Well this week was busy for sure. I helped run a day camp in Brighton Monday-Thursday. We had 32 kids and a handful of volunteers from the church as well. The day camp program through Camp Fowler is different at each site and is kind of hard to explain, but we basically try to bring a typical camp day to city areas. Which means we have recreation, art, nature, and some form of Christian Education piece to the day on top of big group games. During the four summers I spent working at camp I worked at and led 12 different day camps. Most people thought I was a little crazy for this, mainly because most camp staff dislike having to leave for more than one per summer, and here I was leaving for 3 or 4 weeks a summer to work with kids that are many times very different from the ones we get up at camp. Now don't get me wrong I love both types of camp, and it was a hard balance while I was on staff. But now that I live in Rochester, it's nice to give back to the community and last year and this year I've been able to use my day camp skills and work from home to lead the camp. Now for staff, day camp is draining. You are constantly working from 8-4:30 with children pretty much the whole time. And then you might get an hour break before going out to dinner with someone from the church, where you are still holding up appearances and trying to make conversation. By about 7:30 or 8 you are finally done and exhausted but still have a little planning to do for the next day. Luckily it's only a week long!!
This week went well, especially considering it was only the second time the church had done it recently. The camp grew a decent amount from last year which was promising. We had both church and neighborhood kids and for the most part everyone got along well, which was really good to see. The age range was second through seventh grade, which always made things interesting to say the least. The youngest kids just wanted attention by the end of the day and were really tired. The oldest kids were "too cool" to play some of the games but were pretty good about working with us.
When it comes down to it, the kids had fun, and that's what matters! I could make you a list of the little things that went wrong and every little detail that didn't go as planned, but most of the time we made sure it didn't impact the kids (or that they didn't even notice) and that's why it worked well.
I was feeling pretty stressed throughout the week. Mainly because I was in charge of too much and I was conscious of that fact. Not only had I organized and planned the daily progression of the week but I was being expected to heard the children through it, and everyone looked at me to do that. I also planned the art projects and then ended up leading those half the day. While planning them wasn't a problem, I probably shouldn't have been leading them, but that is how it all worked out this year. It is what happens when new, or new to day camp staff, is sent. Add that to still trying to live my life here to some extent and I was feeling a little bit overwhelmed.
Thursday was a blast! We took the kids to Ellison Park for half the day for a field trip/service project to clean some of the areas of the park up and pick up trash but also to just play and have fun. It was really cool to see them have fun running around in wide open space, because most of them don't get that regularly. I had some great conversations with kids and it just made for a really fun day. After the field trip we had a picnic at the church with the kids parents so they could see what we had done throughout the week. It was a long day but definitely a great end to the week.
By the time I got home I was ready to relax. I spent the night talking with a good friend about both of our lives. It was wonderful, and healthy, and just exactly what I needed. Friday I didn't do much of anything. I brought my car to the shop and then took a walk to the bank, watched a few tv shows, started online apartment searching, did my laundry, and when I found out my car still wouldn't be done over the weekend realized how reliable a good friend is (and bribe-able by cheesecake). I had another wonderful night eating pizza and wings and catching up with another good friend. These nights are showing me what I'm going to be leaving soon which scares me more that I'd care to admit. I know the wonders of the phone and internet, and I've always been able to stay in touch with people pretty well long distance. I also know that I'll be able to make new friends but that has never been easy for me so I'm a little apprehensive going in.
This weekend and week will include my last days at both Old Navy and Sylvan, and more work on my car. Hopefully I'll make some time to relax and have some fun with friends before going down to see my parents for a day and then driving to Virginia to sign papers and look for places to live.
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