Week Five

26 July Cook-outs.. Bleah..

well, every mons nights are cook-outs.. meaning you set up your group’s own campfire and cook your own food.. which is fun except that you do it every week and you eat the same food.. i’m always starting the fire and eating last.. so yeah, you kind drat it sometime or other, if you know what i mean.. at least i’m getting so experienced, it only takes a few minutes to get a fire going.. =p

went to the water park yesterday. it was cool. finally got to swim in a real pool! hahha.. there were 2 slides & as the time went, most of us got more ‘daring’, trying to go faster & faster each time.. well, i’ve got awesome kids this week.. water adventure.. something i had looked forward to. except when you’re down with your monthly.. =( makes it kinda not-so-fun but well, it’s been great in the water so far.. played one-sided water polo.. think i scored a few goals but i try not to.. let my campers have fun by passing them the ball.. well, my group has pretty strong swimmers (they split us into half to compete against each other) & it’s been really fun.. =p got kicked by someone (duno who but all in the name of fun so well, cant complain) pretty badly until my calve muscles were kinda pulled.. hurt a lot for some time.. wanted to get muscle spray @ the health lodge but decided against too much walking..

walking. that’s what we do most of the time all day.. camp property is so huge you just spend all the time walking.. even when we have an hour break, it’s usually like 40min because you need to factor in 10min of walking to & 10 back from the shelters to the main places like the dining hall (Shaub) or the waterfront (Lake Adams aka as tea-ish waters on good days & coffee-ish waters on bad =p) just got my group to walk to the beavers’ dam (not to see beavers though =p) but to pick blueberries!! hee. yay! i’d always not fancied berries especially when they’re dried & added with sugar (esp. cakes! yeek. I still chocolate in my cakes anytime =p) but heys, these are real blueberries you can pick off the bushes & man, you can choose (the darker they are, the sweeter =p) whichever you think you like and however amount you want.. of course we only took what we were going to eat & leave the rest for birds & whoever else wants..

anyway, our guys went over to camp Wightman last night again. to strike again while they thought we had already done so last week (usually it’s a 2-way thingy.. they come then we go.. then they come & we go again – you get the point) got 3 more ‘camper bobs’ as friends for camper bob. We made them last thu & were supposed to go then but the junior high night activities ended so late (almost 10pm) that they decided to postpone it to this week.. & hence strike yesterday night..

the thing was, their camp village (where all the campers slept) was on the way in to the rest of camp (ours is you reach the main camp first before the shelters).. & our folks had seen many people moving around.. now that’s usual since many times we been there because there would probably be staff moving around after campers are in bed (whether asleep anot is another story). they left one straw camper @ the entrance sign board & moved on inner to place 2 others @ their camp bell. but on the way out, they came across people.. immediately jumped into bushes & the people walked right by (or so our folks thought). coast seemed cleared so everyone came out & continued walking to the car but again, people came & they dived into the bushes.. one person walked right by but the other 2 stood along the road.. i guess bringing emily (she’s a sweet gal but abit hmm, on the noisy side sometimes.. at least to me =p) didn’t help. they said something (I duno what) but the translation’s “we know you are in there” or somewhat of sorts so they started to run for the gate (which i think is a bad choice but i might have done the same if i was there) sung hye fell (poor her) & scrapped her knee. nothing too serious but it now hurts when she walks.. =( everyone was very concerned & of course when they got back to the car, there were wooden planks behind the wheels.. yep, so out came the troops & ‘surrendered’.. heard they were surrounded by 25 people! (scary sia) & the camp director was in the crowd.. but they were excellent. they didn’t laugh at us & said, “hahah, we caught you”. they really were good sports. but.. yes, but.. they followed us back & planted water balloons in our lake & even wrapped the bathhouse with yellow ‘caution’ tapes (i woke up @ 4am & went to the bathroom but i knew somehow – didn’t freak out – that it was the doings of camp wightman)

that leads to another story. one of my campers woke me up about 3am & told me she’s scared & cant get to sleep.. poor her. homesick.. but wait, she (& her sister) stay on the edge of camp.. @ the very entrance.. their dad’s the camp cook. poor me. had to walk over to her bed & lie with her. prayed for her (whisper lah) & kinda ‘patted’ her to sleep. not sure if she was fully asleep by the time i left her bed but i was sure tired.. i’ve got 4 homesick campers & it’s only tue!! help!!

30 July Three more weeks..

it’s the weekends once again. time flew by pretty fast.. i didn’t even have the time to sit down & write since tue. been so busy & tired with 3 home-sick campers & 1 home-sick counselor (yes, my co-counselor from south africa was home-sick). just so energy draining.. cant seem to be able to click with the older children.. perhaps the lack of ‘western’ ideas.. like i didn’t grow up here & hence i didn’t know how the mindsets of the kids (especially nowadays.. make me sound so old!!) were. the tv shows they liked or the cartoons.. i guess there are some we do get to watch back home too but it’s different i suppose. care-bears are still care-bears &