June 23rd, 2008 - Day 3

6:48am
Gotta make this kinda quick. Have to leave us 7:00.
I was doing God And I time this morning and my devotional talked a lot about confidence. That subject always makes me feel strange. Personally I know my confidence isn't top-notch, but everyone else thinks that it is. Like I could be the next Billy Graham or something. Really, I can get quite insecure. I always try to appear confident and usually that'll help me, but inside I get really nervous.
Maybe they see me as a leader because the Lord is my strength and not myself?

10:39pm
I will try not to fall asleep writing this.
The busiest day ever.
Okay, I'll run through our schedule: I got up, showered, and got ready from 5:50am-7:00am (yes, I take forever in the shower..actually my after-shower activities take up most of my time, but I usually need a good 30 minutes in there), after only 3 1/2 hours of sleep. We actually arrived 8 minutes late, although to be honest, none of us teen girls were at fault. We had a really quick group devo, then ran through a couple other things with Jeff, then spread out to do everything he assigned us (setting things up, cleaning things, preparing to welcome kids, etc), which we did much faster than he expected, so he changed our time to arrive there from 7:00 to 7:30.
I volunteered for an improvision skit (I'm pretty good at improvising). We pretty much were playing out the rules of camp in a humerous. Me, Em J, and Ryan (Em J and Ryan are main-group counselors.,.Ryan has 4-5th grade guys, Em J has 4-5th grade girls) all played as tourists coming onto a tropical island. We couldn't agree on our accents (mine was French, Ryan's was British, and Em J kept changing hers). Jeff (the improvise whiz) was some freaky short island native (he taped shoes to his knees and stuck his arms in his shirt so only his hands stuck out to look really short). It was so amazing. Us "tourists" were disobeying all the island rules (subtly, the same 4 rules of camp: no put-downs/insulting, no whining or complaining, listen when a counselor is talking, and no fighting). In the process, Ryan got attacked by a face-eating plant, Em J got attacked by a rare, sensitive, ugly monkey, and I got poked by a spear from an island native. I improvised lines perfectly, but I could not stop laughing while I was acting. Jeff told me they did that to new volunteers, try to crack them up on stage, and needless to say they had no problem with me.
Jeff is the craziest, most hyper guy I've ever met, and the kids adore him. They call him the "Crazy Man." Then during songs, after I came out from taking off all my improv stuff, I was surprised to find Garrett on stage, looking extremely sheepish. Turns out Jeff picked him to help lead an everyday-crazy dance song called the "5 Cacti" - something Garrett specifically asked not to do. Jeff's a fun guy (and Garrett did great...he's awesome with kids no matter what he's doing).
So, there are about 40 kids, and they all split off into different groups doing different activities at different times on different days. It is extremely difficult to explain, so I will simply say what I helped with.
I went to a field where the kids and counselors (including us) were playing "Jedi," a game like "Freeze Tag" with a Star Wars twist. Once, we split guys gainst girls, and because I was the only girl leader around, the girls got to pick 2 guy counselors to be on their team. The girls picked Tanner (another main counselor), then swooned at they wanted the "funny one", which turned out to be Cameron. I think all the girls are secretly in love with him now.
Then I went with Deb, Lauren, and Neil to work with crafts, something I'm not good at, but was glad to be of assistence anyway. The kids loved their crafts (making a foam fish picture frame, and painting a tiny wooden "treasure chest"), and Neil even started a movement. Some boys were groaning about pink being a "girl color" and Neil asked, "What exactly is a girl color? They're all colors. Girls just prefer some over boys." There were boys popping up left and right saying, "That's right! Colors are the same for boys and girls!" Neil turned to me and grinned smugly.
Then we had lunch, which was totally screwed up. Originally Cameron, Logan, and Lauren were sent in to make lunches for counselors (we had a list of sandwiches we wanted for the week). They did great, making them all perfectly. Then someone came in and redid them all and gave us those lunches today and stored all Lauren, Logan, and Cam's hard word away, save one. When I picked up lunch, there were two bags with my name on it, so I took both. The sandwich Lauren made was perfect, but I looked at my other sandwich that the other person did. Peanut butter, jelly, and mayonnaise. Now, I'm sorry, but how could you possibly mistake putting mayonnaise on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? That is the grossest thing since sauerkraut. There was nothing even close to saying I wanted mayonnaise on anything. I hate mayonnaise, and to think I almost sunk my teeth into it mixed with PB&J is sick. Half the kids on the team got theirs screwed up too.
Neil didn't mind. He picked at everything. He's even pickier than my little brother, which is saying a lot. I don't understand why he hasn't withered away to nothing yet.
Then I did water games the rest of the afternoon. That was astounding. Garrett, Ian, and Neil got out a Slip N Slide, then a bunch of cheap Wal-Mart waterguns, and let me tell you, girls and boys alike went crazy. They loved it. We all became popular really fast, especially with how much we played with them. One kid named Nolan insisted on having a watergun war with me and wouldn't stop pelting me with water until I complied, and we kicked each other's butts.
The personalities of Garrett, Ian, and Neil are all so different, yet perfect together. Garrett will play with you just as hard as you are, but he's nice, fair, and always asks if a child might be hurt. Ian is a rascal. He'll hold the kid's watergun and squirt them to high heaven, splash water...pretty much, he'll play, but he ain't gonna let a kid beat him. Neil mostly squirted me, actually, but when kids pelted him with water, he had a nonchalant "bring it on" attitude.
So they mixed perfectly, even whe one of them kind of clashed the wrong way with one girl. Garrett was filling up a small pool with a hose and Ian was by the Slip N Slide, and one of the dramatic girls marched up to him. Ian threw water at her and she ran nearly crying to Garrett. In turn, Garrett turned the hose full blast on Ian and the girl felt better immediately.
So, a deeper look at 3 of our young men.
Then it ended at 4 (it's a day camp), we cleaned up, went "home", played volleyball, swam, played Speed and Old Man and Uchre. I have a gazillion bug bites, even with mosquito spray, and a few of our members have been spotted with ticks.
But yeah. Already it's crazy. Last year (and typically) Wednesday or Thursday is the day everyone is biting each other's heads off from being tired. It's Monday and, while we're all still nice, we're just as tired.
So I'm going to bed. Goodnight until tomorrow.
Quote of the day: I was explaining a story that one of the camp kids, Ramsey, tried to pull on me: "Ramsey told me that on his first birthday, which he could remember clearly, his parents threw a tropical-themed party for him. They gave him these things so he could walk on the ceiling and he remembered thinking, 'Wow, all the people look so small from here.' Then he fell and hit the piano, but didn't get a scratch."
Lauren (earnestly): "So was he making it up?"