Young Women's Camp

We did Young Women's camp in September this year.  I always enjoy camping with the young women and even though I wasn't looking forward to being away from Trip for a whole week (Young Men's camp was immediately after), I was still looking forward to spending time with the girls.


So far, I have camped in the jungle twice, both times with the young women, and both times very different than any kind of camping I have ever done before!  I think this year takes the cake when it comes to memorable experiences.  There were only 4 YW leaders at the camp this year, and we were short on priesthood support as well.  We didn't have too many girls, so this wasn't really an issue, until it came time for the jungle trek.  With only 1 priesthood leader available, I volunteered to stay back and keep an eye on camp.  This was my crafty plan to try to avoid all the leeches that were sure to be on the trail...it had been raining a lot and leeches were in abundance this year.  If you have never seen a leeche crawling towards your bare flesh, count yourself lucky!


Anyway, our camp was divided into 2 parts; the area with the tents and a concrete bunker where we could lock up our food.  I was in the bunker cleaning up from the morning activities when I noticed a troop of monkeys coming towards the door.  I have heard stories about monkeys getting aggressive around food, so this made me kind of nervous.  I quickly shut and locked the door to prevent any trouble and then watched them leave from the window. 


Not too long after this, I decided that I should go up to check on our tents and make sure everything was okay.  I wasn't really worried about it since we were in a fairly remote location and there were park rangers at the base of the trail leading to the tents.  When I got there, I was completely caught off guard.  There were at least 20 monkeys running around our camp, trash was strewn everywhere and everything was a mess!  I even saw one monkey who had opened a water jug filled with Milo and was sticking his hand in, then licking it off.  I felt like I had walked into a scene from a movie.  I marched right into camp to chase the monkeys away, when I realized that they weren't scared...and they weren't going anywhere!  Instead they were circling around me.  Yikes!  Having pretty much no experience when it comes to monkeys, I decided to retreat before anything happened and call the first person I think of when it comes to monkeys, President Renner, my branch president.  I told him about my predicament and asked him what he thought I should do.  This is pretty much how the conversation went:

• Pres. Renner:  Just grab a stick and start hitting monkeys.  They will get the idea.

• Me:  But won't they charge me or something?

• Pres. Renner:  Oh yeah, they will probably bear their teeth and run at you, but that's why you have the stick.

At this point I'm thinking he is pretty much insane.  20 monkeys + 1 of me = sure disaster, even if I have a stick!

• Me:  What about a Plan B?

• Pres. Renner:  Well, I guess the other thing you could do is get the park rangers to help you.  I will be there in 40 minutes with a slingshot and a bag of marbles.

In case it isn't obvious, I went with plan B.  It seemed safer.  As soon as I hung up with Pres. Renner, I went over to the ranger station.  It was 4:45pm and there was only 1 park ranger left.  I told him about the monkeys being in our camp and he just looked at me for a minute before giving this response:

• Park Ranger:  Where is the rest of your group?

• Me:  They are still trekking.

• Park Ranger:  (silence)

• Me:  So can you help me?

• Park Ranger:  Oh no.  I can't go up there, they will attack me.  I am going home now, have a good night!  (Followed by a hasty drive into the sunset on his scooter)

• Me:  (speechless, and in shock)

This response did not change my opinion of the "stick plan".  Luckily, the rest of the camp returned right about then and we were able to chase the monkeys away.  There is definitely strength in numbers!  Also, the slingshot and marbles helped to keep them away for the rest of camp.  

I don't think I will ever look at monkeys, or park rangers the same again.  This was definitely an experience that I NEVER would have seen coming...how interesting life can be!