The One When Everything That Could Go Wrong, Does...

Last night I found myself sprinting through the woods in the pitch black pouring rain in search of my inhaler as an allergic reaction from cabin bedding took over my lungs. That was the culminating moment of another delightful day at camp!

It pretty much hasn’t stopped raining here, and the thunderstorms have knocked out our power several times, depleted the hot water, soaked the fields, and dampened the campfire wood. We have resorted to having all 40 kids playing soccer, football, ultimate frisbee and cheer dancing in a barn the size of Acker Gym. Did I mention there were sharp objects and giant piles of wood and construction equipment everywhere? It’s a great thing for us that Japanese people rarely sue!

Just as we were leaving the barn for dinner a torrential downpour took over and forced us to drive the youngest kids the ½ mile back to the dinning hall. I was instructed by a Japan

ese counselor to help load the kids. I asked how many to load up for the first trip and the shocking response was, “All of them”. We may have set a world record because we managed to fit 21 people into a standard sized minivan!

Dinner was uneventful except for several kids coming down with a fever (Japanese are hyper-sensitive about sickness, scrapes, cuts, and generally everything health related). Again, due to the rain, we were made to stay inside and duct-tape flashlights together for a “campfire” and then made S’mores over a gas stove. It was great though because most of the kids had never had S’mores and they were totally stoked about how mushy the marshmallows were!

After the kids were all in bed (they often stay by themselves in the cabins with no adult supervision because they are THAT well behaved!) we were told that the girl counselors were moving cabins again (the third time in two days). The camp van was fetched so we didn't have to trek our luggage through the mudd in the dark and suddenly we heard a CRASH. Yep, our camp director drove the van (which belongs to a counselor’s parents) into a ditch! Several attempts to push the van back onto the road failed miserably and when a tow-truck was called it got stuck in the mud too! We have yet to hear about how the van is doing…

Despite the mass chaos being wreaked on us, camp has been pretty amazing. I really want to take half of the kids home with me! The language thing has been difficult at times but its been fun being silly and literally acting out the things we need campers to do. Duck-duck-goose is a hit as well as Uno and freeze tag.

Fun Fact: Most kids here don’t fight (with an exception of the Americanized boys)…they solve 99% of disputes with Jyan-Kan-Po (the Japanese version of Ro-Sham-Bo).