Okunkobo Beach, Nigeria—The United Youth Camp in Nigeria took place on August 15-21, with almost every camper and staff member attending Sabbath services on the 14th in Lagos, Nigeria. It was the first time the camp was held at Okunkobo Beach. Getting to the beach required a 30-minute boat ride in which we crossed through some thickets of plants similar in look to those on the Amazon in South America. The actual location of the camp site was on a land spit approximately 200 yards wide. On one side we had the Gulf of Guinea and on the other we had Badagry Creek.

Camp activities included arts and crafts, dance, kickball, rope bridge, team challenge/obstacle course, volleyball, archery, swimming, novelty Olympics and a Bible bowl. As is typical in UYC camps, every day started with a compass check, and every evening ended with a Bible study. Camp food was prepared by three very hard-working, wonderful ladies of the Lagos congregation. One of these ladies is 69 years old and slept on the ground in a tent just like everyone else. The cooks used gas stoves that were brought to the camp by hand. Dinner was served on a patio overlooking the ocean. The campers assisted with cleaning the dishes after every meal. The campers slept in 10-man tents with no more than eight campers per tent. There were five shower stalls for the ladies and five for the men. The shower stalls were made from palm tree branches woven together. Showers were taken using a bucket of water. We had no running water. A commode was provided but had to be flushed using water brought by buckets from the sea or a nearby well.

The team challenge course was mostly compiled from items found on the beach. We had the team trolley, tire change, simulated river crossing, spider web, tray exchange made from palm branches and a baby coconut used as a ball, alligator crossing, coconut toss, coconut walk the plank and coconut roll. Dorms were organized into three different teams: red, blue and green. The teams were co-ed, and each team’s age was distributed as evenly as possible.

We encountered several animals walking through the camp. Chickens, goats, ducks and even crabs were known to take up residence in the tents.

This year’s camp was different than the previous year’s camp in that it was held on a rented beach. The cost of this location was about one third of the cost of renting the previous camp location and far more picturesque. The entire camp was surrounded by palm and coconut trees. Several of us enjoyed gathering coconuts and drinking the milk and eating the meat.

The camp had a Hawaiian banquet night in which the staff served the campers with a wonderful spicy meal. During the meal a picture slide show of the week’s activities was shown. The camp’s only source of power was supplied by a generator, which allowed us to have lights in the evening.

In the evening, the constant and refreshing breeze from the ocean gave some of the staff and campers a chill, making them put on warmer clothes.

To organize the logistics of camp was no small task, and it took a tremendous amount of work and planning. Hats off to Oludare Akinbo and his team for pulling off a wonderful camp. The best way to describe it was a quote I heard while at camp, “This is not a Mickey Mouse run operation.” This camp was easily the envy of Africa. Everyone had an awesome time!