gamesMost of this'll be adventures from the different activities. There's a lot more that happens at Camp, but most of the spiritual aspects are more personal than I can share here.
-----
Last week, we had tornadoes. This week, we had three different days where the temp enthusiastically left 90 in the dust with high humidity. On one of them, there was actually a heat advisory issued. Our response was to close the ropes course for the day. I drank five liters of water.
The first of those three days, we took ALL the girls tubing. The guys did archery and high ropes, or something.
The second, we converted our afternoon plans into a giant impromptu water game. Very fun, and possibly ended up being the very beginningest of beginnings between me and another counselor.
Wednesday was okay, because there'd been a thunderstorm earlier that day. There's something in me that really wants to see what a thunderstorm would look like when the temp's 112.
Thursday, we just decided that we were tired of complaining about the heat, slapped on extra sunscreen, drank more water, and pretty much ignored it.
-----
Every week, there's a different speaker. We refer to each of them as, "Pastor [firstname]," whether they're actually pastors outside of Camp or not. This week, we had Pastor Heath. Nice guy, has the ability to hold the kids' attention because he's both very real, and will unexpectedly say some very funny things. For the most part, he's pretty serious, and when he does say something entertaining, it's in exactly the same delivery.
The kids kept pestering him to scrap his teaching for one night or morning and do stand-up comedy instead. He informed them that if he did a half-hour comedy routine, there would be about three minutes worth of funny material in that half hour. Claims he just can't be funny.
-----
One of my favorite shirts is a raspberry-colored tie-dye tank top. This is relevant to this one. At the moment, it's entirely Camp-appropriate, though if I wear it for too many more games of British Bulldog, it'll be good for a sleep shirt and nothing else. But, we played Capture-the-Flag, Monday night.
I don't know how you play Capture-the-Flag. I know I've always loved the game. I'm pretty sure that, back in the day, I used to be one of the adventurous people who was always looking for the flag on the other side, and spent a lot of time getting hauled in and out of jail. Yeah, I don't do that anymore. I'm now kind of a wandering guard. It's fun.
Pastor Heath called to me later that night, in the parking lot after the game. "Phirefly, do you have, like, jets in your feet?"
I laughed. "Why?"
Pastor Heath was one of the most determined players from the other side, but we'd placed a decoy, were guarding that, and that's where all of his efforts had been determined. I'd made a token effort for chasing people away from it, but I was mostly flying in and out around the jail, picking off would-be rescuers.
"Because I'd see this kid, running just all-out," he gestures, "running for all he's worth...and then I would see this pink blur, closing in behind him, and he'd go down."
I laughed.
-----
I had one girl who was shy. When her sponsor dropped me off in the cabin, she took me aside and whispered, "She's very shy." When Toast (my co-counselor) was helping the girl's other sponsor carry her bags in, he said, "Well, just kind of keep an eye on her. She's really shy." Mango, who was helping out with registration, came up to me while we were hanging out with the kids playing four-square, tetherball, carpetball, that area, and said, "I don't know if you know this, but one of your campers, her sponsor told me that she's really shy."
Okay then.
Tuesday night after chapel, she came up to me and wanted to talk. She wanted to know how you live your life for God, going beyond the accepting Christ in the moment, and actually living for him. Startlingly mature, I was impressed that she grasped that, since it hadn't been talked about that week. We chatted for about an hour, she was very down on herself, and at some point she asked me about what I was like when I was younger.
Interesting coincidence, but as a kid and young teen, I was not only shy, but absolutely awkward. I had teachers who were concerned about my development, because I shone in my classes, but as soon as recess let out, I would book it for the edge of the field, away from all the other kids, and spend the whole time out there, walking along and singing to myself. They took away my books at recess. I loved reading, didn't know how to interact with people. I read more than I talked.
I am not shy now. This girl looked at me in stunned shock when I mentioned that. My kids will get some very entertaining notions about who I was before camp, or what my outside life is like, but I haven't ever had one say, "I bet you used to be super-shy before you came here."
The cool part was when we talked about the notion of God's plan, and how she fit into it. About a quarter of the kids at Camp are somehow "at risk" or "high needs" in one way or another, which can often mean that they just come from a pretty messed-up home. Unless they really act out a lot, or we get something mentioning it in their paperwork, we don't really know. Turns out that her family's not exactly a supportive one, and she's got this rather trashed notion of her own self-worth. Hearing that God not only cared about her, but knew that she was going to be here, wanted her, and had a purpose in mind for her life that no one else could fill in on...she pretty much threw herself into my shoulder and started to cry.
And something drastically altered. Because up to that point, I would have agreed with her sponsors. This girl gave the impression that she wanted to hang out with the other girls in our cabin, but was afraid to. She picked the bunk right over mine, which campers never do. Various other things, just indicated that she didn't connect with people very well.
After chapel that night, we had a split Night Game, Gopher Ball and Nukum (volleyball catch). She was not only engaged, she was pretty much leading the team in Nukum. She was laughing with the other girls. She was having fun. And she didn't sink into the sand the one time she went out, just came over to the side and talked a little bit with the other girls. The rest of the week was like that - she was actually engaging with the other girls. Complete switch.
Way cool to see.
-----
Normally, the girls' cabins are kept cleaner and smell much better than the guys' cabins. I had a novel experience this week. And that's about all I'll say about that one.
-----
Once a week, we have a short five/six-mile canoe trip. The kids have the option to sign up for it, since it involves skipping all other activities for the afternoon. Of the four counselors who went this week, I was the only girl. I did get to know two of the guys better, and got some inkling of just how cool they are.*
The reason this trip takes all afternoon is because, a) campers do not know how to control, or in some cases, power, a canoe, and b) we stop about every two miles to go swimming. Great trip. There's one point that's just a big sandy dune, with a strong current running alongside it. We pull up on the opposite side, the four of us work out encouraging the kids to swim across (Tails times who's going when, Juice Box catches them on the other side, Splat catches them if they get carried too far, and I swim with the ones who can't make it on their own). And then we climb this great sandy cliff. This is a challenge, but it's great, because you can go as high as you want, and then you go leaping and bounding down into the river, where it's deep.
Surprise to no one, nobody remembered that if you go swimming, you have to reapply sunscreen, even if its waterproof. The three of us counselors are rather put out with Juice Box, because he seems to possess that special trait - if you're a lifeguard, you don't actually sunburn. Splat and I were pretty much magenta (we're both of Irish descent, and you can see it as soon as you look at us), Tails' arms were pretty bad. Juice Box has this tattoo of a cross between his shoulderblades, and we were thinking it would look cool on a pink background. Nada. Stupid lifeguard. :)
It was a great trip, though.
-----
*That ties in well. Almost no staff left Camp Friday night, since we all had to work Saturday's festival. So, we went bowling in town instead. Pretty fun. I tanked, which is normal, because I seem to require a warm-up game every time I go bowling. But, after we got back to camp, about five of us were sitting in the staff lounge, talking about how guys and girls communicate. Very informative.
I love the guys on staff. I'm not looking for a relationship at all, not right now. These guys are my brothers. And both Leaf and I mentioned that night that we're more relaxed around people of the opposite sex when we know that they're not trying to date us. Girls are just fun to be friends with. Guys are awesome to talk to and compete with.
On the subject of competition. We had three head injuries in one night. I was one of them. Oops.
We have this game. The nurses hate it, the campers love it. British Bulldog. It's like "Octopus" with a lot more potential for injuries. I was immensely proud to be one of the last three free on the field for the first game (in the last round, all three of us did go down, but it took about ten people on each of us to achieve victory). Then Vertigo informs me that this means that I have to be one of the people in the middle. Well, monkeys.
So, I'm pursuing this kid. Boys are more fun to try to take down than girls, because you have to be very careful with the girls. They break. Boys aren't quite as breakable. So, I'm pursuing a kid who's just swung back around, trying to elude me. I can tell you that I never saw Nick, who was hot on the trail of some small girl. By astonishing coincidence, Nick never saw me.
(Nick's an SIT this week. They're a cross between campers and staff, but for all legal purposes, they are most definitely campers).
My campers thought I was dead.
Really. I got back to my cabin later that night (they wouldn't let me walk up the hill), and as soon as I came in, there's a flurry of nightgowns and pajama pants down from the loft, and I'm tackled up against the door I just closed. "Phirefly! We thought you died!!"
I remember the collision fairly decently. I'm pretty sure I remember seeing something right before it hit my head, but I didn't have time to ID it. I remember that the jolt was hard enough that I lost all vision, but as I informed my girls several times, I did not pass out. I went down hard, and was lying without moving on the field. I was not unconscious. I was in pain, and the pain was overloading my brain so that I could hear things around me, but couldn't actually focus enough to do anything, or open my eyes.
The first person to me was Rockstar, one of our former lifeguards. I had my eyes closed, so I thought it was Leaf or Tails. Toast had run for ice, Tails had run for the nurse*. Splat (paintball instructor) is a former EMT and Star Scout who knows way too much about anything to be 21, but he's got my head and is watching my eyes. Pele, with his soccer career, has had a concussion or two in his life, and has my other side, and is also watching intently.
Toast was the only girl on that list (camp names, I realize, are mostly asexual). I have no idea where the rest of the female staff went, unless they were all checking on Nick. I remember having a bunch of people clustered around me, and that with my eyes closed, I was saying something authoritative to the effect of, "If any of you are my campers, get back with the rest of your cabin!" I had a grin at the time. I was hurting, but I wanted to play more. Vertigo wouldn't let me.
For some reason, at the most random and often worst possible moments, my sense of humor decides that it's time to come out and play. I have a possible concussion, and I spend the whole time cracking jokes. Splat kept commenting, whenever the nurse asked about how I was feeling, "Well, there's no attitude change." :)
This was definitely a case of, "You should see the other guy." I came out of it with a nice goose egg, very slight discoloration, and my co-counselor had to wake me up every two hours that night (my sympathy and applause go out to her for this). Nick came out with the beginnings of a good shiner, and half his face bruised up and misshapen. He's generally okay, just looks terrible.
*Tails is absolutely great to have around Camp, because he's always looking on the bright side, and always has a smile. The single downside to this is when he comes up to the nurse with his usual smile, and says, "Hey, we need you on the field," because she thought it was an invitation to come play. He had to insist, "No, we need you right now."
-----
There was more. There's always more. It's Camp. But, I racked up quite the sleep debt this week, and need to get to bed.
-----
Last week, we had tornadoes. This week, we had three different days where the temp enthusiastically left 90 in the dust with high humidity. On one of them, there was actually a heat advisory issued. Our response was to close the ropes course for the day. I drank five liters of water.
The first of those three days, we took ALL the girls tubing. The guys did archery and high ropes, or something.
The second, we converted our afternoon plans into a giant impromptu water game. Very fun, and possibly ended up being the very beginningest of beginnings between me and another counselor.
Wednesday was okay, because there'd been a thunderstorm earlier that day. There's something in me that really wants to see what a thunderstorm would look like when the temp's 112.
Thursday, we just decided that we were tired of complaining about the heat, slapped on extra sunscreen, drank more water, and pretty much ignored it.
-----
Every week, there's a different speaker. We refer to each of them as, "Pastor [firstname]," whether they're actually pastors outside of Camp or not. This week, we had Pastor Heath. Nice guy, has the ability to hold the kids' attention because he's both very real, and will unexpectedly say some very funny things. For the most part, he's pretty serious, and when he does say something entertaining, it's in exactly the same delivery.
The kids kept pestering him to scrap his teaching for one night or morning and do stand-up comedy instead. He informed them that if he did a half-hour comedy routine, there would be about three minutes worth of funny material in that half hour. Claims he just can't be funny.
-----
One of my favorite shirts is a raspberry-colored tie-dye tank top. This is relevant to this one. At the moment, it's entirely Camp-appropriate, though if I wear it for too many more games of British Bulldog, it'll be good for a sleep shirt and nothing else. But, we played Capture-the-Flag, Monday night.
I don't know how you play Capture-the-Flag. I know I've always loved the game. I'm pretty sure that, back in the day, I used to be one of the adventurous people who was always looking for the flag on the other side, and spent a lot of time getting hauled in and out of jail. Yeah, I don't do that anymore. I'm now kind of a wandering guard. It's fun.
Pastor Heath called to me later that night, in the parking lot after the game. "Phirefly, do you have, like, jets in your feet?"
I laughed. "Why?"
Pastor Heath was one of the most determined players from the other side, but we'd placed a decoy, were guarding that, and that's where all of his efforts had been determined. I'd made a token effort for chasing people away from it, but I was mostly flying in and out around the jail, picking off would-be rescuers.
"Because I'd see this kid, running just all-out," he gestures, "running for all he's worth...and then I would see this pink blur, closing in behind him, and he'd go down."
I laughed.
-----
I had one girl who was shy. When her sponsor dropped me off in the cabin, she took me aside and whispered, "She's very shy." When Toast (my co-counselor) was helping the girl's other sponsor carry her bags in, he said, "Well, just kind of keep an eye on her. She's really shy." Mango, who was helping out with registration, came up to me while we were hanging out with the kids playing four-square, tetherball, carpetball, that area, and said, "I don't know if you know this, but one of your campers, her sponsor told me that she's really shy."
Okay then.
Tuesday night after chapel, she came up to me and wanted to talk. She wanted to know how you live your life for God, going beyond the accepting Christ in the moment, and actually living for him. Startlingly mature, I was impressed that she grasped that, since it hadn't been talked about that week. We chatted for about an hour, she was very down on herself, and at some point she asked me about what I was like when I was younger.
Interesting coincidence, but as a kid and young teen, I was not only shy, but absolutely awkward. I had teachers who were concerned about my development, because I shone in my classes, but as soon as recess let out, I would book it for the edge of the field, away from all the other kids, and spend the whole time out there, walking along and singing to myself. They took away my books at recess. I loved reading, didn't know how to interact with people. I read more than I talked.
I am not shy now. This girl looked at me in stunned shock when I mentioned that. My kids will get some very entertaining notions about who I was before camp, or what my outside life is like, but I haven't ever had one say, "I bet you used to be super-shy before you came here."
The cool part was when we talked about the notion of God's plan, and how she fit into it. About a quarter of the kids at Camp are somehow "at risk" or "high needs" in one way or another, which can often mean that they just come from a pretty messed-up home. Unless they really act out a lot, or we get something mentioning it in their paperwork, we don't really know. Turns out that her family's not exactly a supportive one, and she's got this rather trashed notion of her own self-worth. Hearing that God not only cared about her, but knew that she was going to be here, wanted her, and had a purpose in mind for her life that no one else could fill in on...she pretty much threw herself into my shoulder and started to cry.
And something drastically altered. Because up to that point, I would have agreed with her sponsors. This girl gave the impression that she wanted to hang out with the other girls in our cabin, but was afraid to. She picked the bunk right over mine, which campers never do. Various other things, just indicated that she didn't connect with people very well.
After chapel that night, we had a split Night Game, Gopher Ball and Nukum (volleyball catch). She was not only engaged, she was pretty much leading the team in Nukum. She was laughing with the other girls. She was having fun. And she didn't sink into the sand the one time she went out, just came over to the side and talked a little bit with the other girls. The rest of the week was like that - she was actually engaging with the other girls. Complete switch.
Way cool to see.
-----
Normally, the girls' cabins are kept cleaner and smell much better than the guys' cabins. I had a novel experience this week. And that's about all I'll say about that one.
-----
Once a week, we have a short five/six-mile canoe trip. The kids have the option to sign up for it, since it involves skipping all other activities for the afternoon. Of the four counselors who went this week, I was the only girl. I did get to know two of the guys better, and got some inkling of just how cool they are.*
The reason this trip takes all afternoon is because, a) campers do not know how to control, or in some cases, power, a canoe, and b) we stop about every two miles to go swimming. Great trip. There's one point that's just a big sandy dune, with a strong current running alongside it. We pull up on the opposite side, the four of us work out encouraging the kids to swim across (Tails times who's going when, Juice Box catches them on the other side, Splat catches them if they get carried too far, and I swim with the ones who can't make it on their own). And then we climb this great sandy cliff. This is a challenge, but it's great, because you can go as high as you want, and then you go leaping and bounding down into the river, where it's deep.
Surprise to no one, nobody remembered that if you go swimming, you have to reapply sunscreen, even if its waterproof. The three of us counselors are rather put out with Juice Box, because he seems to possess that special trait - if you're a lifeguard, you don't actually sunburn. Splat and I were pretty much magenta (we're both of Irish descent, and you can see it as soon as you look at us), Tails' arms were pretty bad. Juice Box has this tattoo of a cross between his shoulderblades, and we were thinking it would look cool on a pink background. Nada. Stupid lifeguard. :)
It was a great trip, though.
-----
*That ties in well. Almost no staff left Camp Friday night, since we all had to work Saturday's festival. So, we went bowling in town instead. Pretty fun. I tanked, which is normal, because I seem to require a warm-up game every time I go bowling. But, after we got back to camp, about five of us were sitting in the staff lounge, talking about how guys and girls communicate. Very informative.
I love the guys on staff. I'm not looking for a relationship at all, not right now. These guys are my brothers. And both Leaf and I mentioned that night that we're more relaxed around people of the opposite sex when we know that they're not trying to date us. Girls are just fun to be friends with. Guys are awesome to talk to and compete with.
On the subject of competition. We had three head injuries in one night. I was one of them. Oops.
We have this game. The nurses hate it, the campers love it. British Bulldog. It's like "Octopus" with a lot more potential for injuries. I was immensely proud to be one of the last three free on the field for the first game (in the last round, all three of us did go down, but it took about ten people on each of us to achieve victory). Then Vertigo informs me that this means that I have to be one of the people in the middle. Well, monkeys.
So, I'm pursuing this kid. Boys are more fun to try to take down than girls, because you have to be very careful with the girls. They break. Boys aren't quite as breakable. So, I'm pursuing a kid who's just swung back around, trying to elude me. I can tell you that I never saw Nick, who was hot on the trail of some small girl. By astonishing coincidence, Nick never saw me.
(Nick's an SIT this week. They're a cross between campers and staff, but for all legal purposes, they are most definitely campers).
My campers thought I was dead.
Really. I got back to my cabin later that night (they wouldn't let me walk up the hill), and as soon as I came in, there's a flurry of nightgowns and pajama pants down from the loft, and I'm tackled up against the door I just closed. "Phirefly! We thought you died!!"
I remember the collision fairly decently. I'm pretty sure I remember seeing something right before it hit my head, but I didn't have time to ID it. I remember that the jolt was hard enough that I lost all vision, but as I informed my girls several times, I did not pass out. I went down hard, and was lying without moving on the field. I was not unconscious. I was in pain, and the pain was overloading my brain so that I could hear things around me, but couldn't actually focus enough to do anything, or open my eyes.
The first person to me was Rockstar, one of our former lifeguards. I had my eyes closed, so I thought it was Leaf or Tails. Toast had run for ice, Tails had run for the nurse*. Splat (paintball instructor) is a former EMT and Star Scout who knows way too much about anything to be 21, but he's got my head and is watching my eyes. Pele, with his soccer career, has had a concussion or two in his life, and has my other side, and is also watching intently.
Toast was the only girl on that list (camp names, I realize, are mostly asexual). I have no idea where the rest of the female staff went, unless they were all checking on Nick. I remember having a bunch of people clustered around me, and that with my eyes closed, I was saying something authoritative to the effect of, "If any of you are my campers, get back with the rest of your cabin!" I had a grin at the time. I was hurting, but I wanted to play more. Vertigo wouldn't let me.
For some reason, at the most random and often worst possible moments, my sense of humor decides that it's time to come out and play. I have a possible concussion, and I spend the whole time cracking jokes. Splat kept commenting, whenever the nurse asked about how I was feeling, "Well, there's no attitude change." :)
This was definitely a case of, "You should see the other guy." I came out of it with a nice goose egg, very slight discoloration, and my co-counselor had to wake me up every two hours that night (my sympathy and applause go out to her for this). Nick came out with the beginnings of a good shiner, and half his face bruised up and misshapen. He's generally okay, just looks terrible.
*Tails is absolutely great to have around Camp, because he's always looking on the bright side, and always has a smile. The single downside to this is when he comes up to the nurse with his usual smile, and says, "Hey, we need you on the field," because she thought it was an invitation to come play. He had to insist, "No, we need you right now."
-----
There was more. There's always more. It's Camp. But, I racked up quite the sleep debt this week, and need to get to bed.
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