Recently we (a group of young Sikh Students, age 17-23) went to
Most of the people where really nice; and were there eith the intention to really learn more about their faith, tradition, heritage and were really down to earth people. There were all types of people; students, graduates, working people, and sevadars (volunteers who were there just to help stuff going)
The mornings begun with morning prayers (Japji Sahib) [if you woke up late like me; if you woke up earlier - which was voluntary; there was Kirtan (hymn singing) of Asa ki vaar, and Simran (meditation) for you!] followed by yoga and breakfast. After breakfast we had some sort speech or talk about a certain aspect of our religion/heritage/culture, which was followed by us going into groups for discussions. After that we had different workshop and classes. This is where the fun bit came in. We got to choose what we wanted to learn for five days! You could choose; Yoga, Self defence, Punjabi , Kirtan, Traditional Kirtan (hymn singing) with string instruments, Tabla (drums), and Introduction to Sikhi. That was loads of fun. Subsequently, there was the daily activities! That was quite fun, but sometimes a bit too tiring. The activities were so special that I'd have to make one blog post for every activity; so I'm not even going to attempt to. After that there was evening prayers and Kirtan, food followed by the real evening 'divan' (evening hymn singing time!)
That time was probably the best time during the day. The kirtan was unbelievably good and the singing would pierce your heart. OK I don't have any words for the Kirtan, so I'm simply going to put this LINK up for you to listen to it yourself. Any words put to describe the singing will be doing unjustice to it.
All in all, I think it was a good camp; there were some negative times where I'd pay double my ticket to come back home early, but once the last day came, and I was in the buss about to leave there was this sudden feeling of separation from the rest...and it was all sad, although I was kind of tired of everything (because I did go through quite a lot during the camp...some personal issues).
The thing I loved the most was the concept of; "Unity through diversity" - there were all sorts of people with all sorts of beliefs, but everyone was respected.
I'd definetly recommend anyone interested in the field to go to it as it is a must go :)
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