Have you ever been camping?

Would you call it camping if we do it within the school compound?

I was part of the Girl Guides till middle school. As a part of the badging we were required to camp outdoors. However, for safety of the children it was decided that we would camp in tents in the school ground. I think more than the safety many of us were not okay with the lets say “outdoor toilet” situation.

Despite the adulterated camping experience, all of us were super excited. We made food using gas stoves that we carried, made a camp fire and had… let’s call them charred marshmallows. We sang songs , danced and shared scary stories.

We set up our tents which proved to be more frustrating than expected with the winds dragging us along with the tent. Finally, we had people sit inside the tent to finish the pitching.

It is definitely worse in the open, but right about past 2 am we all felt like we would freeze to death. That of course, made us huddle to together and when the morning came one would literally call us a “pile”.

The most hilarious part of the whole experience, was walking all the way to the school building to use the toilet at night. Nobody wanted to go alone so we all were using the “mind over matter” mantra. Thankfully, someone spoke in the darkness of the tent saying “Anyone? Washroom?” instantly 5 of us switched on our torches.

We reached the main school building with jittery teeth. While we were in the washroom thought we kept hearing closing classroom doors and people whispering. Of course, there was that one person in the group who seemed to know about the eerie history of the school being on a burial ground. Then all of a sudden we hear a lot of what I now know is a “Flapping” noise.

But unlike most people who take flight when there is danger, I stood perfectly still when the rest of my group ran down the hallway screaming. Funny when I am really scared, my screams seems to be muffled. Probably because my mouth just does not want to open to let the scream out. Anyways, when I finally figured out the noise it turned out to be a pigeon stuck in the exhaust.

My group did return with a teacher to retrieve me from the dangerous situation they had abandoned me in. But the walk back to the tents was just continuous bouts of laughter.

So going back to the prompt, there was camp fire, tents and half cooked food. And whether it was camping or not I leave it for you to decide.