SPECTACULAR: Who Wants To Try Purple Snot?

Fun Fact: When I signed up for World Service Corps, I was living in Lamoni, Iowa working for Graceland University. Up until one week before moving to Lima, I called Lamoni my home.

People kept saying, "I can't believe you're still together." 

So—it felt somewhat fitting that my last World Service Corps duty before debriefing should be to attend a camp, SPECTACULAR, in Lamoni on Graceland’s campus. All good things start and end in Iowa, right?

Anyway, as soon as IYF was over, Katrina and I’s next adventure began: SPECTACULAR. To give you a little background SPEC is the largest gathering of youth in Community of Christ. It happens every year in July at Graceland University and it’s a week where high school aged students come together to participate in themed classes, sports, and worship.

Emily & Avery playing at the WSC booth. 

Once again, Katrina and I found ourselves delegationless, which essentially means we didn’t have any “home” group that we belonged to. Throughout the week we found other people like us who titled that role many a nice-sounding thing: support minister, SPECtator, helper, floater; meanwhile, Katrina and I simply just referred to ourselves as “creepers” the whole week.  

While the role of SPEC Creeper doesn't sound overly delightful, Katrina and I enjoyed ourselves with it, utilizing the free time to hang out with old and new friends. I also felt personally obligated to show Katrina the "real" Lamoni; thus we made a late night Kum & Go run, visited the Pizza Shack and stopped by the park at Slip's Bluff. People continually marveled at the fact that we still wanted to pass our time together after living in the same room for over a year and we simply told them all that we'd forgotten how to live independently.

Our SPEC duties were somewhat similar to our IYF duties: we helped run the World Service Corps information booth, taught classes about World Service Corps and shared our testimonies. Each element of our job had a slightly different vibe this time around.

It's never really SPEC if Lost & Found isn't there. 

The classes we taught were largely based on our specific country and our specific experiences. Katrina and I shared pictures and talked about some of our favorite moments: from our trips to Amazon jungle and Machu Picchu, to special events like Dia de la Playa (Beach Day) at church. We ended the class with giving the kids a taste of Peru: Chicha Morrada. Chicha Morranda is a purple desert with the texture/appearance of pudding. It has cinnamon and apple in it, but after Katrina and I dubbed it “purple snot” nobody seemed to jazzed about trying it.

Our testimonies were shared with a group of about 75 kids during our “SPEC Today” classes. I focused on a theme that anybody could do World Service Corps, all they had to do was try. This was my only role during the weeklong SPEC Today class, which gave me the odd realization that we weren’t the leaders in charge of things anymore—in fact, we were preparing to become your Average Joe again.

Fireworks on the GU quad.

The week was sprinkled with special activities: a campfire, talent shows, musical performances, plays, and, of course, the annual dance. Each day we usually shared lunch with Eben, a World Service Corps rep from India, who continually pointed out that all Americans wanted to eat was bread and cheese.

I began to find that each time I was around a Tahitian, I wanted to speak Spanish to them. For the record, in Tahiti they speak both Tahitian and French; they do not speak Spanish. This is a recent habit I developed while in Peru and constantly have to fight to control. Oh, you speak Russian? Let me speak Spanish to you and do you no help at all. After knowing what it’s like to struggle with language for a year, you just want to help the people around with the same struggle (whether you can effectively do so or not.)

Finally the last day of SPEC fell upon us and it was touching to walk across the quad and see everyone bidding their new friends farewell. Kids from other countries gave tearful farewells to the friends they may never see again. The Tahitians were out with shell necklaces, generously giving them to everyone nearby. It began to sink it to Katrina and I that after a month in the “homestretch” we really were in the homestretch now—all we had to do was debrief. We had less than a week left as World Service Corps volunteers.

Ready or not, here it came.