Here are a few mini posts of things going on that don’t necessarily need a full post of their own:
The Challenge Course:
The best part of being out there is getting to hang with the campers (haha, get it? “hang”? we’re on a ropes course? Get it huh? :-) lol, it’s so good to be able to interact with them and have fun with them.
The other day, while working on the ropes course, I dubbed a boy Mr. Darcy…he has no idea who that is or what Pride and Prejudice even is, but I told him that he’s have to live up to the name because Mr. Darcy is every girls ideal of a gentleman…he laughed :-P The reason I gave him that name is because his real name is Colin, and I told him I’d remember his name because of Colin Firth, who is THE Mr. Darcy…anyways, the name stuck for Colin. When your on the ropes course, in order to switch your sling lines from one element to the next, you have to ask an instructor (me) for permission, so the rest of the class Colin would ask me “Ashley this is Mr. Darcy, permission to transfer line one?” ect. :-D
I’m working on writing a song for when I’m out on the Challenge course. Whenever I hook someone up, I have to run through a list of checks (“give me a shake of the head, ok, your helmet is secure. Your harness is secure and fitted properly, your carabineer is [click bineer three times] 1 2 3 locked, loaded and oriented correctly. Your knot is tied and dressed correctly. The line is running cleanly through the system back down to my belay device which is [3 clicks] 1 2 3 locked loaded and oriented correctly. My harness is 1 2 3 double backed and secure. The slack is out of the system and you are on belay [camper asks “climbing?”] climb on!”) I think it’d be a fun one to sing!
Serving the tables:
My fav job! Even though serving tables means that I probably wont get to eat any more then I can scarf down in three seconds before rushing back out (my rule is, if I find myself enjoying my food, it probably means I have to go check tables) it’s still so much fun!
Since I know so many of the campers and just about all the counselors pretty well, it’s a lot of fun because we don’t mind taking a few minutes to joke around a bit.
My Uncle Daves cabin, Keweenaw, is the oldest boys cabin and they eat SOOOO MUCH!! Haha, but I don’t mind serving them, their a lot of fun and always call me Amazing Ashley when they see me coming.
The other day, I was serving Eliza Ferris’s table (she’s a camper, I call her Eliza Doolittle and she calls me Ashley Doolittle). My regular phrase for checking a table is “is there anything else I can get for you ladies?” and Eliza said “Ashley, I want everything” I answered her by saying my regular phrase for those impossible joking requests we staff girls get on a daily basis with an equally joking “I’ll get right on that for ya”. After that, every time I checked Eliza’s table, she’d ask me how that everything was coming. So, I went back to the kitch and grabbed a plastic cup and with a marker I wrote “everything” on it and brought it out to her. I explained that in order for the cup to work, she had to use her imagination that everything in the world was inside…she said it worked perfectly. :-D
The next day, I was serving Abigail’s table. Abigail is a staff girl who’s counseling during JV. I asked her table if they needed anything else and Ruby, one of her campers, solemnly requested that I bring them world peace. I tried to convince the table that only Jesus could bring that, but Abigail was adamant that I bring them some. So, I again grabbed a plastic cup, this time I wrote “world peace” and threw in a few slices of pineapple. I brought the cup back and explained to the girls that if they ate the pineapple from the world peace cup, they would feel so peaceful that they’d want to spread the peace to everyone around them, thus creating world peace!
The staff guys!
Only the best guys around! Nothing can beat them and this year their especially cool. A few days ago, all the staff girls took a day off together while the campers were on their day trip, we went to town and ate out and everything, it was great to be able to sit down while we ate and enjoy our meal. But, meanwhile, back at the camp, the guys were taking our jobs and serving the campers! (ho great is that!?) anxious to see our brothers at work, we made sure to get home in time to see the end of the meal (I was informed by a camper table that they were ready for scrapers at any time). It was so good seeing our staff fella’s fumble around the kitch yelling “where’s this!? Where’s that!? What is going on here!?” as they graciously refused to allow us girls to help them in any way. when clean up started, however, we decided to keep up the charade and the girls took the boys normal jobs of washing the dishes and picking up the leftovers from the tables, and the guys continued their roles of being us and dried dishes, scraped plates and ran dishes to their proper sinks. There was so much laughing and encouragement (and sarcasm) and pictures being take and shouts of “how do I do this!?” It was so good to be able to switch roles for awhile and get a taste of what the others do.
The other night, Jay, a former staff guy who was visiting and helping out on staff for a week, came in to do devos with us girls and share all the secrets of the guys staff. He kept saying “ask me anything, I’ll tell it all, this is my last night here so I got nothing to hide.” Anyways, he just told us some really encouraging things that we otherwise wouldn't have picked up or noticed from the guys. He told us about how much the guys staff loves and respects us girls and how much they talk about us and all the things we do. He also said that all the things the guys do, whether it be some kind of goofing around or doing their best at a job, it’s all to impress us. The campers rarely see them at work, and even though they do see them goofing around, they don’t always appreciate it, but we girls are the only ones who see them at work all the time, how hard they work and how they’re still able to do the work in joy, and we’re usually the only ones who love it when they goof around and understand their need to be crazy. Jay also said that the guys create a whole new love language (there are the 5: words, gifts, touch, time, acts) but the guys show us the “sixth” by “being mean” or, sarcasm. “when they prank you, or sauce you in the kitchen (“sauce” means dump some kind of food on you or throw bubbles from the sink at you) what they mean to say is ‘I love you’”. finally, Jay told us that, in speaking for all the guys, the qualities they look for in their future wives are those we as staff girls show, we are the models they hold other girls up to, and if a girl couldn’t make it as a staff girl then she wouldn't be the one for him. It was all a lot of encouragement, especially coming from one of our own staff guys, who we respect and love so much. It all goes right back at them too, everything that we do, we do to impress them, they are the ones we look at to. We talk about them all the time in our dorm, laughing at their silliness and the crazy things they do, and commenting on when they do an especially good job on something or just encourage us in some way. I’d say we do our own share of the 6th love language as well, by retaliating in full force when they prank us or lock us in the cooler. :-) and I cant tell you how many times the words “I’m gonna marry a staff guy!” have been said. We have so much respect for them and everything they do, both silly and serious, and the way they show their love for God in their actions and make everyday fun and exciting. Camp just wouldn't be camp without them!
so, thats just a few of the things going on here in the last few days...more every day though, lol, i get to the end of each day and ask someone "what was your favorite thing of your today?" and when they ask the question back at me, i always have to ask "what even happened today!?" each day is full and they're getting fuller!
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