I have been unemployed after my VISTA year at Red Cross and homeless for one week now. I am currently sitting in the Birmingham "Internaltional" (jajajajajaja) Airport where there is ZERO air conditioning. Luckily Sumatanga has built up my resistance to such a problem over the past week, so it's like I brought camp with me.
This week has been incredible. This post is going to delve into faith, which I haven't really talked about over the past year. I've thought that my loneliness in Tuscaloosa had to do with a lack of friends and a stressful job, but what I didn't realize is how large a role a faith community has played in my life up until this point. The Wesley Foundation served that purpose throughout college, but once that was no longer an option I just became a sporadic church attendee without forming bonds with anyone at the churches I attended.
Whilst in a service at one of the aforementioned churches, I was struck with the idea of going to camp during my one transitionary week. In order to do this, I cancelled my previously planned beach excursion, and I knew I'd have to drive back and forth to go to rehearsals. I was so excited for the opportunity that it didn't matter. Oddly, I was more excited about going to camp than I was about going to California a week later.
When I went to fill out the counselor application, I discovered that the directors were two people with whom I have been friends for a long time, Mary and Timmy Collins, so that made me even more excited. After my going away party last Friday, I woke up and drove straight to camp with a small pit stop in Hoover to pack and bathe in less than an hour.
The first day was awkward since there was no one I knew really well, and the scholarship counselors that are there all summer already had such a strong bond. By the end of the week, I felt like I had been there the entire summer with them. I made the realization that Sumatanga is so much more than a place. I've missed camp for two years, but I visited to bring friends from college there. This week made me see that it wasn't the place I missed it was the people and the community that they created. There are so few opportunities to spend a week in Alabama heat and humidity where your appearance doesn't matter nor do your love for crafts, lack of softball abilities, and love for singing parodies of Disney songs.
The theme of the week was Just Add Water, which was a perfect metaphor for camp. I went in there parched but was able to pour myself out into making a beautiful week for all of the campers, but I was also refilled with a new revitalization of my faith. This is exactly what I was hoping for and desperately needed. I hated leaving early today, especially with my flight changing to 7:25.
I don't want to bore you with all the details, but I'll include some highlights in the form of a Top 10 List that has no ranking importance, a combination rather than a permutation, if you will.
1. I sang my original lyrics to "Part of Your World" to be "That Craft Hut Girl." Only a few campers didn't recognize it as a song from The Little Mermaid and thought I was just constantly forgetting the words.
2. I met some great people. My co-counselor, Carmen and her beautiful imperfections, Mason and his handlebar mustache, Holly and her broken leg, Jennifer and her ability to lead multiple groups over the week, and a great band are just a few.
3. I got to revisit old friendships with Tom, Mary, Timmy, Jenny, Cary, Sami, et al while I was there. Some of these people I hadn't seen in years, but it didn't seem that way at all.
4. I had the loudest cabin, which seems to always happen. They end up growing on you by the end of the week, especially when they quietest they are is when they request you to sing a song or when you're reading Alexander and the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
5. Apparently I look like Frodo, Rick Astley, and Alexander from the previously mentioned book.
6. There was an evening program about finding God in the chaos of life, which really spoke to me because of the year I've had with the tornado, three different apartments, and a job that consisted of dealing with disasters. The program involved a labyrinth of chairs all in odd positions that just brought me back to the devastation I saw in Tuscaloosa, Phil Campbell, and Centerpoint.
7. I love making nametags for people especially when I can theme them after Disney movies. I made a pretty good one with Mason's name being a mustache on a face and a Cinderella one for Emalee with the "a" as a pumpkin and the rest of the letters as vines coming off of it.
8. The kids were so great this week. I love playing games with them, trying to make them think in small groups, and interacting with them in meals and services. I'm still in the age range in which junior high students find you cool just by existing, so that makes it even better.
9. I actually scored two runs and caught an out in the camper counselor softball game. That almost makes up for the 15 or so pitches it took for me to hit the ball one time...
10. I overcame my competitive nature and allowed a child to stay in a round of ships and sailors. I only did this after I had bumped them out of the four men eating circle and let them take my place instead. At least it's improvement?
Camp was wonderful, and I cannot wait until I can call Sumatanga my home again. Hopefully, next summer I'll be able to be there a little longer. I have too many nametags to make and too many songs to sing for just one week.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment