Erika's Olympic Journal

Part 3
by Erika Rahming

My name is Erika Rahming and I am the Olympic Youth Ambassador for the Bahamas. The sport I do is judo. As the Olympic Youth Ambassador, I have been sent to Beijing, China, where the 2008 Olympics were held. I have been sent there for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Youth Camp, which is designed to give young people the opportunity to make friends from other countries or regions and to learn about each others culture.

There were about 500 people from over 200 countries that attended the camp. Some of the campers were disabled and came from the hosting country.

This is a continuation of my journal which appeared earlier in the Tribune. This is also the last part of my journal.

The eighth day of the youth camp began slowly but finished with a bang. In the morning I went to the center square of the camp and painted masks, there I met a few persons who unfortunately for me, could not speak English. In the afternoon, the campers went to Happy Valley, where we were greeted by some of the opera dancers as well as some of the members who helped arrange for us to watch the opera as well as other performances. There we were presented with a DVD and a keychain about Happy Valley before we entered the theatre.

The theatre was extremely well built and much better looking than the previous theatre that we had been to. When the show started we were amazed at the flexibility of the dancers and how the stage transformed and moved. In the opera (which was more of a ballet) one of the dancers literally sat on her head! The dancer rested her chin on the ground and her back was curved so that she was sitting on her own head. When the campers saw this they were amazed. I, at first, thought it was two people because of how contorted her body was, but once she began to move I could do nothing but gape along with everyone else.

Another thing that had amazed me in the opera was that in the part where a flood came, the stage filled with running water and it actually looked as though a flood was happening. When the opera had finished, we went outside to watch several other performances which included basketball dunkers, clowns, skaters and bikers.

The opera stage at Happy Valley when the flood occured

On day nine of the camp I went to the Youth Create Future forum where speakers spoke to us on becoming a volunteer for the Olympics, Unicef and the environment. I learned a lot in the forum and I am now thinking about becoming a volunteer. We also went to a botany place where there were lots of flowers and different types of plants.

Inside the botany house

The following day we woke early and excited because today we were going to plant friendship trees and we were going to the Great Wall of China. The bus ride was extremely long and many of the campers fell asleep. When we arrived at the site where we were going to plant friendship trees, we were given some green plastic "shoes" of which we had to put over our own shoes so that they would not get dirty.

As we waited for all of the other buses to arrive, we lined up by teams and wrote our blessings on a heart-shaped piece of paper that we were going to tie to the tree that we planted. When the others arrived we were officially greeted and each team was given an area to plant their trees. The trees were already in place and all we really had to do was put the dirt over the roots and add water.

My friend from Uganda and I took turns planting one of the trees and when we were finished, we hung our blessings on the tree. The experience was really fun and memorable. I also felt closer to some of my friends that day. After planting the trees and hanging our blessings, we all went to the Great Wall.

Placing my blessing on the friendship tree

As we started to climb the Great Wall I was fascinated at the length and how crowded the Wall was. The Wall stretched out into the horizon on both sides, winding along the mountains as it did. Next to the Great Wall was an enormous sign that held the Olympic motto, "One World, One Dream."

I always wondered what people had meant by 'climbing' the Great Wall and as I began to walk on it I realized that some of the Great Wall is so steep that you feel as though you are climbing the side of a mountain. We had to go to five checkpoints, where at each one we were given a ribbon with one of the colors of the Olympic rings. The walk was long and some of the campers were too lazy to go all the way to the end.

On the Great Wall of China

After climbing the Great Wall we went to a restaurant in the area for lunch, and on the way there and out we were harassed by many vendors selling souvenirs.

Straight from the Great Wall we went to the Birds Nest to watch the Men's 100 metre semifinals. As we waited to watch 100 metre semifinals, we watched men's shotput final, women's discus which was right in front of us, and women's 3000m steeplechase. As we watched the steeplechase I was astonished at how many laps the women had to complete and how fast they completed them. The steeplechase was so long that I had gone out to buy some ice cream and walk around a bit and when I came back the race was still going on!

When the semifinals for Men's 100m finally came up I watched and cheered as Derrick Atkins our own Bahamian sprinter qualified for the finals. I also watched Usain Bolt and the other Jamaican sprinters run to qualify for finals. It was very exciting to feel the energy of the crowd as we watched the athletes run, jump and throw.

On the eleventh day of the camp I woke early to go shopping. The camp had brought us to an expensive mall that had a small section on the first floor that sold cheaper souvenirs. Since today was the last full day at camp, I spent most of my time with my friends and painted t-shirts, which I had all of my friends sign as well as some people that I had just met that day.

That night was the goodbye show. There were many campers as well as other persons who performed and a video of the campers that was taken throughout the camp was shown. That night many of my friends left, some of them left in the early morning and many people cried during the goodbyes.

On the final day of camp I spent my morning with some of my friends who I would probably never see again. I felt very depressed that that day was the last day of the camp and that the camp had ended so soon.

I left the camp that afternoon and I was fortunate to have a few of my friends on the same flight as me all the way to Miami. The flights home took 18 hours. The only odd thing about leaving Beijing for home was that I had left Sunday night and arrived in Nassau Monday morning.

I would like to thank the Bahamas Judo Federation as well as the Bahamas Olympic Association for giving me this wonderful opportunity. I would also like to thank Adidas for outfitting me for the trip for many of my friends wanted my shirts and gear. I would also like to thank the Tribune for allowing me to share my experience with the Bahamas.