Avispea Work Camp

Last week, the Team from Helena Montana arrived in Tallinn. There were ten of them. 4 of them were teenagers, so they were fun to hang out with. On Monday, July 17, We all went to Hesburger and then to the train where we would ride to the middle of town then get on a new train which would take us strait to Avispea. It was expected to take 2 hours or so. On the train ride I got to know the team really well. After 2 long hours, we arrived at our destination. The pastor of the church where we were going to be staying came and picked us up.

When we got to the church, we saw huge piles of wood all over. There was one huge pile right in the middle of the driveway. I thought we were just going to be doing some stacking wood and various other jobs. But as it turned out, all we were going to be doing was chopping and stacking wood. I couldn’t believe it. This year I wasn’t going to be able to escape chopping wood, like I usually did at home with my dad. I walked around and just kept finding more and more piles. They were huge. I thought to myself, there is no way we are going to be able to cut and stack all of this.

We gathered together in the guest house and had our first meeting. Eric, the pastor of the church explained to us what we were going to be doing, and how we would be doing it. After the meeting we went to our rooms and fell quickly asleep. The next morning, I was awoken by flies buzzing around my head. The clock read 8:00 AM, it was time for breakfast. Breakfast was quick but good. We were all hesitant to finish eating, because we knew that as soon as we finished, we would have to go work. But soon, we all finished eating and made our way out to the first wood pile. We had everyone working on it. We had to first put each log on the splitter, then we had to put the split logs into wheelbarrows, and wheel them over to the shed where they would be stacked. It was very repetitive, but once we really got going, we were cooking.

Halfway through the day, we would stop for lunch. The only bad thing about stopping was that when we came back to work, we had to regain our energy and try to get back on track. We worked for another three hours or so until Lea had the next meal ready for us. The food was so good. It was anything but camp food. Everyone liked it, and there were never leftovers. After dinner, we had the rest of the day to relax. On some days, we went to a nearby lake to swim. It was the best feeling ever after a hard days work. That was pretty much the routine of every day.

The second day we had to work on a different pile. It was a lot bigger, and was going to take us more than one day. We did really well on the big pile. We were all working at the same spot, and we all had jobs we were doing. No one was slacking, so we really got things done. At the end of the second day. We had got through one pile, and a good chunk of another. At night we had a small campfire, and roasted marshmallows. It was nice to be able to relax, and have a little fun.

The next morning I had a hard time waking up. It was the last workday. I knew that the only way I was going to get through was just by really going at it, and get it done as quickly as possible. Lea cooked pancakes for breakfast. They were so good. They got everyone pretty well energized. We were ready to start. We had already stacked 14 rows of wood. We had about 7 rows more to go. We had one more pile left. We were really making progress quickly. Everyone was working so hard. It was such a great feeling. By the time lunch had come we had made a good sized dent in the pile, and made 3 more rows of wood. Yet again we had really good food. By the time lunch was finished, we were ready to get back to it, and try and finish stacking as much as we needed. The sun was really beating down on us, and it slowed down some people. I was actually enjoying it. It reminded me of Football and Wrestling practice.

The sun was starting to go down now, but very slowly. We were coming to an end. Now we were all really moving. I was running wheelbarrows back and forth. First filling them, then dumping them by the stacks of woods. Then, Quicker than I thought, we were finished. It was crazy how fast we had been working. By the time we were done, we had stacked altogether 21 rows of wood, and 40 cords worth of space. It was so cool to see how much we had accomplished. We had provided 4 years worth of wood for the church, and the pastor’s family. At the end of the day, we all went to the lake and swam. I was a great ending to the camp.