Camp Journal : Day Three (Part 2)

Exhaustion Factor: High
Heat Stroke: Negative.. so far
Fingers: Still hangin' on
Number of swims: 2 (5 if you count my swings on the Zunga)
Number of children shot with water gun: Too many to count.

So anyway, day is almost come to a close now, and I am pretty tired I'll admit. It has been a busy day! The water is still great, and I've been making as much use of it as possible, but I'd say hands-down my favourite thing today was running the Zunga, which is a big rope swing that tosses you into a deep part of the lake. All the kids love it, and it was especially cool to see the same kids coming back again and again, starting from their first time (which inevitable resulted in belly/back flops or faces full of lake water) into being confident and competent Zunga'ers.

There was one boy in particular who has stood out to me for some reason. Probably because he reminds me of me at that age. He comes from what I have to assume is a wealthy family - his dad is a professional motorcycle racer (How's that for a "my dad is cooler than your dad" trump card eh?), and he was telling about his family's 48 foot boot that they travel around to various islands in all the time. Also they are thinking of sending him to school in Ottawa. He seems to be okay with that, but he didn't really answer when I asked how he felt about it.

Anyway, he reminds me of myself because he is a little on the chubby side, like I was, and one can tell he has a little bit of a self-esteem issue, though he seems to be the quiet comtemplative type rather than the in-your-face attention getting type - again, much like me.

What really impressed me was his approach to the Zunga. He had a tough time during the first free time period, and it seemed like no matter what he did he just couldn't hold onto the rope long enough to get anywhere. I can relate to that, I probably couldn't have either when I was 10. But Tristan (or T-Man, as I have taken to calling him) refused to give up, no matter how many giant faces full of water he got, and during the second free time, he came back, and again had some trouble. But then, much like I might have done, he gave it a little thought and figured out that if he stuck the knot at the end of the rope between his legs in a particular fashion (we all worried about the safety of his apparatus at this point), he could get a full swing and then jump off at the end, for massive air. Once he figured that out there was just no stopping the guy and he started to get creative, doing around-the-worlds and cannon-balls. Yeah, he suffered the odd back flop on occasion, which clearly stung like a mother-something, but he sucked it up and kept going.

I'd like to think it was at least partially due to my encouragement, but either way it was cool to see.

After that, there was a "wide game" in which the kids had to take paper "passports" around to various "countries" (stations) and get them stamped and they would get points for every full passport they brought back. The staff, however, were pirates with water guns who got to run around shooting the kids (and cabin leaders), and if a player was hit by a pirate one of their stamps would get crossed out and they would start again.

Anyway, at some point the cabin leaders revolted and started grabbing water guns for themselves and fighting back against the pirates. Much soaking of said pirates (myself included) ensued, and fun was had by all.

Our set tonight was incredible on many levels. We were just totally connecting as band and all of us were jumping up and down all throughout a bunch of songs, which the kids totally got into. I was so sweaty by the end of - actually our guitar player had to change his shirt, but I contented myself with three glasses of water and a little time outside :)

Dinner was great - roast beef, fries and veggies with gravy. Can't say no to that. And mug up, which I just recently partook of, consisted of delicious chicken wings..

So anyway, it is going well so far. Tomorrow I get to enjoy a 2 hour shift in the dish pit. Looking forward to that, not.

More tomorrow! Ciao!