Learning life from llamas

Lutheran, The, Apr 2001 by Johnston, Meghan

Young people gain stewardship and life lessons at camp

every once in a while, you have to loosen up and let go," says Karen Mandigo, 10, dispensing bits of wisdom between bites of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She learned this from a llama.

Mandigo also learned to care for, feed and train the llama at a summer program begun in 2000 by Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Center, an ELCA camp in Oregon, Ill.

Although at week's end she will have to "let go" and stop taking care of her friend, Me-Oh-My, Mandigo knows "God takes care of us all the time."

Mandigo is one of 14 fourth-- through sixth-graders attending "Llama Camp." While youth still participate in music, games, arts and crafts, sports and Bible studies, they spend part of their camp experience at Blue Moon Llama Farm, owned by Bruce and Chris Armstrong.

In the morning, instead of Pharaoh, Pharaoh, a popular camp song, campers sing: "Llama, llama; oh, llamas, don't you love them so? ... Yah, sure, you betcha!" In the afternoon, they make crafts, dying the llamas' soft wool with Kool-Aid and stretching it into yam using drop spindles made from old compact discs.

But for most campers, working with the animals is their favorite activity. "I really like taking care of and getting to know the llamas," says Hugh Vondracek, 8. He also enjoys sharing what he's learned, such as: "There's a head female instead of a head male llama."

Campers spend the first part of the week training the llamas to walk an obstacle course they construct from plastic swimming pools, tarps and hay bales. In pairs, the youth lead their llamas through the course as other campers fill out scorecards with intense concentration, taking breaks only to laugh.

A constant ripple of jokes flows from Itonde Kakoma, a counselor who announces and interviews each team in a style that is a cross between sports announcer and fashion show emcee.

As she prepares to walk her llama through the course, Mandigo shares her dream of becoming a veterinarian, adding that her favorite part of camp is "when the llamas do something new and it's us [who taught them]."

Asked why he came to llama camp, Julian North, 10, says: "It just appealed to me. I've been working with the animals a really short time, but for some reason I got really attracted to them."

Training llamas, he warns, is in part "brute force," yet "you have to be really nice [to the animals] or they'll get cranky." Kind of like people? "Yeah," he says.

These relationships between campers - both human and llama -- fit well with the program's central message. The campers experience the theme "God's word in creation" through their hands-on work with the animals, says Kakoma, a Wartburg College (Waverly, Iowa) sophomore.

Another theme-"God's word in each other" - emphasizes the inter-- dependence and community that campers see in the social nature of llamas, who typically live in groups and don't like to be alone. From this Mandigo gleans: "It's important to have friends."

But the camp's spiritual dimension goes beyond analogies and Bible studies, Kakoma says. "[The campers] are all experiencing something challenging-the same struggle, the same joy-[and] developing a common ground," he says.

The excitement and close relationships have a positive effect on faith discussions, Kakoma says, adding, "They're asking questions I wouldn't have even been asking at this age."

And the campers find answers too. Kakoma hopes they "realize the impact God has on their lives [and] see the image of God in each of them."

Mandigo sees it. Finishing her sandwich, she ponders the question of what she's learned. "I think I'll be more patient with my dog," she says, "and maybe with [my brother's friend] Ryan."

Johnston, a senior at California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, was The Lutheran's summer intern.

For more information about the llama camp, contact Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Center, PO Box 239, Oregon, IL 61061; or call (815) 732-2220;

www.ebl.org/lomc.