Rubies Camp

Well, what a week! I was at Rubies Girl Camp all week as a counselor! Here's an excerpt from my journal on Tuesday: Looks like I don't have internet access. Yesterday was okay. It looked like a terribly long week ahead of me:( We are having more cabin time than what I was informed of and over my years of traveling, I have learned to pack less and less, instead of taking the entire kitchen sink! So I had not really brought extra stuff to do along:( You can tell I'm not a teacher, because I did not take into consideration that the girls might be deathly quiet til they get to know eachother! Nor the fact that the silence would be very uncomfortable and that they would be all relying on me to make the conversation! I guess I am used to the city girls and they warm up fast, normally. Depends on their personality but usually they are talkative pronto. So, they had a small talk with us counselors and made us feel a little more in control. But then we got to our cabins and were to wait til the girls come in, little by little. I didn't wait long but it sure was uncomfortable.......one comes........you ask their name......they say but then silence.........you ask where they go to church.....then silence.......where they go to school.....silence.........what hobbies they have.......silence.....another girl comes in......same questions..........silence.....only answers and nothing else! Sigh! I had assumed alot would know eachother because alot of them have come here for years in a row. Well, I have two girls who are in a click, but all the others didn't really know eachother. How incredibly hard at first, to keep them occupied. I finally started the Apples to Apples game and even then I tried to encourage table talk and it was only me talking.......:( I really worried if they are even going to like me. City girls are the huggy type normally and when you ask them questions they get friendly right away and you can touch them and they're just a blast. Mennonite girls.....well, it felt like a bunch of icecubes that I didn't dare touch to make them melt! Silence and a few exchanged glances.....yikes, I wish it was Friday! Lord, can't it just be Friday already? Please? Oh, and I was slightly intimidated by the counselor closest to me......she was putting welcome gifts on each girls bed, a pack of gum with a little note. She was there for quite a few years so she's used to this. And today I saw all her girls carrying water canteens. I just hope my girls don't think I'm a dud. I seriously have to be tight right now and I think what I am giving them is enough but I know teen girls can get attitudes. I hope they don't look at the other counselor and wish they had her instead.

Well, we finally did a few things on the schedule but then we had more free time. Thank God I thought of Swat. That really got us to learn eachother's names. I am lacking greatly when it comes to memorizing names but I found out it was as hard for them to be in the middle as it was for me. We played it for almost a half hour and I say that really engraved the names in our minds. Before that, one of the organized games they had was to put on a frozen T-shirt. The shirt had been frozen (while it had been saturated with water) and we had to pull it out of a ziploc bag and unthaw it with our bodies and unfold it and have someone put it on. That was a challenge. My cabin was one of the winners. By this time they warmed up just a little.

By bedtime we actually had everyone talking. What a blessed relief! Maybe it will be fun after all and normal. I'm praying for 0 attitudes. The only ones I have to watch with eagle eyes are the two girls that know eachother. Sometimes they whisper or exchange looks so I have to somehow be a boss yet a friend simultaneously. Where do you draw that line?

It's tiring to me, to be so constant on watching the clock. Is that what teachers have to do all school term? Wow, tiring! It makes the day go fast but it's just plain tiring. Last night we really had fun talking and telling stories and I had to command them to stop talking finally! I would rather have that problem than silence.

Today has been good. Last night I gave them the pencils and I had a devotional on a pencil and how we are like pencils. Today during cabin freetime I have them the journals and stickers and got out my markers, pencils, etc. Some of them really seemed to like it but the two girls who know eachother kind of acted like maybe they thought it wasn't cool. They are the kind of girls who are COOL, and they have fashion and right from first sight of them I could tell they are the "clickish" kind of girls who can make fun of others they don't think are "in". So I have to be careful with them. So far it's been good though. One of them asked me if this is their gift then and I said it is. She didn't say anything so maybe she was just asking but I hope she wasn't thinking she wishes it was more. Okay, I have to stop trying to read into something that may not be there! You know I do that sometimes!:) I had them decorate them and one girl had the awesome idea to all sign eachothers on the back. So they all did that. Kelsey, one of the "click" girls even had me sign hers!

Now tonight I will have them use their new pencils and their new journals and they will have to each face a wall, looking at NO ONE and write down 10 things they would do if they only had a month to live. Then I have a devotion prepared that I got off an email.

Right now they are at mini class. I will look forward to mini class because we get free time then. Ah, bliss! It is good to rest! We get one Wednesday and Thurs. but not Friday. So all in all, I am having fun but I wonder if I will make it to work Saturday. I should not even be thinking of that already but I can't help it! They said the counselors will need 36 straight hours of sleep after they get home and I think maybe they are right............I am not used to being in total charge of 9 girls and their schedules. It's usually challenging enough to get myself ready in time! Is God preparing me for a family?

That's my excerpt. The rest of the week was alot the same, busy, busy, busy! The first night I made them be quiet at 10:30 but then we had the assistant counselor in our cabin the next two nights and they wanted to stay up late. Plus they claimed another cabin let them stay up til 1pm. So I gave in, decided I don't need to be such an ogre. So they stayed up til 12:30, then 12:30 again, then 12:15. Sigh! Is it any wonder I came home drained? And, they had all brought sleeping bags. I had brought a sheet set so all I had was a thin sheet to cover with. I was grateful for the AC but they cranked it down to 60. I am sure it never reached that because it was constantly running but it sure got colder than what I am used to at night. I woke up just SOOOOOO cold and my nose felt like ice. Normally I can't sleep when my nose is cold but I guess I was that exhausted that I slept anyway! What I should have done is turn the AC up a little when everyone fell asleep but how can you know when 9 girls are really sleeping.....probably someone would have heard the beeping and caught me, plus, I needed to sleep ASAP, not wait til I was sure everyone else was! So now I have this dreadful sore throat and I blame it on that!

It seemed like the girls liked their mini classes. To name a few: Slate painting, fresh flowers, calligraphy, frame your name, fabric painting, flag football,