Catch-up

I know it's been a while since I've blogged...but it's been a bit busy! In this time I've had CS#3 camp, seen the batman movie, ridden a unicycle, had Teen camp, hiked up a mountain, and had an awesome American barbecue!

Alot of stuff has happened, so the last 2 weeks have kind of merged into eachother, but we had such a great week with Community Servce #3. I was with the youngest cabin (Lanai) again which was fun. We definitely had our challenges throughout our week, but I think that it was my best camp. One of my boys had an episode late at night and ended up running off-site and shutting down. With the help of the camp director and the DYS, Joe and Captain Neil, we managed to get him to respond and get back to the cabin. I ended up just chatting to him for about an hour as he sat in bed after lights out, and some of the stuff he told me about himself and his family just broke my heart, and he finished up asking me for a hug, which moved me!

Batman: The Dark Knight. Such an awesome movie...I wasn't expecting much, but came out of the screen just amazed. I won't give much away, but Heath Ledger gave the performance of a lifetime (somewhat sadly), and the characters of Lucius and Alfred lifted the film even further. Great direction from Christopher Nolan really brought the story alive.

Two things I didn't expect to be doing this summer, unicycling and hiking! One of the guys here on staff is a champion unicycler, so has been entertaining the kids on his uni all summer. I'd managed to stay clear of riding it for 6 weeks, but then one day...I stupidly forgot that I have no sense of balance whatsoever, and hopped on. 3 seconds later, I picked myself up off the floor, mopped up the blood on my heel, and vowed never again to ride anything with les than two wheels.

With the kids at teen camp being older than our other kids, we were able to do a bit more stuff with them. So we took them up a mountain and back down again. Now, it's obvious from looking at me that anything more than walking to the fridge is a bit of an effort for me, so I wasn't really looking forward to it. The problem is, my cabin for the week, the middle cabin (Niihau) was full of energetic, strong 14/15 year olds, and they had other ideas about the hike. So predictably, we were first up, and first down the mountain, but strangely, I enjoyed it! It certainly proved how unfit I was...but I could take it and was up at the front with them as they power-walked upwards! Think I shall leave it a while before going again though! We took them ice-skating in the evening as well which was fun!

The last night that our kids were here, we had a campfire worship service which was pretty awesome, we had a time afterwards for personal reflection and response with them, which gave me the opportunity to have some really good honest conversations with the guys. I spoke to two young men in particular, who told me someting of their backgrounds and family lives, and it just amazed me that -having been with them for a few days- they were so together and 'normal'. It reminded me that although people can seem one way or another, it's not up to us to judge them or make assumptions because we jst don't know what's going on in their lives!

I'm just about to go and lie on the beach, and rest off the MASSIVE bbq we had after today's worship service...mmmmmmm.