Brazil Camp - Different but the Same by David Rains

Different But the Same

When I boarded my first flight of many on my way to Brazil I didn’t quite know what to expect. I asked myself what it would be like, would the people like me, what would the language barrier be like? These questions kept running through my mind as we arrived at the camp, but after I started meeting the people and campers my questions and worries started to melt away. The camp itself is set next to the church hall and kitchen area, on the campsite itself we had a two-person shower house and two thatched roof buildings where some of the staff and campers including myself stayed.

At first it was hard to get used to the language barrier, coming from the states I’m not used to being in a place where English isn’t the primary language. That first night I was unprepared for the sleeping arrangements, unbeknownst to me all the people there travel with hammocks, and as I watched all my campers set up their hammocks and settle in I wondered where I would sleep. Thankfully there was a wooden picnic table where I was staying, so I set my sleeping bag and fell asleep under a moon and star lit sky thinking to myself how there couldn’t be a more beautiful view.

Later that night it began to rain and since my building had no walls just a roof the rain began to seep in and get all the campers wet. Thankfully for me one of the members arrived out of nowhere with a tarp and began to give our building walls. I grabbed a piece of the tarp and began to help him; it occurred to me that not a word was spoken between us there was just a job that needed to be done.

The communication barrier that I was so concerned about didn’t matter that night, just because we couldn’t communicate with words didn’t mean we couldn’t communicate at all. I realized after that first night that even though we came from different cultures, we still all shared certain things that bound us together.

By the end of camp I realized that we still laughed at the same things; we still enjoyed the same sports, we still shared the same faith. We were different in many ways but also the same, what tied us together was faith and belief in our God who transcends any language barrier. We were different but the same.