Whip it!

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