Camping!

On our second annual Estado 29 Boys' Camping and Rappelling Adventure, we got to take the boys to a nearby camping area. The site has no facilities or improvements other than the dirt road into the canyon.

The campsite is in a canyon behind La Cetto's vineyards. La Cetto and Domeq are two wineries located in the Guadalupe Valley. According to Jonathan, they are among the largest employers in Baja California.

After a final stream crossing, we were there. We were not the first ones to the camping area. The shady area we wanted already had a couple of cars, but they told us they were leaving soon. So we kept close, ready to move in when they left.

We started setting up camp. Two of the tents we had belong to the orphanage. One of them had a broken pole. "Mountain Man MacGuyver" James showed them how to repair it with a stick and some duct tape. I thought I was prepared, but I didn't have duct tape.

Why does eveyone call it "duck" tape? Ducks didn't invent it and don't carry any of the stuff with them. They don't have opposing thumbs, or hands or that matter, and would never be able to apply it without getting their feathers all stuck to the adhesive.

Soon, the tent was up.

Later in the day the breeze got strong and all three poles snapped, dropping the tent flat to the ground... but it was a good effort.

After the tents were up, the fun began... putting up tents is fun, but only to a point.

After the football landed on one of the neighbors' cars, the game was called off for a while...

Once the other cars had left, the shady spot was available. Jonathan, Adolfo and Cristobol put it to use.

We set up the kitchen area under the cottonwood shade tree to keep the ice-chests cool.

While hiking up the stream, the boys found trees that they thought would make good hiking sticks.
James is using the axe he brought along to cut them to length.

James loves to lead by example with the boys, showing them how to safely use the axe and letting them try it out under his watchful eye.

So it turns out there's not much difference between a hiking stick and a spear. Eduardo demonstrates his carving skills. Soon, everyone had to have a spear and the camp had a "Lord of the Flies" feel for a while.

Stephan gets his climbing gear ready. This was his first camping trip with us and he was a steadfast participant and help. We (the gringos) mainly provide support for the boys and the Estado staff, keeping things running smoothly and doing the odd jobs so that the boys and staff can have a great time with minimal k.p. and other chores. Stephan was a great addition and will be continuing to help out on future trips.

The best thing about these boys is that even on a fun trip like this, they volunteer to help at every opportunity and happily pitch in until the job is done. Pure joy, working with these guys.

James and Mark are scouting a likely rappelling site. They are much higher up than it seems here.

Now you can see where they are on top of the rock... This is the site they chose for the afternoon's rappelling fun. This rock is about three times higher than last year's rock face and more vertical.

This rock face was visible from the camp site and an easy five minute walk up the canyon.

The hike/climb to the top was much more difficult and, frankly, dangerous than the rappelling down part.

This is the rock at the very top in the previous picture. The drop is about 120 feet down to the other boys at the bottom. They were yelling up and down to each other... and they say that boys don't communicate verbally.

This is the link between the anchor points and the rope hanging over the side. There were five anchors (in case four fail), two carabiners (in case one fails) and two ropes over the side. The anchors are generally tied to large rocks back from the edge. Only one rope is visible here, the green one. Mark didn't have the other one ready yet.

The double rope is used because it makes the descent slower. Two ropes means that there is twice the friction in the device that the ropes pass through as the person descends.

James is supported by the green rope. He was the first person to test the gear by going over the edge. He was a little nervous. But once over the edge, he had fun. From there, he worked the lower end of the setup.

One of the first boys to try it out. I don't know who this is. He is about 2/3 of the way down and has reached the spot where his feet don't touch the wall. Some boys thought this was fun, others were a little concerned about having all their weight supported by the rope and having no control over how they twisted around in the breeze.

Here, James is the guy at the bottom of the rock. He keeps the ropes from flopping around and getting tangled. But his most important job is controlling the top speed of the person coming down. Even if they let go completely, James has control of how fast they will descend. He can even stop them completely if he wants, just by pulling down on the ropes. Once down, they are helped by James out of the rappelling gear.

Last year's rock was much easier and after a couple runs, some of the boys would descend as fast as the ropes would allow them. Probably due the increased height and challenge, none of the boys were daredevils this year, all descended with good caution.

This is Jonathan coming down... he's just 10-20' down from the top. I can tell it's Jonathan by the Madras shorts he was wearing.

As a child, Jonathan lived at the orphanage. Now grown, he often visits his old home to see the others. We are always glad to see him and it was especially nice to have him along on the camping trip.

These are the spectators and judges. Not judges like Paula Abdul... more like Simon Cowell. They provided helpful feedback to the person descending. Ratings on form, grace, style and ugliness were helpfully yelled out to the person on the rope.

Stephan with David, Debora's husband (Debora is the director of the orphanage, her father founded the orphanage). David rappelled down in good form. Two months before I saw him riding a horse and he seemed to know what he was doing. David loves baseball and is an umpire in the Ensenada city leagues.

Just 30 feet from our campsite was a small pool in the stream. Someone in the past year had made a small rock dam to create this pool. The boys loved splashing around and keeping cool here. When they got out, the breeze would cool them until they shivered.

Someone, in this group of boys, had brought along a bottle of shampoo... I didn't even bring shampoo!

They took the opportunity to look good for the evening's campfire.

This is Alexis working on his paint-by-numbers masterpiece in the light of the single Coleman lantern we had there. It was just about as dark as it looks in this picture, so he hunched over to see the lines. He worked quietly on this, ignoring the half-dozen other boys goofing off around him.

The night was cool, but not cold; good for a campfire. We brought along three bundles of good hardwood for the fire. This, along with a large quantity of cottonwood from the downed branch kept the fire going all night long. Tyson actually kept the fire going all through the night. He did this last year too. He takes his tasks seriously. I have to admit, it is nice to get up on a cold morning and have a hot fire to stand near.

On Sunday morning, it took close to 30 gallons of water to cool the fire pit off!

After a while, we dimmed the Coleman lantern so that the campfire was the only light in the area. The boys soon gathered around the campfire. They were still rowdy and loud... until Luis began to speak.

Luis is normally a quiet, seemingly shy, man who works and lives at the orphanage with his wife Diana and their newborn child.

This night, Luis quietly spoke to them about God's salvation, a salvation of grace and not works. He spoke of the man dying on the cross understanding and accepting the salvation Jesus offered to him by dying on his own cross right next to him. The boys were quiet. They sang a few songs a-cappella and James closed the time in prayer.

As James' prayer was drawing to a close, one of the boys opposite him sneezed and had (how to put this delicately...) an involuntary flatulent emission. The boys were respectfully quiet for James, but the pressure was building. The moment James said "Amen", the boys said "Amen" and burst out laughing. Poor James, being on the other side of the fire and facing the sneezer, didn't know why they were so suddenly breaking the quiet reverence of the previous moments.

We explained it the next morning (laughing, again) and then he understood.

Mark took this picture of me with David (l) and Luis (r). We are in the canyon about 10 minutes hike from the campsite. This area is wider and the stream meanders around. Behind us on the rock wall is the nearly dry waterfall.

Luis proved to be a capable leader and upstanding citizen on this trip. On Saturday night, he had led the boys with a devotional message. Sunday morning, alone, he quietly filled a very large trash bag with garbage from all around the camp sites and the neighboring creek, leaving the site much cleaner than when we had arrived.

On Sunday afternoon, after the we'd left the campsite, we stopped for a taco lunch at this stand. We ate here last year and it was a unanimous decision that we would stop again. Two tacos and a drink for each. We told the guy that we'd be back next year

You can't really tell here (which means it's not a great picture), but Alexis is playing with a souvenir of the camping trip... the rattle from a rattlesnake they killed. He didn't eat it, really.

And, don't worry about the paint-by-numbers thing from the night before... this kid knows how to mix it up.

Here's our group shot. We forgot to get the shot at the campsite. This shot was taken by Mark, so it's a rare shot with me in it. The site is an historic adobe ruin at the main crossroad in the small town of Guadalupe. I have my hand on the shoulder of Humberto, one of the newest boys at the orphanage.

Farewell until next year!... or next month anyway. We get to see each other every month, so the goodbyes are not especially heart-wrenching. This one, though, was much more heart-felt, as the boys, every one of them, gave us four gringos a hug as we parted instead of the usual wave or a fist-bump goodbye. That was the best part of my trip, to leave knowing that they'd had a great time and we'd been a part of it.

As we drove off, heading home, we all talked about our own best and favorite parts of the weekend. After we were finished, we'd talked about all of it.

Estado 29 Orphanage, Baja California

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