[Peace of mind]

A few years ago I remember bouncing off of my bed and landing a few feet away from it…..as if I fell from the ceiling. If I was abducted or they tried to…. they could have been a little more careful. Haha

I remember this Christian non-profit charity group called Yogi Bear. They had a Hugh gym where kids would go to participate in games and events where they can win cash prizes. On the weekends Yogi Bear would drive school buses around the inner city neighborhoods picking up any child that wanted to go. It was so cool because we rode the buses singing songs and telling stories. When we arrived at the place / gym we’d sit on bleachers along the walls hoping we would get picked to earn a shot at winning some cash. I remember one event where they would line dollar bills along the floor in a straight line then pick a few kids from the audience to do a running long jump. Wherever the person landed (along side the cash) they would pocket the amount. Kids were jumping like pros and coming away with minimums of $30. They gave away money, candy, and toys. Every kid left with something and every kid was dropped off wherever they wanted. We loved these guys.

One day Yogi Bear had a retreat up in the mountains for a week. I and a few of my friends (about 5) went along. There were two separate dorms, one for girls the other for boys. Each day consisted of the following: breakfast, 15 minute church, 4 hours of sports / activities, lunch, 15 minutes of church, 4 hours of more activities, dinner, 15 minutes of church, few more hours of play and in the evening we all would sit by a barn fire talking about issues in society before retiring to the dorms. They really didn’t forced anything on us, no beliefs, no religion, just love.

*fast forward*

On the 2nd night, one of my friends convinces me to sneak with him over to the girl’s dorm. Yes, we were young, naïve and curious because we would always flash our flash lights at the girls dorm and they would flash theirs back.…teenagers, what can you say. Sense we were on the first floor of the 2 story dorm; we decided to be ninjas and jumped out of the window. A big mistake because I landed awkward and severely twisted my ankle forcing me to stumble into a bush near by. My friend was fine but was spotted by one of the counselors and brought back inside of the building. I laid in the bush for a few minutes than limped backed into the dorm where the rest of my friends cracked jokes on me the whole night. Lol

The next morning my ankle was so swollen and stiff I could barely put any weight on it. The only thing I was able to do was eat, lay in bed, and looking out the window at every one else having fun. I stayed in that room for 2 days in pain and often bored out of my mind. I couldn’t walk at all because it was just too painful. A male nurse/doctor came to the room, examined my leg than left. Shortly after 2 other guys came in and assisted me to the clinic. I remember the DR. telling me to lie on the table and relax. He asked me what happened and I told him I hurt it playing football the other day. He looked at me, smiled and said “is that so”. He took out a tube of cream and suddenly I passed out. Why? I don’t know. All I remember was waking up with an Ace bandage on and felt little to no pain. I even walked (gingerly) back to the dorm on my own. Amazing…
Early that day the counselors threw a contest for best kept rooms. I was in such a good mood I decided to clean the room all by myself while my mates played outside. I made the beds, folded all of our clothes and neatly organized all items. While we all sat in the next church session, they announced my room as the winner. You should have seen how happy my room mates were. We won our choice of treats….which most of us opt for Ice Cream Sunday’s. My room mates ate their outside but I was kind of tired due to cleaning, healing and decided to take a quick nap. I didn’t even eat mine ice cream but placed it in the window and fell asleep. When I awakened it was melted into a mess… but my ankle was feeling brand new. We had so much fun at Yogi Bear camp / retreat, but they mysteriously disappear not long after that retreat. To this day we still don’t know what happened to them. There's another organization that goes by the same name but they are not the same group. In fact, the Yogi Bear group i knew about never even got press coverage and was mainly known by the inner city youths and their parents. wierd

Pardon me for the long reply…
Peace