Ward Camp

In a Mormon ward in Hawaii the yearly activity is a week at camp on the beach. Usually we miss this because we are in the mainland visiting our children when it occurs, but this year we were in town.

You would not believe the luxury camping that Hawaiian do. First of all they set their tents all up under "easy corners". These are sturdy pole and tarps arrangements that protect the tent and living area from rain, wind, etc. Being mainlanders ourselves we do not have easy corners so we just set our tent up. The first year we did this, about five years ago, our tent blew down a couple of times. This year we selected a spot a little more sheltered by trees for some shade and wind protection and did not have a problem. Some people hook up large double sinks to the available faucets. Our first time someone even brought a real china cabinet to camp to live just like at home. Unbelievable!

Hawaiian wards take huge generators to camp to power everything from lights and cooking stoves to TVs, etc. A staging area is used for group activities. This year the first one was a huge memorial dance for Michael Jackson with a performance of "Thriller" and pulsating lights. Other group activities included a Primary activity for the children one day, a Musical fireside on Sunday, nightly movies, and of course every ward camp ends with a huge luau including the kalua pork (pig cooked underground).

Topaz and Emerald went camping with us the first night. They loved scampering around in the tent and swimming on the beach. On the other hand, they did not love sleeping at night so it was a rather long night for me. It didn't help that the Michael Jackson Memorial dance loudly went until 11 P.M. and then some neighbors from another group played the radio nearly as loud until 4 A.M.

Since the beach camp was less than a mile from our house we luxuriously went home for showers and even slept at home a couple of the nights. We're not the campers we were when we were younger but all in all it was quite fun. Many of the locals make this their only vacation from work, but of course we mainlanders will go to the mainland to visit our families still too.