Camp seems to warp time in the strangest of ways. Some days feel stretched out while others seem to fly by. I can't believe that there is less than a week left at camp and that I have been here for over two months. I am currently on my days off but decided to hang around camp so as to save some money for travel afterwards. I am also excited to have some 'alone time' as I realised the other day that I haven't really had any time to myself since I left Grahamstown at the end of May.
So, what has camp been like? You work hard but then you play hard too. You constantly suffer from "FOMO" (fear of missing out) which means you are always busy doing stuff despite being utterly exhausted! You have some amazing campers who you immediately connect with and then you have some difficult ones who can reduce you to tears. I have had both.
Like campers you also have some great classes and some classes that you dread. "Fun on the Farm", which is where kids can come and play with the chickens, goats and rabbits, was undoubtedly the worst class to teach. You spend an hour every day trying to supervise "Elmira's" (from Looney Tunes)...who just want to hug and squeeze the animals. I am always concerned that their over enthusiasm will eventually end in death for one of these creatures. My favourite class has been building a Tree House. One of my campers had the idea and I managed to get the ball rolling with the project by getting a great, enthusiastic counsellor involved. We literally built the tree house by lashing the wood together so that we didn't have to use any nails. This class was strangely empowering and I now feel like I can build stuff...ok, well perhaps simple stuff like a tree house and a fence.
Then, there is also the fun you have with your colleagues such as playing pranks (which sometimes go down well and sometimes not so well) and dressing up in rabbit suites and convincing campers that the reason for this is for a job interview at National Geographic.
