First day of camp, done.
And I know this is where I'm supposed to be.
Being here on the 11th is kind of hard... it's such a stark contrast to where I was last year. But it's the good kind of hard, the kind that tugs at your heart and pushes you to grow. I'm spending it chasing around a cute curly-haired 17-year-old with Downes. It's a different kind of love, but honestly? I think it's better for me. Just keep tugging, heart. Just keeep tugging.
Our girls are really sweet -- I spent the first part of the day with a sweet 30-year-old camper, I'll call her Cil on here.. she climed out of her car, squeaked a goodbye to her parents, grabbed my pointer finger, and started dragging me to the bathroom, peering over her GIANT glasses (she's legally blind) and mumbling "Oh, me! Oh, my! Oh, me! Oh, my!" the whole way. She's tiny, too.. comes a little above my waist... and is the self-proclaimed camp welcome wagon. Drags us up to the new arrivals, sticks out her hand, squeaks out her name (she really doesn't talk... just squeaks...) and takes their picture. Knows what she wants, that Cil. Knows where she's going, too.
I'm learning already. There's no method to the madness.. you just have to dive in and go for it. If you mess up, someone will fix it. Just pray and laugh and dance and keep going. Speak softly, look at people in the eye, and let them inspire you. Try to, at least.
A lot of girls in the cabin are super independent.. we have less counselors than everyone else, so while we do have more campers, most of them are more high functioning. One of our campers repeats everything back to you...
"Love, would you like an oreo ice cream sandwhich from the Canteen?"
-"Yes, I would like an oreo ice cream sandwhich from the Canteen at 8:30, I would."
She's seriously the most positive person I've ever met. She responds to rhetorical questions with more joy and enthusiasm than most people respond to marriage proposals.
Oh, by the way, she and her boyfriend are getting engaged on Thursday, apparently.
Canteen, by the way, makes me so mad. Lauren and I gripe about it together... but seriously, there are so few options for diabetics, and the food itself is SO unhealthy.... all junk, two times a day. The rationale is that camp is vacation for the campers, so we should let them do what they want. BUT a lot of the campers don't have the knowledge necessary to make healthy food choices.. so many are overweight and type ii diabetics, just because they don't know better. UGH. So frustrating.
Most of the focus today was on my 17-year-old ragamuffin with DS... I call her ragamuffin, but the camp director calls her Annie.. as in Annie Warbucks.. because of her adorable curly red hair. She comes up to my shoulder, has the most spunk I've ever seen... nonverbal, but makes sure you know what she wants. She'll run off in a second if you stop paying attention to her.. not maliciously, just because she wants to entertain herself. She's a sweetheart, though... and her curly red locks and sweet DS smile don't help :) We did lots of active stuff... swinging, chasing, tickling, hiding, running... oh, and she loves my camera.
She took it and photographed all sorts of things.. to get the attention of some of the less responsive campers, she'd wave her arms, plaster a big grin on her face, and scream:
"WOOHOO! PTTTHP! Hey!" or "Hey! PTTHP! WOOHOO!" (some combination of three ridiculous noises)
I died laughing the first time I saw it. And she did it over. and over. and over.
At one point, Ragamuffin ran off and hid behind the stage in the activities building, so I went and sat in the doorway. Eventually she let me come in and sit in a big comfy chair and she sat in my lap. We just sat there for awhile, not really saying anything. Finally her spunk kicked back in and she started taking pictures with my camera. Then, she dragged me over to the giant fan, pulled me up a chair, had me sit.. and we screamed noises into the fan for 30 minutes.
I don't know.. but in one day I learned a lot about her... what she likes and doesn't like, how to speak with her, when to ignore her, how to make her smile... all sorts of things.
As I write this she's rummaging around the cabin. Doesn't like sleeping, apparently.
Cabin life is interesting, for sure. I threw modesty out the window in the first 30-minutes.. campers just love being naked. No fig leaves in these here parts.
No fig leaves on their hearts, either... everything is so open. One of the campers, a 30-yr-old with DS, sat down next to me by the pool:
"Bridgette, have a seat. I want to talk to you about something."
-"What's up?"
"Smell my towel. What's it smell like."
-"I don't know. What?"
"My brother. He gave it to me."
- "That's nice of him."
"He's dead. He died Feb. 16. Liver cancer."
... - "Well, he's in a good place now, though, right?"
"Yep... (he looked up to the sky) ... he's up there. With God."
... and he smiled the biggest smile I've ever seen.
So that was my June 11th, 2007. It's kind of one of those all-or-nothing things where I could either close off my heart because of the pain of the past, or open it up and celebrate the future. One look at my Ragamuffin, and I knew it was time to open up. The love here is blind... in so many ways. They celebrate abilities, rather than what people do wrong or cannot do for themselves. It's incredible.
Okay, bedtime. Lord, illuminate Your will for me throughout the day.. bless my rest that it may be nourished and peaceful! AMEN!
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