Week 2

ok, so i'm feeling better about the blog thing after some of the comments. thanks for those!

well, to get you caught up, saturday was a church work day at camp, and a group of members came out to help us finished the mulching, and help clean and prep. i cleaned cabins all day, which hadn't been touched for a year, and it's funny but i had forgotten until saturday that i am actually allergic to pollen. i quickly remembered, though, as we swept literally layers of collected pollen from the bunks and floors and i continually had to step out and let my nose breathe again. the work was still good, and that night i finally got to go into the city(!) for a little gathering with the young adult class at the church to watch a british comedy. the comedy was not very funny at all, but man was i excited about going into the city! it seems i always forget how much i really like cities until i'm in them again, but d.c. is probably the cleanest big city in the states that i've been to. after the film we went to the washington monument, which is lovely at night. we also found out that laughing or any other type of audible merriment is prohibited at the lincoln memorial. maybe they want everyone to imitate old stoic abe? i don't know.

sunday we attended the church in the city and afterward kristen and i walked to the capitol, which i had never been to see in previous visits, and we saw the library of congress and then walked past a crowd of protesters gathering on the lawn to protest the israeli occupation of palestine only to come upon a fair for the gay community called capitol pride which had pennsylvania avenue closed down. members of the church were actually there at a booth for area churches as a way to reach out to the lgbt community, so we chatted there shortly before taking the metro up to georgetown and walked to georgetown university. (wow, i feel like this is getting really mundane. i might add here that we also took the time to see if we could jump the fence at the white house and make it to the front door before being caught by sniper bullets or other such security measures, but that would just be ridiculously unrealistic, right?)

so the next day i realized that sufjan stevens is excellent music to clean to as i spent the morning scrubbing grime off the boys' bathroom showers and walls...it was awesome! i really love cleaning bathrooms. i love those epiphanies when you realize something new about yourself that's always been there, only in my case it is this sick love of cleaning body soil...anyway, we also practiced leading low ropes that afternoon, then that night was really exciting as we went into the city again(!) to attend an interfaith convocation on hunger at the washington national cathedral organized by bread for the world. it was a really neat event, and i'm just very encouraged by the way the church here supports and engages in issues such as hunger. i feel priviliged to be in a city where things like that go on all the time.

so today, tuesday, we did more prep work, but i won't go into it because i already feel like your eyeballs must be either yawning or picking up a good book to pass the time after the details i've already provided. but suffice it to say, it was an ordinary, lovely day and now it ends with internet--yay!

i'm getting really excited for the kids to get here. the first week is supposed to be the largest, and it's already full as far as i know. another student.goer who has been up here for a year working with inner city high school kids at the church also really encouraged me as we have heard how impactful her work has been with the teenagers who are probably very similar to the kids who will be at camp. i look forward to allowing these kids to just be kids and love on them as much as i can while they are with us, sharing Christ with them naturally as i love them.

our friend, the epic caretaker, is leaving us, though, and i feel we will feel the loss deeply as we will no longer have him around to tell us the average number of times a person releases gas daily or the exact year the metric system was invented. i am still loving playing my guitar and had the joy of playing with my lovely friend merry beth last night, as she stayed at camp with us on her drive home from boston. i'm actually copying some tabs of songs now to add to the patty repertoire which is still wonderful but getting a bit worn out. singing and playing at the same time...it's unspeakable joy, really. thank you to my wonderful family for the best material gift ever.

ok, so the blog debriefing: i still feel quite egotistical after writing so much about me which feels so dull as i look back on it (kind of like the way i feel about my life after filling out an application and wondering why i'm not more like mary kathryn covert). but i'm thankful that some of you may actually have made it to the end of this and care enough to get through it with me. seriously, i cannot believe how long this has gotten. well, i love you all and hope to bore you again soon!