Staff Training and Junior Camp #1

I can't believe I've been at camp for almost two weeks now. The first week was staff training. We spent time organizing our areas and planning activities for the campers. I organized the first aid station, checked the first aid kits to make sure they were well supplied, and tried to figure out exactly what I would be doing all summer. We also spent a fair amount of time going through the policy manual and the staff manual which explained how to deal with everything from Bible study time to homesickness. We also spent time team-building: working together through a scavenger hunt, competing in the traditional boys vs. girls bocce game, and spending time hanging out around the camp fire. On Thursday night we headed up to the Camp Luther Seymour Chalet. We played "Mafia," camp style, with good and bad campers, the camp director and the camp nurse as characters. On Friday, we went into Vancouver for Canada Day and hung around downtown; they had some great live music on the Canada Place mainstage. We finished the day with a baseball game with the Vancouver Canadians versus the Eugene Oregon Emeralds. We saw the same two teams last year and the Canadians got slaughtered. This game was a lot closer but the Canadians still lost, 2-5. We had a lot of fun cheering just because it was great to be with a bunch of friends.

This week kicked off the summer with the smallest campers, the 7-10 year olds. Grizzly, the camp nurse from last summer, came to help me out and show me around on Sunday and Monday morning so that I'd have a bit better idea of what I was in for and how to handle it. I was so glad she came! Sunday night was overwhelming enough, even with her helping me through it. Sunday night registration started at 6:30pm. My table was the last stop in the registration line up. I had two junior helpers who collected health forms from campers who did not need to hand in medication, and I collected the forms and meds from those who had them. We checked each form to be sure they had written down their health card numbers, that they had noted any allergies or other concerns, and I made sure I knew exactly when and how much medication each camper needed. Then Grizz and I packed up all the forms and moved to my cabin where we began filling out schedules, medication records, and cue cards with any concerns for the counselors. Since there were two of us working and it was a smaller camp, it didn't take as long as usual.  I especially made sure I knew who needed medication that night so I could give it to them. That night Kahuner brought a homesick camper to my cabin who refused to go to bed. We talked with her and distracted her, but she every time we asked her to lie down or go back to her cabin, she said her stomach hurt too much when she lay down. Eventually, after more than an hour, we called her mom to take her home and get a good nights sleep at home and bring her back the next morning. We found out that she had been up until 3am the previous night and probably just exhausted. She came back the next morning and has been having a great time all week. I had another visit from a homesick camper at 3am, but I told her that it was too late call her parents and that she just needed to have a drink of water and sleep off the stomach ache.

Most of the campers who need medications get them at breakfast time so that is my busiest time. On Monday morning, Grizz advised me to eat breakfast before the campers got to the dining hall because I wouldn't have time later. As the campers came through the breakfast line, I would call them over and give them whatever they needed and then record the time I gave it. After breakfast, a counselor brought me the sleeping bag of a camper who had wet his bed in the middle of the night so I washed that. The rest of the day I dealt with anything that came up, little scrapes and cuts, headaches or stomach aches, and "sprained" ankles. Free time was slow enough that I got to hang out with some kids as they ate their canteen and played on the trampoline.

Wednesday I actually managed to get all my routine chores done and go to chapel; I hung out at the craft shack and talked to kids during the morning craft time too. Wednesday is often the hardest day simply because it is the middle of the week and these kids are already getting time. One little more with a cold just couldn't make it to rest time. He came to me with a headache and stomach ache; I gave him a glass of water and he lay down and fell asleep until free time. He came to me again at snack time after dinner just wanting to lie down and he fell asleep almost right away. He's been doing much better today. I've got one little admirer who wants to come see me for every little bump and bite he gets. The mosquitoes have been just horrible this week, and the more kids scratch, the more the bites seem to swell. One girl has bruise spots around three of her bites and another looks like one of his has blistered. Please pray that the mosquitoes subside!

Well, it's free time so I've gotta go now. I get to head home this Friday night, and I'm kind of excited to get some down time and sleep in my own bed!

~Quark