. I was so angry for I hated the prize. Our coach said that we were still lucky to be in the top five in almost the entire event even though our works were simple compared to others that were very creative. After hearing what our coach said, we realized, especially me, that camping was all about sportsmanship, enjoying and having a price of biscuit was still worth the effort. Later that day, I found out from others that their prize was also a bag of biscuit. We enjoyed every moment and accepted every defeat at the camp from that day forward.
