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February 20, 2005

First Session

Following the complete range of feelings I had during pre-camp, I now couldn't wait for the kids to arrive for the first session, which would be ten days with the same group of children. My first session was always going to be one of having to learn on my feet, very quickly indeed. It started off with myself, along with a small group of other counsellors, going into Boston to meet the majority of the kids at the pickup point to get them back to camp in the big yellow buses. It was a great experience, mingling with the kids and their parents, foster parents, other family members or guardians as they prepared for camp.

Back at camp, the kids got separeted into junior and senior villages based on their age, and then split into cabins - of which there are six in the senior boys village; Narragansett, Massachusett, Penobscott, Wompanog, Micmac and Pequot. Cabin assignments are also based on age, with Pequot - my cabin - being for the oldest boys. After a week of waiting it was finally great to have the kids there. Initial thoughts on the six kids in Pequot with Toby (my co-counsellor from Milton Keynes with three years camp experience) and myself were that they seemed a good bunch, but one thing was certainly true from the pre-camp briefings, the kids try to play you; especially new counsellors like myself. They see how far you can be pushed before you stop them doing whatever it is they're trying to get away with.

The most trying time of the day was 10:00pm, lights out. After a full day of activities, for some reason the last thing the kids wanted to do was go to sleep. The last thing I wanted to do was stay awake trying to get the kids to go to sleep. At some stage, I began to dread my nights in when I’d have to contend with endless chatter, giggling and torch waving. Sadly, cranking up the volume on the iPod and trying to go to sleep wasn’t a solution.

I did look forward to my nights off though, which you would alternate with your co-counsellor, one night in, one night off. With nights off starting at lights out, it didn’t leave much time to do anything, but you had to make the most of it. There was a staff lounge on the other side of camp in Stockade, the building where the girls’ villages slept. It had such luxuries as a TV with cable, video, DVD player, table football and a table tennis table. If you were lucky enough to be off on the same night as someone with transport, you could go to one of several beer serving establishments within 10 minutes! However, you had to make sure you were in a completely fit state by 7:00am the next morning to start looking after the kids again. Bars weren’t the only places you could go though, catching a movie at the local mall was also high on the popularity list. One night, a few of us went to see the midnight showing of Dodgeball and didn’t return until 3:45am! Surprisingly, I didn’t actually fall asleep during this movie, something I can’t say about several others I went to see.

Despite the times when the kids try your patience to the limit, they are outweighed by the great times you have with them. Helping them learn new things and seeing them enjoy the activities you’re providing. Before the kids came, I was really looking forward to the outdoor pursuits sessions for this very reason. However, instructing on the mountain bikes for most of the first session proved to be very frustrating for me. The bikes were in very poor condition, breaking down all the time then not having enough bikes available for the amount of kids in the group. I got very little out of this and found that I couldn’t really teach the kids anything during this activity. About 10 or 12 kids, each with completely different abilities on a bike and you had to accommodate all of them into a session. I found much greater satisfaction working on other activities like the climbing wall, high wires and the challenge course. Your role as an instructor with these activities was to help a child face their fears and climb that extra step on the wall, or to reassure them that when frozen in the middle of the high wire 30 feet in the air, that they can make it to the end and touch the tree.

The weather at camp was pretty much amazing. Virtually everyday I was in shorts, t-shirt and sandals basking in the daily heat, well into the 80’s. Some morning we’d be lining up for breakfast at 8:00am, absolutely roasting. It only rained about 2 or 3 times during the summer, with one particular occasion during the night in the first session when we had the biggest thunderstorm I’ve ever heard. It was absolutely amazing, like the clouds were right above the cabin; their deafening bangs inches away while hurling the rain down onto the thin wooden roof. The kids were scared, but I was lying there loving every minute of it.

Each counsellor in the village had an hour off during the morning, with only 2 or 3 of us off for the same hour. Wanting to relax was the main aim of my hour off, and to start with I’d head down to the council ring campfire and just sit, listening to music and writing in my journal. Having spent so much time around people, it was nice to get a little bit of time by yourself. Later in the session though, I ended up borrowing Danielle’s car and heading to the local Stop & Shop to grab some Dunkin’ Donuts with my mate Mike from Sheffield. We had a blast everyday in that hour, trying to leave it as late as possible to head back to camp, and then having to leg it all over the other side of camp to Stockade and return the car keys! I could just drink a Caramel Iced Latte Swirl right now. Mmmm.

Days off are taken on a rota basis, with only a handful of staff allowed off on any particular day to ensure the camp can still run as normal. With only one day off in the first session, it was time to head into Boston itself with several others. It was great to have a day off and get away from camp. On the blisteringly hot day, we wandered round the city seeing the sights, including the world famous Harvard University.

As the first 10 days drew to a close, I knew I’d leant a lot and that was maybe the reason the first session was only 10 days. To allow the counsellors to find their feet and learn as much as they could before the two 21 day sessions that would follow. I was really getting into things now and the early fears of the previous week had gone completely. I was at camp, in America and I was loving it. Yes, at times things were tough, but I had to learn how to deal with them. Which was one of the main reason I was there, to go into a completely unknown environment and deal with it.

As the kids packed and left, the counsellors were deciding what to do for the day off we all had before the next bunch of kids came. Small groups were forming and each one went off and did different things. I went to Plymouth with about 8 others and we checked into a hotel for the night and just had a relaxing time, chilled out, caught a movie, had some food and chatted. Already I was not looking forward to having to leave camp at the end of the summer as there were so many good people I knew I’d miss loads.

Next up, Session 2.