the extra-long beard hair

This past week has been incredibly busy at Adventure Camp as we prepare the site and ourselves for the first wave of kids who will be arriving on Sunday. The staff have attended sessions about behavior management, bullying, camper care, customer service and so many brainstorming sessions about how to improve little things about our daily routine. The staff have worked tirelessly to prep our site by raking and cleaning everything in site and making sure that there are the right number of beds and mattresses all around camp. The first part of the week was also lightened as the staff from all three sites, Adventure Camp and Girls' and Boys' Camps, got together twice a day to hear from a hilarious and encouraging speaker and to worship. It is so amazing to fill a room with people who are united in a mission and giving all the glory of it back to the Lord. I've never been able to sing harmonies, but I think when people who are working for God even stand together silently, Jesus hears the most beautiful harmonies.

This past week has been especially busy for the program team and everyone else we can recruit to help us prepare for the summer. We cleaned out the trailer where we keep the majority of our everyday tools and supplies as well as the basement where we keep all of our costumes for the week-long story lines we play out for the kids. That may seem to be a simple task, but it wasn't. Regardless, we got that done. The other big thing that we have to complete during pre-camp is painting the large backdrops that we put up in the dining hall to convey to the kids what each week's theme is about. We are only doing two themes this year (I can't remember if I already said this or not): Shipwrecked and A Bug's Life. There are some lovely staff far more artistically inclined than anyone on the program team who have worked relentlessly to get all the lines drawn so that we can just come in and paint them. Adventure Camp has the greatest staff in the world, and I would not survive without them. I will try to take some pictures once we get the dining hall decorated and post them here so that you can see more of what I'm talking about.

Last night, Adventure Camp had an alumni night where the current staff and staff from years past who are no longer working here came together for dinner and to celebrate some of the amazing things God has done at AC over the years. Some of the stories were sentimental, some were completely silly, and some were simply encouraging. The Lord moves in some pretty amazing ways at camp. One of the coolest things last night was when a mom stood up and began to tell a story. See, her child was a camper at AC a handful of years ago. One of his leaders that summer is current staff still working here. That camper also happens to be one of our staff this summer. This mom had figured out that the staff who had lead her child had been praying for him for more than half of his life. What does that say about a community? What does that say about the people here?  What does that say about how good and wonderful God is? It says so many amazing things. It says that love and grace abound here. It says that the work we do every summer is never forgotten. It says that God has a much bigger plan and purpose in our stories than we could ever imagine. As past and current staff, we sang this one song together, and I want you to read the chorus:

Stand tall

For we are daughters we are sons

Step straight into this love

We bear the mark of our creator

Now, I will tell you an anecdote about a small victory that I had today. Earlier in the week, one of the staff trimmed his beard but accidentally left an extra-long beard hair sticking out of his cheek that every once in a while would really stick out and catch the sun every time this staff turned his head. One of the Assistant Directors for the summer issued a challenge in light of this beard hair: the person who was able to snatch the beard hair and bring it back to him would get three pieces of tuck (we call the snack shop here the Tuck Shop because some Australian man started it). We have all been desperately trying to snatch the hair to no avail for the whole week. While a handful of us were watching movies this evening, I managed to surprise the staff with the beard hair by asking, "If I use a hatchet, will you let me take the beard hair?" He was apparently caught so off guard that he agreed without realizing what he had done. Not being a man to go back on his word, he did allow me to take the hair after I used a hatchet to cut it off his face. In the morning, I will proudly present the hair to the Assistant Director and be rewarded with three chocolate bars.

I'm on top of the world right now.

transitions and names

The first few days at camp were a little rough to get into. In case you don't know, I've been coming up to camp here since I was 11. I was a camper from the time I was 11 through 15. Then, at 16, I went through the Leaders In Training (LIT) program and interned for two weeks at Adventure Camp. After that, I was on staff at Adventure Camp as a chalet leader and then Sports and Games activity leader. I have spent the last two summers of my life somewhere else, which is why it was a little difficult to transition back. There are a lot of young and new staff, whom I haven't met yet given the fact that I wasn't here for two summers. I am also in a new role, so I am slowly but surely learning what my responsibilities are. But, after a few days, it gets really hard to remember how I ever could have spent a summer not here.

Let me tell you about my role. I am the Assistant Program Director. Sounds really flashy, right? Basically, I have the great joy and privilege to work with the program team to come up with a plethora of fun activities and put on the week-long skits that follow a certain plot or storyline that the kids can really get into. The two themes for this year are A Bug's Life and Shipwrecked. I can't tell you too much more about them at this point as they haven't been super planned out yet, but I can tell you that as Wynd-It, the Program Director, and I brainstormed characters, the ship's captain turned out to be named Captain James T. Crunch.

Another thing that I should probably explain is that here all the staff have camp names. They are usually bestowed upon you after some memorable event or something about you. My camp name is Rogue, like from the X-Men, because I carried a canoe over my head by myself on the LIT canoe trip, so my fellow LITs said that I had super strength. If you ever see me write a name down, and it doesn't make any sense as an actual name, rest assured that it is a camp name and only makes sense in the context of Ontario Pioneer Camp.

The bugs are so bad. Probably the worst of any summer I've been up here. I am covered in bites. I am also losing my voice and incredibly congested. I would really appreciate your prayers for health and wellness so that I can start this summer being able to breathe and do all the things I need to do. I would also appreciate your prayers that the bugs would go away before the kids get here, or else it is just going to be miserable for their little bodies!

Pre-Pre-Camp Life

Sadly, The Great Canadian Road Trip had to come to an end. Alison and I said goodbye to Rhys in the airport in Toronto (saddest moment of my life), and headed to Alison's house just outside of Toronto where long showers and a lot of laundry were done in preparation for camp. I celebrated Father's Day with Alison's family and ate some super delicious breakfast burritos for lunch. Alison and I then packed up the car and headed out for one last drive up to camp.

Ontario Pioneer Camp (OPC) is about three hours North of Toronto in a town called Port Sydney. If you are wondering how I ended up going to a camp in Ontario, Canada, then you are ahead of the curve. Turns out that my grandfather on my mother's side came up to OPC as a camp counselor when he was in college, used to work as camp doctor when my mom was very little, and my mom even worked up here for a year after college. It seems to run in the family. Alison was my only ride, but I wasn't actually supposed to be up at camp until just now. The past few days have been spent sleeping, reading, catching up with people, running, and performing small random tasks. I've done the dishes after meals a few times. I plugged in all the radios so that they would be prepared for all the staff who will be arriving shortly.

My favorite task by far has been canoeing around Divine Lake (OPC is really on Clearwater Lake, but Adventure Camp for the kiddies where I work also backs up to Lake Divine) to pick up planks that will be put around the camp fire so campers have a place to sit. I haven't been in a canoe since the last time I was at camp nearly three years ago. Not only did I get to canoe, but I had to carry the canoe from the Adventure Camp waterfront, across camp, and through some woods to get it to Divine Lake, which I did with a buddy.  I don't have much arm strength, but I am trying to build it back up considering I got my camp name because I carried a canoe on a portage all by myself when I was 16.

This afternoon, I set up my Eno hammock in the shade and finished the book I was reading. In case you are interested, I was reading a nonfiction book called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. If you are at all interested in cancer, research, medical ethics, or science, you should probably read it. It's fascinating.

The senior staff are all starting to arrive for Senior Pre-Camp. Exciting times!

The Three Moosketers

When I came up with that title, I said it to Alison, and we both laughed so hard.

On our drive back (maybe out of the way a bit?) from New Brunswick, we hit up a few tourist towns to see some fun sites. The first was Peggy's Cove, a quaint fishing/lobstering town that could have been taken straight out of ever movie I've ever seen set in rural Ireland/Scotland. Let's just say, it is basically the town from Waking Ned Divine. The rocks that lined the shore were smooth and had clearly been worn by centuries of impressively strong waves. There was a small light house marking the shore to guide the ships at sea and keep them safe.

It was both cold and raining.

Then we did a quick drive through of Lunenburg. Also a quaint place with so many old and beautiful homes. It was designated a World Heritage Site by the UN. It was a French settlement that the British invaded something like 9 times. Or maybe it was a British settlement that the French invaded... I don't remember, but something like that happened, and it was cool.

We spent the night in a hostel in Halifax on the hipster side of town. This was the first time I ever did the whole hostel thing. So many of my friends have stayed in hostels in South America and Europe, but I seemed to have somehow missed out on this essential life experience until yesterday. There were four claimed beds in the room, and Alison and I were just two of them. My bunk mate was a lovely soul from Dublin who was very much enjoying Halifax and traveling in Canada. It was a little odd to sleep in the same room as total strangers, but we were all safe and super comfortable, so I call that hostel stay a win. The hostel doubled as a coffee shop/cafe, so Alison and I both got up to read over a cup of coffee before starting the day.

The three of us ran around Halifax for most of the day. There is a large fort on the water there. During World War I, there was a massive explosion in the harbor at Halifax as a French boat and a Norwegian boat collided. One of them was very much laden with ammunition. It exploded. The explosion wiped away several city blocks, killed a whole lot of people, and injured thousands.

The explosion happened behind us in that water.

From the fort, we walked through the public gardens and then pulled all our luggage out into a field to reorganize and repack everything so that it would all make it on the plane back home. We must have looked crazy.

The last stop on the Great Canadian Road Trip was the Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum. I am no stranger to aviation museums and displays, but there is always something new to be learned and who doesn't love getting to sit in the cockpit of every plane? There were many displays detailing the physics of flight, a replica of the first plane flown in Canada (shout out to my home state NC for having the first plane flight ever what what!!!), and many posters and displays about famous Canadian aviators. Beyond that room, there was a hanger super full of restored aircraft and cockpits.

Rhys had total control of this aircraft.

We have our game faces on to really fly this thing.

In the hallway between the two big rooms, there was a poster about the role that Halifax played in the aftermath of 9/11. Of all the things that I thought when I heard about 9/11 and have thought since then, I never once thought about all the planes that were diverted from their original destinations that morning. Apparently, a whole lot of them on the East Coast went to Halifax. So many travelers wrote to thank the city that had taken them in on such short notice, housed and fed them at schools and even sometimes in their own homes.

People are good.

The one in which I did not see a moose... shucks.

We woke up in PEI in our beautiful castle of a cottage (truly a king among cottages), packed the car, and headed down the road to the Cows Creamery. Cows is a delightful establishment that produces ice cream, cheese, butter, and hilarious cow saying parodies. Some of my favorites were Fifty Shades of Hay, Duck Cowmander, The Milking Dead, Cow of Duty, and so many others. I seriously considered purchasing a Cows onesie, and then thought better of it considering that I have no extra space in my luggage. We got a tour of the Cows facility and got to see the one room where they make all the ice cream for all of their locations. Apparently, the people in that room can produce 1,000 gallons of ice cream in one day. That's nuts!

Us in our Cows hats.

After consuming various samples and a full cone each, we headed for New Brunswick by way of the Confederation Bridge, so named because the confederation of Canada was signed in Charlottetown in PEI. Driving through PEI is so beautiful. So many of the farm fields must have been about to be planted or just planted because the deep red soil was still exposed. As we drove there would be long stretches of green spliced with vast strokes of burnt red. The contrast was amazing. Then we got to the bridge which one of our party (I won't name names) posited that it was the longest bridge in the world. This is not true, but whoever can figure out what the longest bridge in the world is will get mad points.

Us on the bridge.

We drove all the way to Fundy National Park, which borders the Bay of Fundy. The Bay of Fundy has the most dramatic tidal changes and also was one of the stops of my parent's honeymoon! You can tell that the tidal change is massive because of how far the boats are from the tops of the docks.

We went for a hike on one of the "coastal" trails, Coppermine Trail, before dinner. It started out pretty level except for the few times that we had to hop a small brook or cross a bridge over some faster water. Halfway through the loop, there was an overlook of the Bay. It was nice to stop and take a breather there.

Champions having conquered the first half of the trail.

The second half of the trail started with a bunch of steps and then continued to progress straight up the mountain. Straight. Up. The. Mountain. It was intense to say that least. This was intermittently punctuated by a small stream or brook that we had to leap over. I did my very best gazelle impression. We did finally complete the trail and headed back to our campsite for a well-deserved dinner.

I was determined to make it through the whole night in the tent, so I put on every layer of clothing that I had readily available access to and even wrapped one of mu pull-overs around my feet. I made it! I slept (sort of) in the tent the whole night and did not move to the car at all. Feeling triumphant in the morning, I got up and reached outside the tent for my shoes where I found that there were three slugs on my right shoe.

Not cool, nature. Not cool. 

PEI loves potatoes

We took the ferry over to Prince Edward Island (PEI) and drove to our current accomodations. I want to think that I am super hard core and can rough any and every situation, but I found myself so incredibly grateful that Alison booked us this tiny cottage to stay in. It seems like PEI exists solely on the industries of agriculture and tourism. Every other plot is either a giant swath of red farmland (because the soil here is super red) or motels and cottage complexes. It was a dream come true to sleep in a bed and take a shower. Like I said, I love to think that I can rough it in any and every situation, but sometimes I just really value a bed.

This morning, we piled into the car and headed to the place where Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote Anne of Green Gables. We toured the place where her old home used to be before it deteriorated and fell down, walked through the woods where she often played after school, and the homestead that belonged to her cousins where she set the books.

You could tour the barn and learn more about the time she lived and how the homestead ran, and there was even a small carriage in which you could put on an Anne of Green Gables hat and take a picture. I couldn't resist!

From Green Gables, we drove out to the Prince Edward Island Potato Museum. That's right, PEI is one of the world's top potato producers. I learned all about the path of the potato from its origin in South America to the Spanish bringing them back to Europe to the Europeans bringing them to North America. I learned about the various diseases and pests that affect potatoes and the machinery that are used to plant and harvest them.

 A special fact that I retained was that potatoes have so much vitamin C in them that they were used as an early scury intervention. Two potatoes a day keeps the scurvy away!

We then came back to the cottage where we had taco night, and I am currently watching some Hockey Night in Canada. The Canadian inside me gets stronger everyday.
This cottage is magical.

Don't Cry for Me, Chapel Hill

The three or four days that preceded my departure from Chapel Hill, the remnants of a tropical storm were blowing through, so it rained constantly and with great gusto. A friend of mine commented that Chapel Hill was crying because it knew I would be leaving soon. Chapel Hill and I reached the end of an era. I have lived in Chapel Hill for 8 years, which is the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere.  The good news is that Chapel Hill wasn’t crying and my last full day there was beautiful and the perfect send off for the next year of my life.

I flew from Chapel Hill to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where I met up with two or my long-time friends from Ontario Pioneer Camp. It was difficult to explain to the woman at customs what exactly I was doing in Canada and then when and why I was leaving (Camping for a week with friends, then volunteering for the summer at a camp in Ontario, and then leaving for Kigali, Rwanda. What? Yep, Kigali.), but once through customs, I easily found Rhys and Alison. We picked up our rental car, stocked up with preliminary supplies at Wal-Mart, and drove right to our campsite in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. It was drizzling, so we quickly set up tents and dove back into the car for peanut butter sandwiches and dried fruit. After a quick dinner, we all got ready and said our goodnights hoping to stay dry and warm for the night. Turns out it was a whole lot colder than I was expecting, and, after maybe an hour of freezing, Alison and I moved our sleeping gear into the car where we slept for the rest of the night. Not quite camping, but really, really close.

We all slept in for the morning and then drove the Cabot Trail. It seemed to be Nova Scotia’s equivalent of the Blue Ridge Parkway, but with a lot more ocean views. We frequently stopped at overlooks on the side of the road for photo opportunities. I even got a couple driving the same way to take our picture by asking, “Would y’all mind taking a picture of us?” which they did while politely chuckling about my use of the word y’all. It feels great to be in Canada.

The highlight of my day, hands down, was when I saw a moose off the road a bit back in the woods. I yelled and made Alison pull the car over so that we could all get out and look at it. I may have been a little too excited and scared the moose away with all of my jumping on the gravel road, but I still saw it, which makes me feel like a true Canadian!

There's a moose in there, I promise.

Camp dinner was jiffy pop and spaghetti. It really does not get any better than jiffy pop.

Alison in a champion fire-starter.

Taking it back to the good ole days with some delicious Jiffy Pop.