My body was awake at its usual time after 5:00, but my mind had been alert from much earlier. Sleeping on my sides had become painful throughout the night because of the sand and river stones surface. This caused me to keep changing sides, from the time I became aware of the pain. I finally got up at almost 7:30 as I'd become increasingly conscious of getting warm. The sun had risen in the direction where my head had been laid. I did all I could to cool down, while remaining in the tent, like taking the pink tam off my head. The night had not been cold as I had prepared for at all. I decided to start my devotion before exiting the tent, even though I wished I could rest some more.
The book of Isaiah gives a stark reminder that God does things for His glory. His mercies that are extended to us, are for His glory. We should not forget this. "For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another." Isaiah 48:9-11 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/isa.48.9-11.KJV.
This morning, I went in and out of my tent over 10 times. This was quite an ordeal for me as the entryway is not like a door. On top of that, I was constantly trying to close the mesh flap to ensure no insects went in, even though up to that point, I hadn't experienced any. I'm not going to say camping is for me, but it's also early in the game, so I'm not going to rule it out either. But all I felt was tired, since I had gotten up, until mid afternoon, no doubt because I had gone to bed late and had not gotten a good night's sleep. I felt miserable honestly, and was moving back and forth like mad ants. I had gone back and forth because everything inside my tent was pretty much needed outside. But I had been trying to avoid taking everything out again, since I'd have to bring them back into the tent that night. My friends on the other hand, had a huge plastic box, probably 50L or so, which could be tightly locked and kept outside in the elements. Everything for cooking was in it and then they had two others, one for frozen foods and the other for cool foods. So they didn't have the back and forth ordeal as I did. This wasn't their first camping trip, so no doubt they had overcome their own challenges.
I went in and out of my tent over 10 times.
While we were setting up a small table and umbrella to prepare breakfast, a group, which we deduced to be Brazilian, largely because of the tattoos and loud voices, along with the many tanned skin tones, were also setting up. They had come early in the morning and were setting up. We thought they were setting up an overnight tent, at least, I did, but they actually put up a huge tent with an extended shade tarpaulin to the front. When my friends saw that, they remembered there was a similar huge tent in the vehicle. So at minutes to 10:00 in the morning, I went with my friend's husband to collect it. But little did I know that what we had collected was a cot and it's covering. We didn't find out until we had returned from the seven minute walk to the campsite. It was a beautiful walk alongside the river where the vehicle had been parked. When we realised what had happened, my friend went the next time to the vehicle, with her husband and they returned shortly with the huge sun tent. It required all of us to set it up and I had to chip in some extra strength and tactics to get it all locked into place. A dat time deh mi tiyad.
First on the agenda after all that exertion, was breakfast. I had borrowed a camping stove for myself and so I tried to affix the gas and get it going. It took a long time to figure out that the can needed to be pushed all the way up and then a stone or other support placed behind it, just in case. Not even my friends knew that. LOL. Always learning. I get sum bun up deh doe. Why? Well, the cheap, thin bacon I'd bought kept popping, no matter how low the fire was turned down or how much I tried to keep my distance. The defrosted plantains on the other hand, fried really well. My friends husband made coffee for us beforehand. Now I started to feel like I was camping. But then, I needed to get something else from the tent. I was not a happy camper, as my friend told me to just bring everything out. I shared the plantains with them and they shared their very meaty, almost strange to my taste buds, sausage with me. The sausage wasn't singles, but was instead one huge coil which they cut. I didn't think of taking a picture at the time though. I sat down on my borrowed three legged stool and had bacon, plantain, bread and some of my friend's scrambled eggs which I scooped from her plate. I told my friend about the heat I'd experienced in my tent, wondering if I was the only one. But upon examination of their tent, I observed that it had ventilation at three different mesh areas. What I didn't understand about my tent was that the second covering could actually be removed to allow more air in. I did it that morning, but didn't really need to, since I wasn't staying in the tent.
I continued to move about with great uncertainty and a bit of frustration, which became evident to my friend. I didn't think camping was supposed to be so tiring. I thought it was going to be relaxing and serene. My vision of camping on TV was of groups or families playing games and singing. Something with more structure and direction. I started to feel like the odd one out, the third wheel. I had my sudoku and tons of things I could do by myself in my tent, but I can do those things at home. My mind kept going. Seeing my plight and hearing my complaints, my friend forced me to try and relax and unwind. That helped me to settle down a bit, but my mind was still going and my eyes were seeing every possible thing that needed to be addressed. My friend poured me a glass of red wine. My face grimaced at the taste and after several sips, I asked what it was supposed to do because I didn't feel anything. My friends husband made a fire using coals and some sort of gel in a small square grill they had recently bought. All these fancy things for camping. LOL. Roasting marshmallows turned out to be the most fun for me, along with enjoying the natural scene. I felt I had brought too much food for cooking and too many snacks. I also had canned foods which didn't look like they were going to be had. I decided to make a vegetable soup or stew as the time had gotten chilly by that time.
My friend said camping was about eating. And she was right, it seemed as there was always some fire going or thought of food. It got a bit much for me until I told myself I did t have to follow suite. I was still full from my lunch. We roasted marshmallows again. They were so sweet, yet we had do many. Bad. Very Bad.
The rain came down on us around 20:00. And while we weren’t unaware of it’s coming, we hadn’t prepared our tents accordingly. After working outside once the rain had eased by adding another tarpaulin over the tent, I had to go inside my tent to waterproof my bags since they were on the tent floor. The work seemed endless.
Added the cot in my tent for a better nights sleep. It was quite an elaborate set up and took me lots more time to rearrange the room again.
The police had been called by the neighbors who had reported a disturbance. The police that came to our tent was very nice and though he spoke mostly Japanese, he spoke a little English. We however could understand everything he said and responded accordingly. He asked if we were sleeping at the location and what time we’d be going to bed. Be also asked what countries we were from, but never asked for our residence cards, which was usually standard for most police officers At the time when he’d come, we were playing a heated game of backgammon. But we weren’t noisy at all, in my opinion. There was another large group, which was also visited by another police officer. But from what I could hear, they weren’t particularly noisy either. It was a few minutes after 22:00 when the police came. In Japan, noise levels are restricted by 22:00 in residential areas. I had prayed a special prayer this morning and God had granted us favour. You see, when we arrived at the location on Friday night, there were barriers and signs indicating no one should be there. I was quite concerned by this. But by early Saturday morning there were at least three other groups that had joined us. They did not however, pitch tents to stay overnight.
I had brought way too much food and I was not exaggerating. I had also brought way too much clothing, but they came in handy when we got wet in the rain as we were trying to ensure our tents were as rain proof as possible.