A group of young men set out canoes in the waters of Canada. I happen to get lucky enough to be selected for this trip, and start paddling through some lake with two of my new friends. The group leaders take all forms of technology and tell us we are going to be living on “God’s time,” getting up when we do and sleeping when we want. Already at the start we notice the swarming mosquitos and black flies that bite chunks out of your skin. When we finally reach our first camp ground they tell us to start cooking, so we cook our first meal out on a rock in the middle of a lake surrounded by trees as the sun goes down sparkling on the water.
The dinner is terrible macaroni with peas and who knows what else, our only savior is Dustin when he cooks the dessert and a concoction I created out there for the crew. We call it cappuccino, but it is actually every form of sugar energy I found in the food bag. So with our cups we go and sit at the rocks edge with our feet in the water listening to the moose, bears, beavers, and other animals.
“Whose gonna sump!” Dustin yelled while smiling.
I jump up eager for new experiences and say, “I will.”
Well it turns out that because it is a natural preserve, we are forced to swallow toothpaste, dig our own bathrooms, and apparently clean dishes without dumping them. They poured water into the cooking pan swooshed it around with all the stuff left in the pot and said, “Sump it.”
I forced my head into the pot and took a whiff, the scent of watered down cheese, soggy noodles, and campfire smoke is what I got in return as I started to drink the contents.