The Bicycle Adventure and Other Stories

Did you know? Nearly every major injury I have sustained was caused by riding a bike.

The other day, I went on an adventure with my new friend, Sarah, at FaHoLo. It involved bicycles, and I will tell you about our adventure in a minute. First, I have to give you a brief tour of the Laura + bike=disaster timeline.

Let’s see. Once, I was riding a wheeled toy in our garage. I would have to ask my mom exactly how old I was, but that’s not important. Suffice it to say, I flipped the tricycle thing over onto the concrete floor and got a gigantic bruise on my forehead. I think it was right before some dance recital, photography session, or other moment at which it would be nice to appear photogenic, and mom spent a quite a while putting foundation on my bump to somewhat cover it up. Oops!

When I was about 8 years old—my adult front teeth were newly grown in—I attempted to ride my neighbor’s full-sized bike. I did fine for a while, until I tried to turn into my driveway. I swerved, and the next thing I knew I took a bite of concrete, scraped my nose and chin and chipped off at least a third of my right front tooth. I got a cap on that tooth and you can still see the faint line that delineates the real tooth from the cap. You’d think I would have learned my lesson about bikes. Or not.

When I was 10, dad left for his first international trip—a business trip to the island of Cyprus. When he called home to tell us he arrived safely, mom got to tell him I had wrecked my bike and broken my right arm. What happened was this: I was trying to ride one-handed down the hill in our neighborhood. I had seen many of my friends doing it well and thought I would give it a try. I veered out of control and to correct the problem I grabbed the left-hand handle brake (which makes sense, given that I am left-handed!). Unfortunately, the left brake stops the front wheel! This presumably caused me to flip the bike and fracture my arm. Now, that was in the days before every pre-teen had a cell phone, so I had to wait on the curb in pain for someone to drive by before I could get help. I wore a cast for six weeks and was as good as new. (Taking piano lessons for six weeks with a cast made my piano teacher’s life difficult, but I got a lot better at playing chords with my left hand during that time!)

That is most of the harm I caused. Since those adventurous days of childhood bike injury, I have managed to stay in mostly one piece while navigating the roads on my beloved bicycle.

That brings me to the other day’s bike adventure. I got a text from Sarah, which simply read, “Come to the new maintenance building. It will be fun!” I figured she was right, and so I wandered off to join her. She led me into the dark, dusty building and over to the corner where, to my surprise, lay a bunch of old bikes. It looked as though the bike section of Wal-Mart had crawled there to die. Flat tires, broken brakes, and loose chains dominated the scene, but with a little bit of searching we each found a bike that probably wouldn’t kill us to ride. With our new-found modes of transportation, we cycled off into the sunset.

The bike I found is a character. It is a red boy’s Huffy, and when I first found it, its chain was off the gears, its front brake was busted, and the seat needed tightened so it wobbled forward and backward while I tried to ride. I put the chain back on, figured the front brake was what caused my 10-year-old arm fracture so I was just fine without it, and decided it would be fun to try to ride with a loose seat. That dusky ride was one of the most delightful things I have done in a long time! I had a blast riding with Sarah. (And I didn’t fall or anything!)

The next day, I asked the mechanic, Kyle, to tighten up my seat. That helped make it a lot easier to ride and I have been riding it around camp a lot more since then. That night, Sarah and I rode down the entrance road and past the go-cart track to the field with hay bales in it. We hopped back and forth across the rows of hay bales and then sat and talked until it got dark.

So, while most of my major injuries have come from riding bicycles, some of the most delightfully fun times in my life have come from those rides as well.

Faith, Hope, Love and Summer--Update #3

Hey there! This will be a short post because I have to run to the dining hall for a quick lunch and then to the boat dock to lifeguard for three hours this afternoon. Just wanted to give you a quick update on life here at camp, though.

Things are crazy, as usual. Lifeguarding was the hardest this week that it has ever been, because this week was Kids Camp! That means that a boatload of 2nd-6th graders invaded FaHoLo for the week. I decided this week that little girls listen and behave much, much better than little boys in general. That does not mean that girls are better than boys or any such thing. But as far as lifeguarding goes, sessions with more girls go smoothly, while boys are harder to deal with. You see, girls are content to play happily in the pool and follow the rules. They play Marco Polo, the dunking-each-other-until-you-guess-the-color game, and swim around looking at the bottom of the pool with their goggles (which break all the time!). Little boys--and many of their teenaged group leaders--are not content following the rules. They would rather run, hang on the volleyball net, throw each other, wrestle each other, run and jump in, dive, splash each other, splash me, not hold still quietly during buddy check, and so on. They like to push limits on the rules and therefore push my buttons. That's frustrating to me, but I'm learning to deal with it. It is helpful that when we lifeguard we always have at least two people on duty. Usually I am partnered with a guy such as Kyle, Casey or Graham, and they can handle the little boys better than I can. Thus, we work well as a team.

I also had my first saves this last week. I was one of the guards in the water during swim tests, and so I pulled the kids to safety who couldn't make it all the way across the pool. I was surprised a few times, both by the kids that could and could not make it. There were some little 7- or 8-year-olds, that I was sure I would have to save, who made it across no problem. Some others were older and looked like they were doing fine until all the sudden they freaked out or got tired and started to panic and  bob up and down until I could get to them. I learned from that to never judge only by appearances, people will always surprise you.

Housekeeping is going well. We are working well as a team and getting the rooms turned around quickly and accurately. I still get grossed out sometimes, but most of the time I just suck it up and deal with whatever nastiness we find. I still like it when people leave soda, loose change, or unopened Oreos in their rooms...It makes the summer staff happy!

I began working in Laundry last week when one of the other summer staff couldn't work there anymore. I am getting to be a professional folder and sorter of sheets, towels, bath mats, and cleaning rags. Sam and I work together folding the flat sheets. It's a lot of fun, actually. I work in there on Tuesdays and Thursdays after my pool chores.

We found 4 frogs in the pool yesterday afternoon. I like catching frogs, but I will only do it with my net. I squeal pretty much every time I find one in the skimmer still. They camoflague very well in thee leaves and bugs and so I am usually very surprised.

I still love devotion time and staff meeting here. I hope that in the future I can work in another place that is as spiritually and relationally uplifting as this place is. I love the people here! I got to share one of my devotions with the summer staff this week. I spoke about freedom. There are many things that drag us down, but Christ has promised to set us free from the yoke of slavery and to help us cast of the sin that so easily entangles so we can run the race marked out for us. I still come back to "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." (Galatians 5:1) I am learning to not be bound by what other people think, by fear, or by my circumstances. Christ helps me not be dragged down by that anymore, because He made me to be free. That is why He died on the cross, so what am I doing living in bondage if freedom is right there for me? I also have to extend freedom to others to live as God created them. Sometimes people drive me crazy. But I have to look at the bigger picture--that they are redeemed sinners seeking freedom, just like me--and extend freedom and grace to the people around me.

God is so amazing to continue speaking His Words to me, even when I am staring at my journal at 11:00 p.m. after a long day's work and just trying not to fall asleep before I finish my thoughts and prayers. He still speaks even when I am weak and tired. I just have to open the door of my heart and invite Him in to speak!

Wow...I wrote for longer than I thought already (and thus do not have much time to proofread!). I'm off to work again.

*sings* Hi-ho-hi-ho it's off to work I go!