Week 3

Week three began on Monday the twenty eighth of June with flag raising when the whole of resident camp congregates on the upper field of camp and plays games and raises the stars and stripes over Camp Half Moon! What follows is a morning routine of breakfast, consisting of things like pancakes, waffles, french toast, eggs, hash browns, as well as cereal and fruit, before heading back to the cabin to tidy it up. The number of dirty socks, wet towels and flip flops that congregate on the floor every day is astounding! After that the day really starts, and the campers head off to their activities and the counsellors head off to teach them. In the morning there are three hour long activity periods, followed by lunch and a subsequent rest hour spent in the cabin, and a further three hour activity periods.

My schedule for the first week of camp was a great mixed bag of:

1. Photos - Walking round camp taking photographs of all the different activities and the campers and staff doing so. I really enjoy taking photographs every day, as it's a great way to interact with so many campers and counsellors in one hour, and I see every activity being taught! All the photographs are collated at the end of the day then uploaded onto a secure website that the parents can log on to and view the fun their children are having. I think it's a great idea.

2. Photos.

3. Drama - Teaching drama games and performing skits with campers, mostly younger ones. I have never taught drama until now, and was a bit worried about doing so, but my co-teacher was a great help and it ended up being a great week worth of lessons!

4. Lake Guard - On the lake every period there are classes of canners, kayakers, snorkelers, sailers and campers playing in the water, so of course they need guarded. I loved my first experience of guarding on the lake, in the sun, with some amazing friends from last year, and some awesome new ones from this year. The waterfront seems to attract my favourite type of people, for the most part. so I love spending time down there. One of my best friends from Edinburgh and camp was back down at the waterfront this year, and it's awesome to be with her again!

5. Yearbook - By the end of the summer, the camp would like to produce a yearbook from the seven weeks of campers, so it was my job this period to try and sound out what people wanted to include in it, and then get the campers onto the job of doing it. It was difficult to do, especially on the Monday of week one where nothing had happened, but some of the ideas were really good, so hopefully we can incorporate them into the ideas from the rest of the summers classes.

6. Guitar Freeswim - Freeswim is the sixth period where the campers are free to go wherever they want on camp for a more chilled out hour of semi-structured lessons. My campers from last year tended to come and join me on my guitar deck in the sun this period every day to sit and chat, make friendship bracelets, write letters and of course, occasionally play guitar. It was my favourite period of the week, and I just smiled even wider than I normally did throughout this period.

After sixth period we have reflections where boy camp and girl camp separate and go off to our respective areas and reflect on important issues and personal stories. But what happens at man camp stays at man camp, so reflections must be kept under wraps really!

On Tuesday night we had a hip hop group come to entertain us. They told the camp the story of hip hops history through dance, and included the campers in it, which was really good. Some of the moves they pulled were awesome, and I certainly wanted to have a bit more rhythm by the time they left.

The middle of the week saw my right hand swell to twice it's normal slender size due to a reaction to a bug bite from some undisclosed insect. The were murmurs of hospital visits if the swelling spread to my fingers, but it stuck around the back of my palm for a few days then slowly went down. My first Benadryl experience was interesting, as it [like with everyone else] made me so sleepy, but I had to stay up until all the staff went to bed as I was supervising cabins of sleeping campers for the whole night…fun!

On Wednesday, me and three other staff went on a trip to go white water rafting with twenty campers. Sat nave malfunctions, late leaving and a few wrong turns lead us to Crab Apple rafting company, and we rafted down ten miles of grade one, two and three white water. In the calm stretches, the rafts had water fights with buckets on board, and we sang camp songs down by the river being entertained by our river guide. The lunch was INCREDIBLE, and we had pizza on the way back from the trip for dinner which, although the campers were lusting after the golden arches of MacDonalds, was really good. On Wednesday night the camp split up into it's two tribes, Cherokees and Mahaiwes, and played a massive game of gold rush, which is a game involving hiding coloured tubes around camp for the campers to find, and then run them to the guitar deck without being caught by counsellors. It was a great game, and a great way to finish the awesome day!

Thursday, a chilly day, actually saw some of the guards wearing gillets on the waterfront…madness! It was the day of campfire, which I love, as all the campers and counsellors do songs, skits, stories, dances and poems for the rest of camp. For a first campfire, it was awesome!

On Saturday the juniors and intermediates went on a trip to Zoom Flume water park in New York state, in the Catskills. I dealt with my first vomit related incident on the journey, which was interesting! It was a beautiful day, and for the fourth of July weekend it was not hay busy. The campers that I had on the trip, as well as the staff, were fearless, and they went on everything. Nice to be out of camp for a bit, even if it was a tad stressful. Nothing much had changed since last years visit, other than the introduction of a new wave pool which was cool!

Once we returned from the trip I was off duty, so went into town for dinner at the local Chinese restaurant followed by ice cream and a night out in the local bowling alley/bar. It was a great first night off, and I am looking forward to the others this summer. Waking up on the fourth of July in America was followed by amazing bagels in town for breakfast and a wander round town. We had ice cream sundaes at SoCo creamery in town, which is definitely my favourite place for ice cream. The ice cream was amazing, and a parent of a camper bumped into us there and ended up buying me a tshirt! Only in America! The afternoon was spent on the waterfront chilling out with my friends, and then painting the American flag on my face for going back on duty. We had a cookout dinner in honour of the fourth of July, before playing games with our campers in the dining hall and upper field.

The weather this week has been incredible, really hot and sunny. Long may it continue!

We had a brilliant first week at camp with the campers, and I am so looking forward to the next six weeks with them. The boys in my cabin have been super awesome stars, and I can't wait to spend more time with them.

Loving the mail from Katie, Alison, Shuaib, Sarah and Emma. Please get in touch in any way possible when you can, I miss everyone back home and would like to know how everyone is doing!

Love

Andrew

Camp Half Moon

PO Box 188

Great Barrington

MA 01230

USA

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