I was planning to write about all the great things going on here at camp because a little bird told me I was too depressing in my blogs, but then half way through writing it I bloody lost the whole thing again!!!

So, take 2.

The best thing about camp so far would have to be the people that are here, both international and local staff, so I'll introduce you to a few of the characters that emerged in the past 3 weeks.

Character 1:

Chris Pritchard- aka Crispy (get it?..Chris P...) age: 19, home town: Brisbane, AUS

Crispy is possibly the cheekiest little b***** in camp at the moment and you can't go a second without wondering if he's up to something. Despite his obvious disability in being a queenslander, Crispy has managed to keep us all laughing with him, not at him, as others have achieved.

One of crispy's first pranks occurred late one night as 2 Kiwis returned from completing their reporting duties to their families back home at the computer room. The 2 unsuspecting (they were Kiwi's, admittedly a little slower than most) returned to the bunk, exhausted, only to find clues to the finding the location of their missing beds. The first clue directed them to the bed of another room-mate where clue 2 was located. This then led them to a search of the small TV room attached to the bunk. Clue 3 was a maths problem: 49/3. Giggles (daniel) was immediately convinced that the location of their beds was held in the answer, and after Jamie (Kiwi no.2) stopped yelling out, "the answer is 13, the answer is 13" they came to conclusion (eventually) that the answer of 16.33333 did not have anything to do with thier beds. Dispontant and humiliated, the Kiwis continued searching the bunk for clues, with Giggles instead choosing to wander outside with a torch to see if the beds would be in sight. And sure enough, their lay their beds 20m away, perfectly made- hospital corners and all, on the nearby basketball court. With the remainder of the bunk in hysterics, the boys slowly made their way over to them. Jamie for some reason tried to lie on his mattress (which had only been propped up at the head and foot of the bed) and proceeded to collapse the whole set up and fall to the floor. It was priceless.

Crispy has furthered his pranks by putting his backside in the face of a fellow room mate while asleep and taking a photo of it, drawing a part of the male anatomy on the back of another sleeping room mate in permanent marker and countless other childish acts that only an adolescent male could think of. It's fair to say we're all scared to fall asleep these days for fear of what crispy may do while we peacefully dream.

Character 2: Brian

Brian is the african american cook who runs the kitchen and somehow manages to make washing dishes and working in the kitchen enjoyable. I think he's around 50 and he's a Philly local and has a colourful past including doing time, but no one is really sure for what reason. It doesn't really matter cause the guy is the sweetest bloke that is always up for a laugh and makes you day worthwhile when you've finished mowing grass for 5hrs. In a way he's a bit of stereotype with the supremes or something similar constantly playing in the headphones he had permantly affixed around his neck, and his flashy ganster sense of fashion. But we all love the guy and he always makes sure you're well fed (a high priority in my books).

Yesterday Brian sparked the inaugural tandem pudding eating contest, whereby 2 people are teamed up and have to eat their bowl of pudding the quickest. One player sits behind the other and acts as the arms, controlling the rate of pudding input, the other player sits infront with their hands beihnd them and has to complete the act by scoffing the pudding their partners hands haphazardly guide towards their mouth. The pudding itself looks more like Chocolate Yogo and so you can imagine 3 blokes (Crispy of course being one) literally covered in chocolate pudding trying not to burst out laughing and complete their bowl. Stu (another bloody Kiwi) managed to hold the biggest poker face and down his bowl the quickest by using the method introduced by his partner of just putting his face in the bowl (it's safe to say stu was not expecting the bowl to be launched at his face). Simple yet effective.

So there, it's not all doom and gloom as I perhaps having been making camp out to be- with the unbearable heat (close to 40 again today), the terrible american junk food and the cabin that smells like the boot of my dad's car after we put the dead turtle we found on holidays inside. Hope to hear from you all soon! Miss Ya Guys!

-mike