Japca Camp. 10-17 August 2011

“A priori” the camp is considered the basis and the main element of scouting, where a lot of adventures are happening, which are after, transmitted from generation to generation; where children learn for the first time what is scout friendship, reciprocal trust, clothes full of mud sometimes and the joy of the evening fire, which gets straight to your soul and doesn’t leave you either when you are 20, 30 or 70 years old.

So, for me, as for others, a camp is equal and is even more than a hundred meetings, round tables, which sometimes don’t even express the shadow from the scout spirit, which is present in nature..during summer, in the middle of rain.

This scout camp happened very suddenly, since scouts from the Orhei announced they wanted to come in visit, so we’ll explore together the left border of Nistru river. With a short training for a few days before the camp, we were there ready, in the morning of the camp : 6 rovers (since trainers sounds too fancy) and 20 cub scouts. As well, our scout friends from Orhei, 30 in number, came with their guitars, for what they are famous.

The first day was extremely cold and rainy, but a fast ecological activity and tents installment warmed us up. We even succeeded to prepare a warm amazing soup, which you can taste only in the forest by the fire. Our scout friends arrived later on that day, so we dedicated this day to memories from previous camps and jamborees. The next days were entirely dedicated to the cub scouts. We tried to cultivate in them love towards nature, the ability to be brave in any situation (even though there still were from those who were afraid to climb on the installed ropes). To be mentioned that the next days were full of sun, and the nights had a magic moon, even though the 8 hour sleep was not ignored by anyone.

Tents installment near the Japca Monastery was only in our favor, the nuns allowed us to take water from the benefactor springs, and they were really nice and understanding with us. The field trips extended a little bit more, to the left side of Nistru. Some museums from Camenca, Severinovca and Cuzmin brought us back to war years and showed us how important it is to cherish the peace we live in. Rascov (the village which is over 1000 years old) brought back to us the rich history of the community. That is where we saw the ruins of the synagogue which is 700 years old, which despite years kept its full colors and the atmosphere of the ages, that is where we visited the polish Catholic Church (Sacred Kaatan) and we heard stories and memories from the old people.

Seven days passed way too fast, and as usually, at the end no one wanted to go home, not kids who were 6-7 years old, which were making protests- they already learned to make the friendship knot and seemed forever scouts; and not us, the “big” ones who came from universities and which in the 7th day were more playful than the little ones. One thing is known for sure, the camp is what unites us each summer and it will surely repeat.

Written by Mihaela Staras, Rover NSA Moldova

Source: www.scout.org