Emperor Brizendine officially became a member of the Order of the Arrow on Saturday, September 11. This order is an honor society within the Boy Scouts of America and one must demonstrate leadership capabilities to be accepted. There are three membership levels: Ordeal, Brotherhood, & Vigil. The Ordeal begins when you attend a ceremony. You are then told that you cannot speak for the duration. After this, you must sleep outside under the stars (no tent). The next day, you are given little food and must complete 8 hours of service projects. In late afternoon, another ceremony is held in which you are inducted. The event took place at Hohn Scout Reservation at the Lake of the Ozarks.
It stormed on the night that I slept outdoors, and they moved us to shelter houses (the rain still blew in though). There was a danger of tornadoes, and as the oldest person in my shelter house, I was given the responsibility of waking everyone up should the sirens go off. Needless to say, with all the commotion, I didn't get to sleep until about 1:00 AM.
We woke up the next day about 7:00. We were led to the Chapel, where we ate about a third of a cup full of Cheerios (a bland breakfast cereal) and some milk. We then began service projects. My group first picked up rocks along the side of the road that lawn mowers had been hitting. After this, we cleared more rocks from a service road, then moved large, charred logs down a trail that was about 1/2 a mile long (luckily mostly downhill). I carried a very large log alone at first and became very tired (lack of food probably helped with this). Then it was time for lunch. We got a plain bologna sandwich. After lunch, we helped to build a new trail through the forest (cut down trees, dug up rocks, raked forest floor materials). That concluded our service. We cleaned up and prepared for the ceremony.
After the ceremony, we ate a very big dinner (we were also able to talk again). We then attended an informational meeting for new members, then went home.
OA sashes (Ordeal, Brotherhood, Vigil)
Official pocket device
