Unfortunately, the flood which hit the Kander region on Monday knocked out our Internet connection, with the result that I could only get back on today, though that is better than the Friday they had estimated for us. Heavy rain and a fall of snow in the last few days made it swell to the point of making the bridge that is the main access point to KISC impassable for fears of huge logs taking you with them, and in Gasterntal (the beautiful valley just up the river from us) fully one third of their infrastructure was reportedly washed away. The Swiss Army, some of whom were fortunately staying at the Tower for training (the Tower is a building on the campsite), went into the village to help pump out cellars, as did some of the Pinkies yesterday, and things have largely returned to normal by now- the sun is back out, there aren't many clouds in the sky, and Olave the centre cat still likes to hide under the Coke Machine.
The Spanish Work Party arrived the day before the flood- good thing too, as they probably wouldn't have made it here if they had been travelling after the flood! They seem a barrel of laughs, even though for the most part I can't understand what they're saying unless they are talking to me in English. I've been asking Miguel to teach me phrases in Spanish, but by the time the work party arrived my attempt at fluency had been limited to saying hello, asking for drinks, and the word for "sheep" and "river", which aren't much use unless I'm talking to a farmer. However we were chatting amicably to them one evening when they produced a laminated sheet of A4 with more phrases for us to learn! "Bienvenudo de la tren de l'amor" was one such phrase... you can look it up in your own time but needless to say that I'm still not fluent in Spanish.
For those of you who are wondering what on earth a work party actually is, they are simply groups who turn up and stay for free in exchange for doing work on the campsite. So far they have mainly been raking leaves and, on the day when they couldn't get over to the campsite because the bridge was a log-filled death-hole, deep cleaning rooms in the Old Chalet. They are also quite good at football, and KISC plays them every time they visit. As far as I know we haven't won yet (or ever), but we came mightily close last night, and managed to get a smile from the one Spanish staff member who can actually play football while the rest of us stumble about the pitch like asthmatic penguins. Tonight we have been invited to the Spanish Work Party Party, which is supposed to be an event of some magnificence and which I am rather looking forward to! Poor Johan was tricked by Jenneke, the House Manager, into swapping duties so that he is on duty today, and he is not happy about that one bit. To make matters worse, Jenneke hasn't been in today- she went home yesterday with a bad cold and hasn't been seen since- so she might not end up going in any event!
I did mention earlier that we had some snow, and since most people reading this are British (in fact I think they all might be!) that is obviously a subject worth returning to. Down at Chalet level we only had 5 or 6 inches (now that I like in the Alps I can officially start throwing around phrases like 'only 5 or 6 inches') but on Saturday afternoon some of us took the cable car up to Sunnbuel and found as much as 40cm of snow just lying around, asking to be thrown and sledded on. Our sledding attempts were frankly pathetic, since the snow was too wet and soft to do anything other than give way, so our sleds just sank, but the snowball throwing went pretty well and when we got back to the cable car station we found a live radio show from the restaurant of traditional German music, which Kyle and I managed to enjoy for a whole hour on our half day off while the others headed down to start catering at 4. We even manged to have a nice snowball fight on the front lawn of KISC the next day- in the same spot that 24 hours later was covered in muddy water being washed down at a frightening speed form the mountains. The weather here is definitely strange!
Since my last blog we have also used the sauna for the first time this season. The sauna is a genuine Finnish build which was donated to the Netherlands Jamboree either in 1937 or 1995 (those are the two date for the jamborees in the Netherlands, and I don't know which it is!). After the jamboree the decision was made to take it apart and send it to KISC, presumably because with several thousand Scouts attending it was quite hard to decide who should take it home. It is wood-fuelled, which means that someone has to sit with it and tend the fire until it's ready, the honour of which fell to me. It was dark, and I was on my own, in a log cabin on the campsite which looks rather like a creepy wood at first glance. I was also terrified that one of my fellow pinkies was going to walk up and make me jump by staring in at the window like a serial killer of a zombie would do. Thankfully nobody did, and we had a lovely sauna with beer, manly chat, and a surprising amount of nudity for a group of people who have only known each other a month. Instead of a lake or some snow we had buckets of water to cool off with, which was great fun to listen to when someone else did it, and I can't wait for the next Sauna! We were due to have one on Monday, but the flood sort of got in the way of that.
Anyway, I have just realised that I have spent my whole lunch sat behind this laptop, and so I now have to go to catering to cook dinner for over 70 people. Must just keep thinking of the party afterwards! I also have a new KISC neckerchief to cheer me up if things get too grim, so off I go!
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