Paz Y Esperanza, Parte Dos: El Primer Dia - ¡Aye, No!

I've already gone into detail about my concerns heading into the Paz Y Esperanza day camp, yeah? Well, this post is going to be about the first day.

On Sunday, Jenna, Katelyn (the two other counselors on my day camp team), and I had met a few of the kids we'd be working with. On Monday, predictably, there were a lot more kids. There were even a few kids who never attended the church there, even. That's totally fine. That's actually great - maybe they'll learn something. There were two, though, that were not doing any learning. I honestly have no idea why they even showed up. All they did was cause problems. They wouldn't participate in any activity we did. Instead, they'd either go off by themselves and dink around or stay in the group and be disruptive. The helpers on the day camp were really surprised after the group those two kids were in finished their Bible study with me.

"Wow, they were so quiet! What did you do to them?" The weird thing is, they weren't quiet at all. I was horrified to think that maybe they weren't even trying to be disruptive and maybe later they would be trying.

"Well, if they didn't pay attention to me when I was reading, I'd start the whole reading over again, or if they couldn't tell me what I had just read, I'd make them read it to me." That actually worked kind of. I feel like they at least received the information, anyway. It didn't work to keep them quiet.

The two troublemakers also realized that Jenna, Katelyn, and I all struggle with Spanish, so they would speak Spanish to each other and then laugh and look around to see if they were going to get in trouble, which led me to believe that they were saying inappropriate things. I don't know why, but I'm bothered when people do things that warrant punishment but don't get punished. I tell myself it's because I'm really into justice, but I feel like I may have some sort of disorder. One time those two kids were off with a couple other kids while the rest were playing a game. I went over to stand by them to keep them in line (I'm really into justice, remember).

"Oh, Joe, what are you doing here?"

"I'm just over here so I can keep an eye on you guys."

"Which one?"

"You. And you, and you, and you, and-"

"Y tu, y tu, y tu..."

"Exactly."

"Wait, how do you know what that means?"

"I took Spanish in college," (just for two semesters, but I mean, come on. "Y tu, y tu, y tu?" I understand that).

"So you know what we've been saying?"

"Yeah, and you're lucky I'm letting it slide."

"Nah-uh. What am I saying now? 'Junior, vamonos.'"

"Junior, let's go."

"......"

Really? He's gonna test my Spanish comprehension with "vamonos"? I knew what that meant just from watching Dora the Explorer. It got them to stop speaking Spanish, though.

Near the end of the day, we had a song fest because the kids need to know the songs for the parents program at the end of the week. When we told the kids this, the two turds said they weren't going to come back. That was the happiest I was during the whole first day. I feel like this post is not doing an adequate job of explaining just how turdish these two kids were, so don't judge me.

Also, they didn't come back, and that was awesome.

Worst* Night of Camp 2: Electric Boogaloo

*This was the worst night for campers. If you've read my post, "Worst Night of Camp," that night was much worse than this night for me. Even if you haven't read that post, that night was still worse for me. I actually enjoyed the night about which I am going to write.

'Twas the first night of camp for the summer. I had just completed the Bible study for the evening and was about to bring my cabin to beach orientation when Kris, the water front director, informed me that the aqua challenge (where it is determined if kids are deep or shallow water swimmers) will not be held after beach orientation due to the impending rain. My kids and I went back to our cabin so they could change out of their swimming attire, and very shortly after I was informed that we would be heading to the party room. The party room is our storm shelter. We call it the party room because that sounds a lot more fun than storm shelter and the goal here is to not have the kids freak out.

Within the first two minutes of being in the party room, one of the campers (not mine, thank God) threw up. It was gross, as throw up usually is. Surprisingly, we somehow avoided the inevitable chain reaction of throw up that usually happens with children (and me). We still had to sit with the smell for about ten minutes, though.

In the party room, we usually sing the camp songs of the week until the storm passes and it's safe for us to go back to our cabins. This time, however, we ran out of camp songs, as the storm lasted for three hours. We then started to sing camp songs that weren't from that week. Mark and I were leading my all-time favorite camp song, Psalm 150, when the power went out. We flawlessly executed a distraction by singing louder, and since Psalm 150 is a call and response style of song, the kids sang louder, too, not even noticing that the power went out. Eventually, though, even after about 15 verses of "Peace," we were out of viable camp song options. Mark, Kris, and I then sang Adam Sandler's "Lunch Lady Land," and I feel like that went over pretty well. Mark and I then did an impression of Hootie and the Blowfish which, predictably, did not go over well because the kids have no idea who that is. As a last-ditch attempt to keep order in the party room, Mark and I performed a stirring rendition of the Flintstones theme song. I don't think the kids knew who the Flintstones were, either, so that didn't go as well as I had hoped, but it was a ton of fun for me.

Three hours after we arrived at the party room, the storm subsided and we were allowed to return to our cabins. It was still raining pretty hard, though. Once my kids and I got back to our cabin, I asked if any of them had to go to the bathroom. Of course, they all had to, so we all grabbed our flashlights (the power was still out) and began to leave. Just before I went out the door, I remembered I had a rain jacket. "Oh! I can wear my rain jacket, because I have one. Ha, ha, ha." After I had said this, about five of my seven campers remembered that their mothers made them bring a rain jacket, too. We all went down and went to the bathroom. When we got back, one of my campers took off his jacket with a huge smile on his face. "I'm so glad my mom makes me do stuff now!"

The power didn't come back on until about 10:45. All of my campers were still awake and they were very excited about the power returning. Since I had already yelled at them to be quiet about six times, though, they only uttered whispers of jubilation.

And we all slept happily ever after. The end.