The End of a Season

As I sit here, I feel kind of shell-shocked. Jr Teen Camp is over; Sr Teen Camp is over; some of the friends I spent of summer with have already headed for home. Where did the summer go? I feel like I blinked and it was gone.

Yet I sit here trying to remember the highlights of Jr Teen, and it already feels like a life-time ago. What can I remember? Since the age range for Jr Teen was 12-14, we had a few Jr Staff back as camper; it was cool to be able to reconnect with them and spend time talking to them and hearing their stories and camp experiences without feeling guilty that I was taking time away from the kids. There were also a few campers back who I had had in my cabin in previous years who I had the chance to reconnect with, which was sweet. During free time, we also gave kids the option of going tubing, which many campers loved! I had to send two kids home because they threw up, even though we were pretty sure they didn't have a flu or anything. I also sent two kids home with fevers just to get some rest but one of them was able to come back Friday for the last day. Everything else must have gone pretty smoothly because that's honestly all I can really remember right now.

Sr Teen was super awesome! More than half the campers were Juniors who were back as campers. Most of the rest were long-time campers who were more than willing to 'throw off' the coolness and just get into things. There were also a few campers this week that I had had in my cabin last Sr Teen. I was able to talk especially with one girl who had been in a bad relationship, lived with her boyfriend for quite a while and then been dumped and was now back living with her mom is a fairly rocky relationship. It was sad to hear her story of the discouragements and mistakes of the past year. However, last summer, she would never had accepted that what she was doing was wrong and had no desire to make a change. This summer, she felt like everything the speaker said was directed at her and by the end of the week she wanted to make steps towards change even though all her friends would probably pull her back into the lifestyle she had been in and her relationship with her parents wasn't going to be very helpful either. We were able to connect her with a pastor from a church in Abbotsford (where she lives) so we are praying that she is able to follow through with her desire to make changes and live for God rather than slipping back into the life she was living. Camp can change people's hearts so fast but it can often be difficult to keep that change permanent.

Sr Teen I was also dealing with two on-going medical 'problems'. One was a camper so seemed continually worn out with headaches and a bit of a sore stomach. She thought it was a migraine so for the first few days we treated it that way, letting her rest and sleep as much as she needed. She'd feel better and go to participate in some activities but within a few hours she'd usually be back in my cabin needing to rest again. On the second night of this, I finally took her temperature and found she had a small fever, which isn't usual for migraines. I sent her home the next morning since she still wasn't feeling much better even after she had just gotten up. She went home, rested all day, slept in her own bed; she came back the next afternoon feeling fine, but by campfire time she was worn out again with a headache and a bit of a fever. Since it was the last night, I didn't send her home, but I did send her to bed early.

The second on-going medical issue was Sklar, one of our Sr Cabin leaders. She woke up Monday morning with a crusty, red eye that we assumed was pink eye. She went to the clinic to get some eye drops and while she was there she had the doctor look at her sore throat, only to discover that she also had strep throat. She got eye drops and antibiotics and rested for most of the afternoon and evening in my cabin. The next morning when we put the drops in, her vision in one eye went cloudy and refused to clear up so she went back to the clinic. This time she saw a different doctor who told her she didn't have pinkeye but an infection and a scratch on her eye and he prescribed her different eye drops. When we put those in back at camp, her eye began watering like crazy and became super-sensitive to light, it also began to swell so we stopped putting those drops in and went back to the clinic to see the second doctor again the next morning. This time the doctor sent her to an optometrist who told her that she didn't have an infection in her eye, although he couldn't tell if she'd had one before, or a scratch and that she was having an allergic reaction to the second set of drops. The optometrist prescribed a third kind of drops and asked her to come back in two days. After that everything began to clear up and go back to normal (thankfully!).

The third excitement of the week occured on Thursday night when, after a powerful drime (drama + music), the Sr cabin leader fell off the two-foot stage and dislocated her elbow. She and a few others spent an eventful but sleepless night in the ER.

What with the all the goings on, the week just flew by for me and suddenly it was Saturday morning and campers were leaving. After they left, we did our usual paperwork and clean up and ate lunch together. After lunch we began to put our coordinator spaces in order to shut them down. For me this mostly meant organizing my cabinet and cupboards and putting back some of the things I gathered at the beginning of the summer, like extra towels and cups. In the late afternoon I went to a friend's bachelorette party where we worked together on a photo scavenger hunt that highlighted some parts of her life. Since she is one of my friends from camp, camp was a huge theme throughout so my team drove to camp to take some sweet photos. After that I went home and ate a home-cooked meal with my family and my grandparents who were visiting from Vancouver Island. Then I went back to camp where we hung out and tie-dyed T-shirts, most of which turned out amazing!

Sunday morning we went to Northview for the 9:00am church service and then pulled some things together for the VBSs we're running this week. We had a little time to hang out and fill out summer evaluations and kind of debrief our summer and give the highlights and ways training and staff weekends could be improved for next summer. Then we went on the first-ever Camp Staff / Kitchen Staff dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Abbotsford. It was kind of fun to sit down and eat with and talk to the staff who had been serving us meals all summer. After dinner, the goodbyes began. Most of the Sr Staff is staying this week to help with the VBSs we are running in two Lutheran churches, but 7 staff left between last night and this morning.

The VBSs today went amazingly smootly, way better than last year. It sure helps just to have more people helping and to have a better idea of what we were in for. Our program at both churches consisted of chapel, including our game show, some songs, and our puppet show. In the puppet show, I get to be Kiki, one of the monkeys, because the person who has been playing Kiki all summer left last night. It has been a very quick transition since I only got the script this morning and I haven't had much experience with puppets before, but at least the kids are young and fairly forgiving. After chapel, we run Bible study, games, snack and crafts. Then we quickly grab lunch and head to the other church where we repeat the whole thing. In the morning I get to hang out with the younger kids and in the afternoon I get to hang out with the older kids so I get a little taste of each. This evening we got to eat dinner with Nathan and Nikki, our facilities manager and guest groups manager, who live on the camp property together with their two kids. It was great to be able to visit with them and eat some delicious non-camp food.

That's the last two weeks in a nut-shell (which actually turned out to be pretty long!). Pretty soon the rest of us are going to leave camp for many different destinations. Some people have remarked that we are going to be re-entering real life; however, the Colonel remarked that camp really is 'real life,' it's just a specific season of life. Some seasons are long and some are short but they are no less real. I'm sad to see this season coming to an end once again, but I'm so stoked for what God has in store for me next. I'll be leaving camp for the summer this Friday and I'll have around 2.5 weeks in Abbotsford before I'll be jumping on a plane for my next adventure. If you're in the area, I'd love to reconnect with you in person before I leave!

See you soon!
~Quark