Last full day...

Je peux faire de la voile sans vent
Je peux ramer sans rames
Mais ne peux quitter un ami
Sans verser une larme
-Camp Ectus goodbye song

Tonight's the last night... i'm not ready to leave yet.

The end nears...

Hey everyone,

I apologize for the lack of updates in the past week, camp staff internet has been down since last Saturday. Things are still going well, there are definitely personality-related challenges with the CREW kids, but overall, it's a very positive experience. Plus my old roomie Steph's on board on the leadership team, which is awesome. I'm gonna miss our late-night chats after this week!

I now have a rather good knowledge of camp dining hall/wash house/bathroom/gym/(fill in the blank) cleaning, and we've had really good chats with the kids about identity, hardships, character, modesty, relationships... i hope that if telling bits and pieces of my story can help at least one girl feel better/more confident/enpowered, then i'll have succeeded.

Okay, have to run! Time to make the most of my two full days left here in wonderful Iawah.
Cheers,
G

Thank you!!!

At the summer nears its end, i have to take a minute and thank everyone who made it possible. So please, see this as my "award acceptance speech":

First, i want to thank God... without Him, there'd be no Iawah. Or there might be, but it wouldn't be called Iawah, and it certainly wouldn't be the same place.

Thanks to Peter for supporting me way back in November last year, when i said i wanted to come back and work here. And to Jim W. for answering my questions at the time and encouraging me to go for it.

Thanks to Walter for the time off. I will definitely come back refreshed (and with a much better tan than i could ever get in the print shop).

Thanks to Steve and Laura for being great interviewers and taking me on!!

Thanks to the waterski crew (Lindsay, Skip, Matt, Holly, Marc-Andre, Nick, Connor...) for being so patient with me as i wiped out multiple times... and learned the ropes.

Thanks to Rose and all the kitchen staff for feeding me. I have yet to eat something from that kitchen that i don't like. They are truly amazing.

Thanks to my "roomies" - Steph, Erica, Michelle, Jaclyn, Natasha, Grace, Katie for the good times and the late night laughs.

Thanks to everyone along the way who was there for me to lean on. In no particular order, and on top of those named previously - Chazz, Rubix, Bowser (you're so much cooler than your brother, no matter what anyone else says!), Mitch, Aidan, Kesh, Nicky, Matt, Calgary, iWin...

Thanks to everyone from the "outside world" who took time to write and send me snail mail. It is such a "pick-me-up" to receive, and i can't thank you enough for your kind words - James, Mike B., Brigitte & Kyle, Martin.

Thanks to James for coming to visit; to Peter, Heather, Matt, Ruthann for the Iawah/Ottawa shuttle runs.

This has been an amazing summer so far, and i plan on making the best out of my 10 days left.
See you in September!
G

Dishes, dishes, dishes...

This morning, i had a dish shift with crew A - meaning 2 hours of washing dishes and generally putting the dining hall back in order. It went by so fast! We had an absolute blast, singing silly songs about cutlery...

Yup, hanging with the CREW kids was definitely the right choice. Loving it.

Off to staff meeting!
Flick

CREW life...

Yes, i'm now officially a CREW leader, despite all the comments from Staff that i'd crossed over to the dark side (the CREW t-shirt is forest green, the Staff one is kelly green). It's quite good so far. And what do i have to do? Supervise a group while they are cleaning, hang out with the CREW kids (17 kids, aged 14 and 15), join in the fun evening activites, and of course, ensure that no one sneaks out at night.

The best part? I have a lot of "own time". I've been using it so far to rest, catch up on Bible study, read, write, doodle... it's good for my soul. The summer is nearing its end, and i'm a bit tired overall. Right now, i'm focusing on finishing strong.

Last night, we had team-building challenges. Two highlights: The first, setting off mousetraps with our hands (if you hold your hand flat, and stick your palm flat on the mousetrap and hold it there, it won't hurt you. Then lift your hand quickly and back to release the mechanism). We then took it up a notch, releasing mousetraps others where holding. Crazy. The second highlight: we've all done that "trust" exercise, when one person leans backwards and the other catches them, right? We took that up a notch as well - with the leaning person standing on a platform about 5 feet high. Meaning they were getting caught as they were pretty much parallel to the ground. It was quite a rush; i think my heart skipped a beat to be honest.

So yeah... so far so good. The CREW kids are a really upbeat, dedicated bunch, and hard-working. I'm sure we'll be seeing great things from them over this week and the next.

If only the heat can break soon...

Sweatily yours,
Flick (who can now go by G, as CREW doesn't use camp names!)

The best way to spend a Saturday night!

Saturday evenings at camp are usually a very low-key affair, since most staff is on Sabbath and chooses to go home. The few left at Iawah usually do something fun, and tonight was definitely the best. What did we do?

We held our version of a drive-in theatre.
At the beach.
With the screen facing the water.
We "drove in" with canoes and kayaks.
And watched Pixar shorts and Looney Toons clips.
Did i mention that there were about a gazillion stars in the sky?

God is good :)

Wish you'd been here to enjoy it too!
Paddlingly yours,
Flick

Happy birthday ACADIE!!!

Ah yes, made it to the weekend! It's Saturday, the kids have all been picked up, Fireside has left the building... and camp is quiet once again. Quite tired... and need a shower. It's been really hot and sticky outside all week, and today's no exception. Looking forward to being back in one of the main lodges, and being able to use my little fan once again.

Some highlights of the past week:

• For one game we played, my cabin campers had to dress me up as a space robot/alien using a roll of aluminum foil, a roll of toilet paper, one styrofoam ball, and some sticks. Then, all the adorned cabin leaders walked the runway for judges. Sadly, i don't believe there is any photographic evidence of my outfit... but picture this: over my bathing suit, i had an aluminum "corset" (dull side out), a tight aluminum skirt (shiny side out) with a flipped out bottom "hem", a toilet paper belt and slippers, an aluminum crown with long toilet paper veil. My hair was up in buns on top of my head, with a stick in each bun. Very fashionable, really :)
• Everytime we jumped into the water, because the week was sooooo hot.
• Primetime - because with the 8-11 age group, all the songs are so much more fun. And include actions. And who wouldn't want to be a sheep, baa baa baa baa?
• Another game we played involved my campers covering me in shaving cream, head to toe (over bathing suit/shorts). We then had to run through an obstacle course which involved building a pyramid, pool noodle fighting, hula-hooping, putting on/taking off a wet t-shirt and finally sliding down a water slide. Oh, and while we were running through the course, being hosed with waterguns, pelted with wet sponges and water ballons - and the best part? Being pelted with chocolate pudding, leftover oatmeal, and two large bins of "combo leftovers", basically a stew of a week's worth of leftovers that the kitchen needed to throw out. The goal of the entire thing? Having the most shaving cream left on my body once out of the course. And yes, this time there are pictures!
• Getting to share cabin duties with co-cabin leader Stride, who completely rocked it out. It was awesome.

There weren't that many lows this week, but the girls definitely tried my patience at times. Actually pretty happy that i'm not in cabin next week, as i don't think i could do two weeks with this age group.

Okie dokie... time to go move into my new room in Bush Lodge, take a shower, and track down a lot of people i need to meet with this weekend to go over my new duties. I'm starting tomorrow... eeek!

Last but not least - the summer's coming to an end here, and with every week ending, some staff members are done for the summer. Which is really, really sad. Goodbyes really suck! In particular, big shoutouts to Michelle (Sparks), Jaclyn (Dragon Slayer), Ben (Rubix), Matt (Spike) and Isaac (Urlacher) for all their hard work this summer! We'll miss you :(

Stinkily yours,

Flick

...almost out of cabin!

"If you want to knit a sweater but don't feel like all that work, just dread someone's hair..." - Bongo (random quote heard in the staff lounge as i was typing this entry)

Friday afternoon. The girls are leaving tomorrow after breakfast. I'm really tired, and this past week felt like it dragged on f...o...r...e...v...e...r. Sigh. Definitely looking forward to my Sabbath tomorrow.

Then Sunday... starting something completely new! I'll be part of the leadership team of CREW. CREW's the unsung heroes of camp - 15 and 16 years old who come to camp for three weeks, and do the dishes and clean the bathrooms as part of their "service to others" commitment. Of course, they also get some Bible study time and time off to enjoy the best of camp. Still, it's a big change from what i've been doing so far this summer. So yeah, i'm a bit nervous!

Okie, time to use what little break time i have left to shower...

Flick

Big Fish?!

It's confession time! As most of you know, i grew up in a small fishing village of 2,800 souls in northeastern New Brunswick. Somehow, i had actually never gone fishing before... but that's all changed now! Due to a scheduling mix-up, my cabin was sent fishing instead of canoeing. I did feel bad for the perch, sunfish and bass we caught, as they did seem in slight distress as we pulled the hooks out of their mouths, but we did throw all fish back in the lake. My final tally: 6 fishes - 5 perch and one larger bass.

So it's Wednesday, middle of the week. This week had definitely been harder than the previous ones i've spent in cabin - the girls are 9 and 10 years old, but at least this time i've got a co-cabin leader to help out. Still, those girls are ridiculously energetic. The daily schedule's also quite different, instead of teaching waterskiing all day, i'm following the cabin around as they hit up various camp activities. The cool side is i get to do those activities as well - the rock wall is awesome!

I have to keep this entry short, as there are people waiting for our only staff computer - so i'll end on a prayer request: one girl in my cabin is ridiculously homesick. Please pray for her to find the strenght to last the week!! (and for me to have patience the next time she bursts into tears....)

Okay, gotta go clean up. I smell like fish. Sigh.

Tiredly yours,
Flick

...zzz...

Yes, it's Sabbath once again. And i'm taking it easy... actually, i slept in for the very first time this morning. It was awesome :) Have been looking for time alone this weekend, have a lot of thinking to do, and Bible study to catch up on. Maybe i'll go canoeing this afternoon, if the rain stays away. Or maybe i should stay put, and give my "limp noodle arms" (from 2.5 straight hours of waterski/kneeboard yesterday afternoon) a rest?

It's Saturday, but camp's taking longer than usual to quiet down. Families have moved out of their cabins, but are allowed to use the beach during the afternoon, and there's also more staff sticking around.

Gearing up for Squeeze I next week. Meaning 102 boys and girls, ages 8 to 11 are invading camp tomorrow afternoon, and i'm back in cabin. This time, i'll be living it up in Fireside, with Becca as co-cabin leader. Cool!

Oh, it appears that the sun's coming out and people are getting reading for canoeing. I'll log off now and go join them!

Paddlingly yours,
Flick

Day 45!

"So, i was uploading pictures, and fell asleep at Laura Lee's desk... when i woke up, i realized that i'd drooled all over her paperwork..." -Kaiser
(random funny quote heard in the staff lounge while typing out this blog post)

Here we are, still at wonderful Camp IAWAH, on day 45. I can't believe the summer's going by so fast, it seems every week goes by faster than the next, and this one surely isn't an exception. Maybe it's because i have so much free time, as we currently are in the middle of Splash (family camp)?

So a quick update of events since my last post:

• Spent an "extended weekend" in Ottawa, meaning i came back to camp on Monday mid-day instead on Sunday. It was very good - especially the sleeping three nights (THREE!!!!) in a big comfy bed!
• My schedule this week is very, very relaxed, compared to the last two weeks in cabin. It goes a bit like this: meals three times a day; and add a staff meeting, one Bible study (i'm sitting in on the adult prime time), and 3.5 hours of waterski instruction. Oh, and an evening game or two. That's it. I've been napping lots :)
• I crossed another "to-do" off my camp list yesterday when i slalom skiied for the first time! The lake has been so nice lately that i could put it off no longer. I started off on two skis, then dropped my right one. This was my very first attempt at it, so was quite excited! Managed to slalom a few times behind the boat, side to side of the wake, before wiping out as we were pulling out of the turn. Since i felt like things were going quite well, i decided to attempt the water start off one ski - and succeeded on my second try! (returned to the dock to hear the news that Matt had landed a kneeboard backflip for the first time, crazy!)
• More fun yesterday evening was the evening event: square dancing! A professional "caller" came to Iawah to teach everyone some ever-increasing-in-difficulty moves. It was a ridiculous amount of fun, i don't think i stopped smiling for the hour and a half that we danced. Ask me for some moves!
• Last but not least - today, we held some water games, which included a water slide. Take the inner lining of an above-ground pool, lay it on the ground, add a firehose to the top and a pool to the bottom and weeeee!!!!!!

Bible study's still going well. I'm keeping up to date in my "read the Bible in a year" challenge, and this week's adult prime time is very informative... for when i'll have a family. I think i'll put my notes away until i hit that time ;)

Aaah, now off to create some Seussical characters for next week!

Dancingly yours,

Flick

IAWAH dudes rock!

"you'll stand by them... and we'll stand by you
just know that we'll stand, stand by you
Ladies, thank you
Please know that whatever you go through
We are here
We care for you
We will stand by you"
-part of female staff appreciation song, "Stand by You"

Thursday was female staff appreciation day here at IAWAH! This oh-so-exciting day started when i woke up to some unusual noise outside my cabin. Propped myself up on my bunk, looked outside - and whoa! A fully set-up breakfast table for my entire cabin! Cool! We got to eat breakfast outside, and Rubix was our waiter. Given that he had been the butler during all the Clue evening events, the girls were a little worried about his presence ("did he come to kill us?") ;)

The breakfast was delicious, everyone loved the french toast, fresh fruit salad and best of all, Rubix even offered his personal box of Lucky Charms to the girls. Oh, so so so good! And so so so appreciated by everyone.

At lunch, we were told to dress up for dinner. This was a bit of a challenge, as i didn't exactly bring anything dressy to camp! Many thanks to Kesh for lending me a dress, to one of my campers for lending me her hair straighteners, and to another for telling me I looked "really pretty, but you can't wear those shoes! Here, wear mine!" How sweet! I totally felt like Cinderella :) 

At dinner, the male staff took over our cabin leader duties, eating with our girls so female staff could have a quiet dinner together on the other side of the dining hall. Then, we were whisked off to the gym. There, the guys pretended to have a video for us to watch, then Aiden and Scott serenaded us with their own version of "Stand by Me" (rewritten lyrics and called "Stand by You") and last but not least - they revealed a mini-buffet of girly comfort food!!! EEEEEK!!!! There were shrimps with garlic butter, brownies, nanaimo bars, chocolate sauce with an assortment of fresh fruit, pop... and best of all, a giant bowl of COOKIE DOUGH!!!! We all pigged out, then enjoyed a 45-minute dance party. It was so great to dance around like mad(wo)men, hang out with my old Room 1 roomies and really just have the best time! 

Eventually, we had to rejoin our cabins in time for the evening swim... and some girls jumped in the lake, dresses and all! What a great day!

Thanks guys. You really rock. And we'll stand by you too.

Girls II is here!

"Girls beat on tables, not on each other..." -head cabin leader Calgary

"The chemicals used to make those shorts that colour are probably toxic..."
-one of my campers, on why one shouldn't eat my hot pink shorts

It's Girls II time already, and my eight new campers (aged 13-16) have already proven to be girls after my heart - by opting out of the polar dip for two days in a row. This mean one extra hour of sleep in the morning!! Aaaaahhhhh.... :) I'm loving my new cabin, now only because the girls are even better behaved than last week (which i didn't think possible), but also because it's located on top of the hill, my bunk's in the corner by two windows, and there's an absolutely lovely breeze at night. Double aaaaahhhh.... Saguenay cabin's awesome.

The theme this week is Clue, and Programs is really going all-out on it. Over the last two nights, we got to know Colonel Mustard (Marc-Andre), Professor Plum (Mike the australian), Mister Green (Matt, hilarious in the giant mustache), Mrs White (Kate), Miss Peacock (Laura) and Miss Scarlett (Brittany), as well as unearthed Mr Body. As a cabin, we ran around Iawah's grounds last night, avoiding monsters as we went and used our detective powers to figure out that the murder was committed in the conservatory! Tonight, we try to discover the murder weapon!

All this to say that so far, very good. Today is day 36 of camp for me, and i'm still loving it! I'll be home this weekend, and will try to put up a few photos, since the crowds have been requesting them!

Happily yours,
Flick

I *heart* Sabbath, part 2!

"Let me hear your one time..."
(this post-meal, pre-dining room vacating will only make sense if you've ever been at girl camp. If I hear it one more time........)

Yes, it's evening on Saturday, my wonderful Sabbath day! It's nice to relax, unwind, take it easy, not be on a schedule really! It's also different to be here instead of Ottawa during my time off, but I figured I'd get more rest that way... and also wouldn't be tempted to sneak in a game or two at No Borders (go Vixen!!).

I've received my schedule for next week, Girls II - and was quite happy to see that it was exactly the same as Girls I. For inquiring minds, it goes a bit like this:

Sunday is check-in day, campers have a swim, we go over emergency procedures, have dinner, play a game, snacks, bed.

Monday to Friday is rougly the same:
Polar dip at 7am, breakfast at 8:20, primetime at 9:10, staff meeting at 10:15 (girls do cabin cleanup during that time and get ready for their morning activities); activity 1 at 10:45 (i did cabin leader training), activity 2 at 11:45 (i thought waterski), lunch at 1pm, tuck at 1:45, activity 3 at 2:15 (free time for me!), activity 4 at 3:15 (free time for me!), free time at 4:15 (possibility of free time for me!), dinner at 5:30, a bit of free time, then evening game at 7:15, evening swim at 8:15, snacks at 9, evening devotions when back to cabin and lights out at 10:30pm. Add in the odd campfire, night game and thunderstorm... and you've got a week's worth of camp (Saturday is move-out day, and campers get picked up right after breakfast).

As you can see, there's not much down time when you're in cabin. I also slept rather lightly all week, so am quite tired now... am planning on skipping the staff movie/campfire tonight and head to bed around 9 instead. More campers are coming in tomorrow, i'm back in cabin, so energy levels have to be high!

A few highlights of the week:

• Having eight girls that went to bed when i said it was time to go to bed;
• Coming in second in the "clean cabin" contest - the girls did an amazing job every day;
• Playing tetherball with two of my campers (and getting beaten!);
• The silly evening games and their weird challenges - they really had us going on teamwork;
• A bagpipe serenade from one of the CREW kids to start off the evening game taking place in Scotland;
• Going with a zombie theme for our cabin video bit;
• The extra waterski runs i got in (and more 360s!) because all the girls wanted me to go with them;
• The "awkward questions" session at cabin leader training. Every cabin leader got asked a question that could viably be asked by a camper; we were then graded on our reply. Some questions were harder to answer than others, and some were just plain, well, awkward. I'm just happy someone else got "Er, what is a boner?" (I got "Susy called me fat! Am I fat?")
• Hanging out with my campers, chatting with them, getting to know them and getting insight on God from them. Everyone should talk about God with a 12-year-old. It's enlightening!

And two not-so-fun moments...

• Not getting a single uninterrupted night's sleep due to one of my campers speaking/yelling/screaming/crying in her sleep;
• Looking back, this is actually funny - one of the waterski staff, Pontoon (6 feet tall, slim athletic build, blond, total California surfer dude), is a bit of a hit with the girls campers. Okay, a big hit. At one point, i thought that if i heard "Pontoon this" or "Pontoon that" from my campers one more time, i was going to scream.

And now this tidbit, that i'm sure will make my workout buddies proud: during cabin leader training, we had a mini-competition between the leaders, earning points each day. On the last day, there was a tie for first place between me and Socksy. To break the tie, we were challenged to a plank-off! We had just eaten popsicles, so for me it was a rather nauseous plank - and i have no idea how long we lasted, but i won! Yay!

To finish off, two high moments on the spiritual front: the first was a great chat about God with one of my campers who dropped the "i'm not a believer" bomb on Friday; and perhaps the best was at the River (staff worship) on Monday night. I will not go into details now (if you want to know, ask me in person), but it was one of those moments where i really felt God speaking to me... and it really put me at peace.

Okay, I'll stop rambling now!

Tiredly yours,

Flick

I *heart* Sabbath!

It's Saturday... the girls have all been picked up... Camp is soooo quiet and chill... and i'm going to sleep for most of the day. There is so much to say about the last week, it was so packed and full of laughter (and a few tears)... I'll try to post a full update soon, but I'm in cabin again starting tomorrow afternoon, and time off is few and far apart!

Still loving it. That's the important part :)

Yawningly yours,
Flick

Life at Girl Camp!

"Hey, Carnegie, show us how you get down!"
"We stomp, our feet, and grooooove to the beat
we turn, around, and shake it to the ground"
-post meal entertaiment in the dining hall

Ah, life at Girls' Camp!
What can I say, after all the drama and tension of last week, it's such a welcome change to have 120 sweet, quiet, well-behaving girls around the Iawah grounds. This week is also my first experience as cabin leader, and so far - it's quite good. I moved into Carnegie cabin on Sunday, soon to be followed by 8 girls (12 and 13 years old). Most of them already knew each other from school, and the others were integrated to the group right away. It's quite fun to be around them, I must say!

So, life in cabin is a bit different than life in Upper Iawah when Iwas on activities. Schedule's a bit more brutal (7am polar dip... sigh), and there's obviously a lot more responsabilities, but it's also strangely more rewarding. I have to point out that i'm very much trying to be a good role model, and not to incline them towards a life of tattoo-getting ;) During the day, I still have one period of waterski teaching, right before lunch. And sorry guys, but girls are so much more fun to teach.

Being in cabin means foregoing staff Bible study and attending Prime Time with the campers instead. The general idea's the same - except the songs are sillier, there are gestures to go along, and the themes/talk is a bit lighter. But no bashing here, it's still perfectly good - i'm enjoying this week's parallel between running a race and being a christian/running the race for God. And besides, where else would I learn a song saying that Jesus is rad and cool?!

One thing that the girls have to do daily while I'm at a staff meeting is cabin cleanup. So far, they have been amazing and we've had perfect marks! To help, they came up with the 10 commandments of cabin cleaning, which are now up on the wall of our cabin. I'm re-posting it here for your enjoyment.

1. Thou shall not have dry clothes on thy clothesline.
2. Thy floor shall be swept.
3. Thy bed shall be made neatly.
4. Thy shoes shall be neatly lined outside thy door.
5. Thy porch light shall be turned off.
6. Thy clothes shall be stored in thy suitcase with care.
7. All garbage shall be put in thy garbage can.
8. Thy shall not make thyself an idol from dirty socks.
9. Thy shelves shall be orderly.
10. Thy shall clean mosquitoes smears after swatting.

This week's theme is a repeat of last week, The Amazing Race. It's so much more fun to be doing the activities than running them! On Sunday night, we ran around camp grounds as a cabin, clearing 7 activites along the way, and came in first out of 14 cabins!! Leg two of the Race (last night) saw every cabin assigned to either the blue team or green team (we were green), and green won... meaning that so far, we're team number one. It's so cool, the planning committee is going all out on the theme, meaning we have clue boxes, detour/roadblocks signs, and even a mat to step on at the pit stop. And everything looks exactly like it does on the show, so cool! And it's not just me - the campers are loving it too.

So yeah... this is the past two days in a nutshell. It's very weird how time goes by - a day goes by in the blink of an eye, yet at night, when i look back upon it, it seems that it could have been a week, a month in terms of learning and of how much is packed into it. It's definitely safe to say that there's never a dull moment.

Cheerily yours,
Flick

Who are we? Carnegie!

Yup, a new week, and i'm in cabin! Everything very good so far! Stay tuned...

The ultimate day!

As in ultimate frisbee, of course!

Yesterday was ultimate day here at Camp Iawah! Our normal activity schedule got tweaked to accomodate a full morning of frisbee fun. The campers got split up into four groups, with two groups doing team-oriented activities (obstacle course, team identity/motto/flag painting), one group doing target practice with frisbees, and the last? Jon Rayner was here to teach them about ultimate, teach them basic skills and lead them into mini-scrimmages.

All in all, it went down quite well, and was fun!

In the evening, we held a mini-tournament between the four groups/teams of the morning. The atmosphere was reminiscent of summer league finals - lots of people enjoying ultimate, and rockin' music on the sidelines! Some kids were definitely showing potential - during one game, one kid laid out for a point! And he'd never played before today! I was super impressed :P Another highlight was the last game of the night, featuring the oldest, tallest cabin (who had been dominating so far) against shorter, much younger opponents. When one kid from the young group came to talk to me about how it was unfair, I explained that being short could be a definite advantage, and to not let his team be intimidated. He definitely took the advice to heart - and what followed was a great game with short zippy passes from the young group, and loopy overthrows from the older group. The game ended in a tie due to time constraints, but the young group celebrated like they'd just won worlds. A great sight.

Ultimately yours,
Flick

Boys II is here!

Boys II is now in session! It's quite similar to last week, but also quite different, as we have Day Camp running parallel to it - meaning a LOT of kids running around Iawah! The general consensus on this week's campers it that they are a bit of a rougher bunch, but nothing we can't handle with some love... and a lot of patience! Many of us staff are being tested this week, me included. If I may include a prayer request: I need some patience! Waterski so far has been quite testing. The weather hasn't been cooperating, and the campers aren't as eager as last week. Thanks :)

Speaking of waterski, I've learned a few things over my short time there. Without further ado, I now present the DOs and DON'Ts of waterski:

• DO listen to and obey the instructors.
• DO choose an appropriately sized lifejacket.
• DO wear a wetsuit when it's chilly.
• DO make your "i'm okay" signal when you fall.
• DO try new things.
• DO laugh at your wipeouts.
• DON'T stand on the carpeted dock unless you're the next person going in.
• DON'T swim in front of the boat when it's going by the dock.
• DON'T drown the camp walkie-talkies.

and perharps most importantly...

• DON'T fart in your wetsuit.

:P

My schedule this week is pretty sweet. I have waterski all morning, then free time right after lunch (which i'm using to do some personal Bible study), then back to waterski and finally archery to wrap up activities before dinner. Then I get to help out/play in the nightly event. This week's theme is The Amazing Race, which is actually pretty cool. The nightly events are planned as a leg of the Race, and there's a pit stop at the end - we even have a mat and someone dressed as Phil Keoghan to "host"!

I'm now starting to settle into the camp routine - but preparing for next week by trying to get as much rest as possible this week, since I'll be in cabin from Sunday! It'll definitly be a whole new adventure! Eeek!

Muffin-devouringly yours,

Flick

There is still oatmeal in my hair...

... even though i tried to wash it out with a firehose, swam in the lake, and took a shower. Camp's insane, especially when it involves a team challenge with spaghetti throwing, oatmeal pelting, water gun hosing, hula hooping... and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. It is Sabbath once again, dear readers, and since i have all day Saturday off, I headed into Ottawa on Friday night, meaning I get two whole sleeps in a bed about three times the size as the one I've had for the past 18 days.

But the best part is that I get to go back on Sunday and do it all over again.

A few highlights of the past two days:

• Attempting (and succeeding on the first attempt) a 360 at kneeboarding. For the uninitiated, this is when execute a full rotation above water - meaning you pass the handle around your back while being pulled. Fun!
• Taking CREW out kneeboarding on Thursday night (CREW are a group of 14-16 year olds who come for 3 weeks to work around the camp and to learn more about God). The conditions were by far the best we'd had all week, the lake was like glass and there was zero wind. Add a beautiful sunset and it truly was a great night. Getting my most solid wipeout to date was only a small wrinkle! Gory details: we crossed another boat's wake, meaning sudden large waves. I hit the first one fine, got crazy air on the second one, but on the way down the nose of my board hit into the third wave, making me faceplant instantly. I think i got mild whiplash from it. And huge cheers and a good laugh from the boat crew and the people riding with me, once they saw I was okay.
• Getting my very first guitar lesson from Mike the Australian.
•  Trying not to laugh as period two campers held a "who has the most armpit hair" contest on the dock.
• A great late-night conversation with Jamie about God, plans, purposes and the roads that led us to Iawah. I don't express it often enough, but I am truly grateful to be here.
• The look on Peter's face as I introduced him to my roommates who were all dying to meet him! Ha ha! 

Breakfast is calling...

Hugrily yours,

Flick