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| Whip it group photo! |
WHIP IT.What is WHIP
IT? Well, WHIP IT isn’t a camp, it’s a workshop. I figured that out right as
soon as I arrived at the campsite. So no flag ups or downs, no kitos, no
lullabies, and more learning than the usual camp. WHIP IT is short for
“Workshops Happening In the Philippines and Indonesia, Thanks!” And I find it
really interesting how they made up those kinds of words because it isn’t the
official meaning.
So
this camp, or should I say, workshop, is five days and four nights long. The
WHIP IT I went to is the third one and the theme was WHIP IT TREE. Since a tree
has roots to start with, WHIP IT TREE is practically going back to the basics.
I learned a lot about JB 101 on the first day. I realized that the actual
purpose of CISV and the JBs is much greater than what I once thought. The
workshop moved me. I was really inspired. I respect CISV much more now, not
just as worldwide peace organization that holds international camps, but as an
organization that “Educates and inspires action for a more just and peaceful
world”. And yeah, they told me to memorize that line, and I did.
So
we have more free time and freedom in this workshop since they consider us as
more mature people. So we don’t have lights out, can stay up as late as we
want, and they even let us bring cellphones as long as we’re responsible for it.
So every night we pretty much spent our
time at someone’s room just talking, playing cards and mind games, truth or
dare, or just random stuff. It was really fun, even the facilitators joined us one
night. On the last night, me and one of my friends from the Philippines stayed
up the whole night. It was awkward, knowing that we were literally surrounded by
people that fell asleep by accident in the middle of the game, but we survived
through the night.
All
I can say is that WHIP IT is so different compared to usual camps. We have
planning groups, learned about briefing and debriefing, learned about
leadership, content areas, differences, much much more knowledge on CISV especially
on JBs, and we bonded A LOT. We even learned about silly abbreviations like DR
GA. And since my only program was Interchange, I didn’t really know what a camp
felt like. This experience was really memorable. It’s really funny how the
Pinoys were addicted to TehBotol, and how the Indonesians were addicted to Polvoron.
God I miss those guys. Even writing this makes me kinda sad cause I can’t see
them for at least eleven more months.
I have to admit that I am not good at telling
stories at all, but all I can say is I miss WHIP IT. It was really great. I
miss how we bonded, I miss how we learned, I miss how went crazy at night, and I
especially, miss the people, the activities, the killing game. I can’t even
describe how sad I felt when it was over. Lots of people may not know this, but
I almost cried when it came to goodbyes. It’s amazing how much I learned about
CISV after the program, especially about JBs. It’s also really amazing how much
we learned from other chapters on how they develop and make their JBs more active in CISV. Even now, my LJR’s have really big plans for
our chapter. And I’m just really proud to be a part of it all.
- Vanessa Angelica
Indonesia
