Seven Years
Sunday February 8, 2015
It has been just over seven years to the date when I left Auckland to start a new life in Wellington as a fresh graduate programmer for a video games company that no one could pronounce called Sidhe. Seven years...that's a quarter of my life now. It's been an incredible journey and I've learned so much in that time. I've worked with heaps of cool people and made some awesome games, and I have many proud achievements from my time at work.
Despite the physical separation, I have kept in contact with many of my friends at KCC, my church in Auckland, and regularly see them and hang out whenever I'm back up for holiday. This past Waitangi weekend, I flew up specially for the KCC church camp at Chosen Valley in the Ararimu Valley, near Bombay. Though I did miss out on quite a few of the team activities, I managed to participate in the clue hunt and relay, where I was the kayaker for the first leg of the race. There was amazing food thanks to Uncle Sam and Auntie Cynthia, several games of late night Mafia, karting, flying foxes, archery, a bonfire, plenty of singing and lots of good learnings to take away from the camp.
The bonfire was quite a highlight. As we gathered around the warmth of the flames, we started singing some good old Christian songs like How Great Thou Art and Refiner's Fire. As the adults started to leave, we started busting out some more mainstream tunes like Maroon 5, Backstreet Boys and every Disney song imaginable: Let it Go, Circle of Life, Be Prepared, Colours of the Wind, I'll Make a Man out of You, Under the Sea, Be Our Guest.... so good.
And of course, Mafia was another big highlight. There were so many people interested in playing Mafia... it's been ages since I've last had to juggle more than 20 players. In addition to the regular detective, doctor and sniper, I threw in a resurrecting character (aptly named Jesus, because he rises again on the third day), the pig (who can only say "pig") and the jester (who wins if they get hung by the citizens during the day). Moreover, I imposed a six minute time limit with a random death if none had been decided on during the day, and the mafioso got to kill two people per night. The dynamics worked well once I had gotten my head around managing the characters, but I find with a crowd that big, interest begins to wane quite rapidly among several players (especially since we often play past midnight, people get quite sleepy) and it isn't as intimate or intense as with, say, fifteen people. It's good to see my regular crew being strong players - I feel like I have taught you well!
When I arrived on the Friday, I was a bit overwhelmed with how many faces I didn't know, but there's nothing like a good solid game of Mafia to get to know people. The congregation has changed so much while I've been away, but the people of KCC are always so welcoming and warm, it feels like I've never left at all. It's been a most memorable weekend.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:22am on Sunday February 8, 2015 :: 0 comments :: 