hey pretty girl

hey guys! i am happy to report two things: 1) this past week was definitely better in many ways than the first, and 2) this post will not be as horrendously long or sad as the last one.

so to get to the point, since i did not have my own cabin of kids this past week, i think it was a lot less emotionally stressful. plus, the group was completely different than the first group. initially, we all thought they were a wonderful bunch of angels sent to us because they actually visibly enjoyed things and listened and obeyed us! it didn't take long, though, for attitudes to emerge and fights to break out. we had to deal with a lot more conflicts between kids this week than last week, which surprised me. i had to watch one older guy punch another in the face before we could get between them for it to really sink in that even though most of these kids seemed to come from better, more stable home environments, first impressions can be deceiving and a lot of them had many issues to deal with. like lots and lots of female drama. i was reminded how much i hated that, even when i was that age. but to avoid going off on negatives again, the kids really were great overall and this week seemed to go off more smoothly, as we were all more confident going into it. probably because we believed that if we could survive a week like the first one, we could do anything!
but i quickly realized how much i missed my boys from the first week. it's funny how attached you can feel to kids who seemed to make things miserable only a short while before, but i truly grew very fond of them and think that the fact that i went through so much with them made me feel an even closer bond with them. one of my boys actually came back the second week, so i got to see him some. i was "kitchen staff" this week (which really means the person who does anything and everything that needs doing), and was completely worn out after those few days of working nonstop. it was a completely different type of exhaustion than the first week. but i still had plenty of time with the kids during activities. it was funny, though, because i gradually began to avoid this more and more as this little 7-year-old girl named tiffani developed a strange obsession with me. seriously, she creeped me out because she would follow me around all the time calling me pretty girl and going on and on about how adorable i was. "stop!" she would say to other campers, and pointing at me would say, " just look at her. isn't she just adorable?!" she then proceeded to talk about how pretty my eyes were and ask me over and over to let her see my eyes and say my name over and over. i still don't understand it.
oh yeah, and i got to sit in on a funny conversation among the older girls one night when i slept out in their cabin and listened to all their stories. while i was laying there one of the girls told about how her dad made her wear "the belly" right before she went to her first school dance in 7th grade and told her date to just look at her and decide if this was how they wanted to end up. i had no idea people actually did that. then they talked about people being racist--against white people. one of the girls was like, "i don't care, i like white people. i mean, they're just people!" they kept forgetting i was in the room, so i'm not really sure what i would have done if they had gone off on how they hate white people. probably faked sleeping or something. but it's really interesting how often race issues and gender issues come up at camp. also that night, i was mildly sprayed by a skunk!

so anyway, that's all the camp stories for now. this coming week i have the older boys cabin, but since it's independence day week we have a lot less kids, and i only have three. two were here week 1, and one was in my cabin. so i'm really excited about having him again--he was the one who was so sarcastic and complainy at the beginning, but who is pretty cool once you figure out how to relate with him. please pray for opportunities to talk with kids about Christ this week, since it's a smaller group. also, for me to make efforts to be sensitive to the Spirit's leading in my time with the kids and knowing when He wants me to talk to them and when He just wants me to be with them. i'm also turning 22 on tuesday...so weird. there's no way i feel anywhere close to that old...it's just a number, it's only a number. ok, thank you all for the uplifting comments and prayers i know were given to God for me and our community up here.