So I'm home from church camp. W0ooo! It was fun. Most of the paid staff were worthless, but that is a different blog post all together.
I went into camp sick with a cold or something. And by the end of camp my voice was just totally shot-and still is. I was a floater at Lakewood this summer. I just went around and gave other counselors breaks from their kids. It was fun.
We got there on the 30th ,got settled into the cabin, some of the teens went for a late night swim at 11:30, nearly got caught, booked it back to our cabins. Later that night I also broke into my own cabin.
The next morning we ate breakfast, did a site tour with Monet(one of our directors), did a last minute q&a with her. Then we did this stupid game with the paid staff. After that we ate lunch with paid staff and went on a site tour with Alexis(the program manager). On the site tour with Alexis-uhm well it was interesting. She went over rules and stuff and quite a bit had changed from last year. This year there was supposed to be 2 counselors with kids at all times except for middle of the night bathroom runs, and if a camper ran off. Also we could no longer sit outside our cabins after the kiddos were asleep-granted one counselor was in the cabin. Cell phones were strictly prohibited this year-two weeks ago camp staff confiscated counselor cell phones,and for this week Monet went to bat for us and told Alexis that if her staff confiscated our cell phones we'd unvolunteer really fast. Alexis suggested that if one our campers falls out of their bed and is bleeding profusely we should do the 10 minute walk up to the Lodge, use the radio to radio for help- then run back to our cabin. If that had happened I would have called Monet from my cell and told her what had happened-rather than wasting those ten minutes.
There was also a whole lot of conversation on this tour about appropriate touch. The only appropriate touch was high fives and side hugs....which are great if you're working with high schoolers. But we were working with grades k-4. I don't know if any of you have ever walked with a kindergartener- but they hold an adults hand when they walk often. It's just how they walk. Picking them up, giving them piggy back rides, letting them crawl on us, letting them sit in our laps- it was all against the rules, and we still did it all. I mean if we had stopped them from doing that-they'd have been crushed and thought we didn't like them. Besides when they climb on us- it's the biggest ego boost ever. When Alexis was talking about appropriate touch one of the councelors kids was being held by Colleen and right as she had said you have to maintain boundries, the five year old kissed Colleens' nose. It was funny.
When Monet talked to us about the rules she told us to follow our best judgements and never be alone with a camper. My best judgement included not letting Alexis see the campers crawling on me.
It always amazes me when you see how long it takes the kids the attach to you. Dinner on the first night- we had only been with the kids for a few hours. One little girl, Katie, had wrapped her arms around my waist and wasn't letting go. She just dragged behind me when I walked. It was probably the cutest thing of the day. And the next day there were 6 kids around Justin doing the same thing. I remember someone asked about appropriate touch- and if this was appropriate. One little boy, Braxton, was in my group last year and was back this year. And every time he saw me, He ran up and jumped on me wrapping himself around me, and I didn't even have to hold onto him, he just latched on. I couldn't imagine if I had said to any of those kids,"No I'm sorry, I can't do this."
On the second day I went from activity to activity giving people breaks and helping out. In every group except the group was cabining with I found a camper I didn't like. The 5 girls and boys in my group I loved.
On the third day we did activities, and had a carnival. Fortunately for me the two boys who did the sponge toss where super hot, then after dinner the kids left. And I drank caffine, and ate pizza and did a dance. haha. It was a good week. I hope I get to do it again.
I am gonna go. But I'll blog about the paid staff at another time.