The Last Night of Camp
So this is my last night of camp - last night of summer camps. The end has come and tomorrow is clean up day so it doesn't really count. I know it probably won't hit me until i'm being driven out of camp on Monday morning, heading back to my forsaken and mundane life.
I think last thursday's drama of tears will last me until i leave. Even saying goodbye to Blake and Nicole and Chelsea and Sahara didn't bring me to tears. Sure, it made me so extremely sad and hurting inside to say goodbye but there were no tears.
And thus, this is my last camp blog.
I'd like to go backwards coz, as my memory is failing me these days, i might remember it better that way.
So right now, i'm sitting in the staff lounge, a place i've lovingly come to appreciate for daily breaks, teen camp meals, internet access (praise God!) and CPR, otherwise known as staff devo's. I'm here at 11:28pm on my last night of camp because ALL the kids are asleep on the field and the counsellors are working in shifts to 'watch' them. Lucky for me my shift is with two of the greatest people at camp and also because we're the first shift off the bat, 12:00am - 1:00am.
Just for some background info, teen camp this week was cancelled due to lack of interest! tehehe....it's actually not a laughing matter because i was looking forward to not only Jeff's great cooking but also to spending one last week with the teens, impacting their life and being a vessel for God. As a result of this, teen staff were assigned to discovery camp to co-counsel and i'm going to be brutally honest, especially if any staff read this, but i just a. don't like discovery all that much and b. don't enjoy co-counselling! It's been the longest, toughest week of my summer, I don't know if that's because i'm not good with little kids (Priscilla, you know what i'm saying, right, right???) or just can't hack so much rest or just don't get along with hills - i don't know! It just hasn't been a good week. I guess being so psyched up for teen camp and not being there hasn't helped either!
I am co-counselling with a girl called Serena and seriously, she has the most adorable girls of the whole camp! Now as much as i haven't particularly enjoyed this week, these girls are so incredibly smart and extremely cute, i just wanna take them all home and keep them.
Because discovery camp is so much younger than teen camp and because i have been assigned to a 'lower girls' cabin, which means younger girls, i have had the opportunity to cuddle girls and hold their hands, allowing them to scoot over and lean up against you when they get tired at campfire - that has been the rewarding part of the week and when they sidle up next to you in attention of your love and affection, it makes your heart melt. At rest time they want to bring their sleeping bags close to you so they can rest right next to your head. Children are so precious. Having said that, i am not good with children, it just makes the ride a little easier!
Wednesday night campfire was 'hecka' fun. The theme was Olympics, so obviously all the games were Olympic related. All the internationals were dressed in their colours and flags, including their American cabin, ha! I thought i could get away with just being dressed in Aussie gear (people just won't believe me that our colours aren't red, white and blue but are in fact green and gold!) but no, that wasn't good enough, i was chosen as the counsellor to participate in the last game of the night - a bloomin' marathon!!!!!!!!!!
So much to Serenas cabins delight, i chose to accept the freaking challenge. The one game i get chosen to do, and it's a marathon - what the heck?! I sure as heck don't look sporty that's for sure, so why?! Sometimes i think people just like to torment me, ha?!
What i had to do was compete against 3 other ATHLETIC counsellors to:
a. run across the dried up creek which consisted of stones and rocks.
b. adorn myself with a sweater that was too small for me anyways.
c. RUN to a bicycle which i can't even ride?! And not just any bike but the last person there had to claim the last bike which was the pink one with training wheels that weren't in fact on there and pretty ribbons on the handle bars?!
d. collect a survivor-looking tribal pole.
e. RUN with the pole AROUND the campfire, like a freakin' indian
f. plant your pole in the woodchips.
g. bob for the apple in the yogurt-chilli sauce-whipped cream filled bowl
Yea well you know what?! I did it! I came in at last place (mainly because there were only 4 sweaters and i spent about 5 minutes looking for it in the pitch dark) and bobbed for my stupid apple, smearing cream etc all over my face (a VERY bad taste!).
I WON GOLD!
Because apparently everyone else cheated and i was the only one who went AROUND the campfire like a freakin' indian! So i won gold, came in at 1st place like a true blue australian! I always knew other countries couldn't play the game straight, eh?!
It was a rip and i am sorry to all the other counsellors that played even though i TOLD them to let me win (serves 'em right for not listening!). But thanks to Jorden, our girls loved it! They were raving about my 'win'. Even though i knew i didn't actually deserve that 'gold', it was the greatest thing that happened for them that night!
I guess what made MY night was being asked to be in the devo skit they did, as simple as it was! I was honoured to even be asked! God has allowed me so many opportunity to serve him this summer, he's allowed me the opportunity to witness to people, he's used me as a vessel in all my strong areas and as a result God has used me to my FULL capacity this summer - something i'm afraid to lose going home!
A question one of the girls asked me after seeing me sweat profusely was, 'Can you teach me how to sweat?' as though i could just turn my sweat on and off at will! Kids! lol.....
Anyway this week made me realise that the teens that i've been witnessing to all summer and that have, at times, tested my patience, once had no barriers. They were once little kids too. Adorable, funny and open and even though they got upset sometimes, they never held it against you!
There were alot of little things like that that i learnt this week, my eyes were opened to who teenagers once were and what the ways of the world does to them as they grow older, something i found so sad but yet at the same time so precious and in need of keeping that so safe.
As much as i'm not a fan of working with kids under 12, they reminded me that my heart needs to stay softened because it's really easy to become like stone when you're dealing with teenagers that just wear you down!
Alisha xoxo
I think last thursday's drama of tears will last me until i leave. Even saying goodbye to Blake and Nicole and Chelsea and Sahara didn't bring me to tears. Sure, it made me so extremely sad and hurting inside to say goodbye but there were no tears.
And thus, this is my last camp blog.
I'd like to go backwards coz, as my memory is failing me these days, i might remember it better that way.
So right now, i'm sitting in the staff lounge, a place i've lovingly come to appreciate for daily breaks, teen camp meals, internet access (praise God!) and CPR, otherwise known as staff devo's. I'm here at 11:28pm on my last night of camp because ALL the kids are asleep on the field and the counsellors are working in shifts to 'watch' them. Lucky for me my shift is with two of the greatest people at camp and also because we're the first shift off the bat, 12:00am - 1:00am.
Just for some background info, teen camp this week was cancelled due to lack of interest! tehehe....it's actually not a laughing matter because i was looking forward to not only Jeff's great cooking but also to spending one last week with the teens, impacting their life and being a vessel for God. As a result of this, teen staff were assigned to discovery camp to co-counsel and i'm going to be brutally honest, especially if any staff read this, but i just a. don't like discovery all that much and b. don't enjoy co-counselling! It's been the longest, toughest week of my summer, I don't know if that's because i'm not good with little kids (Priscilla, you know what i'm saying, right, right???) or just can't hack so much rest or just don't get along with hills - i don't know! It just hasn't been a good week. I guess being so psyched up for teen camp and not being there hasn't helped either!
I am co-counselling with a girl called Serena and seriously, she has the most adorable girls of the whole camp! Now as much as i haven't particularly enjoyed this week, these girls are so incredibly smart and extremely cute, i just wanna take them all home and keep them.
Because discovery camp is so much younger than teen camp and because i have been assigned to a 'lower girls' cabin, which means younger girls, i have had the opportunity to cuddle girls and hold their hands, allowing them to scoot over and lean up against you when they get tired at campfire - that has been the rewarding part of the week and when they sidle up next to you in attention of your love and affection, it makes your heart melt. At rest time they want to bring their sleeping bags close to you so they can rest right next to your head. Children are so precious. Having said that, i am not good with children, it just makes the ride a little easier!
Wednesday night campfire was 'hecka' fun. The theme was Olympics, so obviously all the games were Olympic related. All the internationals were dressed in their colours and flags, including their American cabin, ha! I thought i could get away with just being dressed in Aussie gear (people just won't believe me that our colours aren't red, white and blue but are in fact green and gold!) but no, that wasn't good enough, i was chosen as the counsellor to participate in the last game of the night - a bloomin' marathon!!!!!!!!!!
So much to Serenas cabins delight, i chose to accept the freaking challenge. The one game i get chosen to do, and it's a marathon - what the heck?! I sure as heck don't look sporty that's for sure, so why?! Sometimes i think people just like to torment me, ha?!
What i had to do was compete against 3 other ATHLETIC counsellors to:
a. run across the dried up creek which consisted of stones and rocks.
b. adorn myself with a sweater that was too small for me anyways.
c. RUN to a bicycle which i can't even ride?! And not just any bike but the last person there had to claim the last bike which was the pink one with training wheels that weren't in fact on there and pretty ribbons on the handle bars?!
d. collect a survivor-looking tribal pole.
e. RUN with the pole AROUND the campfire, like a freakin' indian
f. plant your pole in the woodchips.
g. bob for the apple in the yogurt-chilli sauce-whipped cream filled bowl
Yea well you know what?! I did it! I came in at last place (mainly because there were only 4 sweaters and i spent about 5 minutes looking for it in the pitch dark) and bobbed for my stupid apple, smearing cream etc all over my face (a VERY bad taste!).
I WON GOLD!
Because apparently everyone else cheated and i was the only one who went AROUND the campfire like a freakin' indian! So i won gold, came in at 1st place like a true blue australian! I always knew other countries couldn't play the game straight, eh?!
It was a rip and i am sorry to all the other counsellors that played even though i TOLD them to let me win (serves 'em right for not listening!). But thanks to Jorden, our girls loved it! They were raving about my 'win'. Even though i knew i didn't actually deserve that 'gold', it was the greatest thing that happened for them that night!
I guess what made MY night was being asked to be in the devo skit they did, as simple as it was! I was honoured to even be asked! God has allowed me so many opportunity to serve him this summer, he's allowed me the opportunity to witness to people, he's used me as a vessel in all my strong areas and as a result God has used me to my FULL capacity this summer - something i'm afraid to lose going home!
A question one of the girls asked me after seeing me sweat profusely was, 'Can you teach me how to sweat?' as though i could just turn my sweat on and off at will! Kids! lol.....
Anyway this week made me realise that the teens that i've been witnessing to all summer and that have, at times, tested my patience, once had no barriers. They were once little kids too. Adorable, funny and open and even though they got upset sometimes, they never held it against you!
There were alot of little things like that that i learnt this week, my eyes were opened to who teenagers once were and what the ways of the world does to them as they grow older, something i found so sad but yet at the same time so precious and in need of keeping that so safe.
As much as i'm not a fan of working with kids under 12, they reminded me that my heart needs to stay softened because it's really easy to become like stone when you're dealing with teenagers that just wear you down!
Alisha xoxo
posted by Unknown at
Saturday, August 16, 2008
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