The Infamous Power Slide

This is my first installment of fun stuff from when I lived in the Philippines. I lived there for two years, so there's lots to tell.

I moved to Davao, which is a major city on one of the southernmost islands, for my second year. My roommate, April, was doing college ministry there, so I got involved in her ministry during the daytime and did my design work at night. The students were amazing, and they always talked about this annual camp that happened each spring. In addition, April had relayed her personal experience with The Power Slide from camp the previous year (now remember that she was the only american at the camp).

There's an entire day at this camp that is filled with games. It's super hot in the Philippines with no air conditioning in most places, so they start the insanity really early in the morning - 6 am early. The last game of the day is The Power Slide. They put a piece of plastic on the side of a hill, and you're expected to run UP this soapy plastic while they continue to douse your feet with even more soapy water. Every person from your team MUST make it up the slide. Poor April never made it up the slide, so there was bit of intimidation and stress involved in my participation.

Here's my account of that fateful day:
It came time for the power slide, and my heart was literally about to beat out of my chest. It was my team's turn, and they each easily scampered up the hill with absolutely no difficulties. I was amazed that it seemed so easy after hearing about April's experience.

My turn came. As I was standing at the bottom of the slide exhausted from the day of games, only two thoughts came to mind. One, I thought, "Katie, you MUST do this!" Two, I though about the movie Gladiator. You know the part, where he's in the middle of the arena after kicking some major butt, and they're all chanting his name. I felt like him...I am Russell Crowe in this experience, just without the butt kicking. EVERYONE was standing around chanting my name...KA-TIE, KA-TIE! No pressure or anything.

Here goes nothing. I run up the slide about halfway, only to fall to my knees and slide back down. Big let down, but this is Christian camp with lots of chances. :) On about my fourth try, I ran halfway up and still fell to my knees, but I managed to cling to that spot for all I was worth. I inched my way slightly up very slowly until I could reach my teammates hand, and he pulled me the rest of the way up. Thank goodness! There was lots of rejoicing that the pathetic white girl could make it up the hill. Wahoo!

Now you realize why that day is so infamous for me. What would a great story like that be if I didn't include pictures of myself? :) I can't find my original negatives at the moment, so I had to scan these out of my scrapbook, and I included a couple extras.