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