Re-assimilating; Notes From a First Year Counselor, Part Two: Return of the Ninjas

I last left you recovering from sunburn. Actually I left me… and… now I’m slightly confused… and… not sure how to move on…

Week one.

I was co-counselor with a fabulous lady named Polly. It was so cool to talk with her! She has been coming to camp longer than many of the staff have been alive. She has so many tips and stories! Things like having the girls keep their Bibles, pens and groundcloths all in one spot so they are ready for Morning watch and Bible Ex. Having playdough and tic-tac-toe at the table for after meals.

On the way to meals the girls are supposed to walk single file. It didn’t take long for us to realize it was a losing battle and we just let them walk however they wanted. We joked that they walked single file, horizontally. It was really cool when we figured out why they were doing that. They all liked each other. This was something I had been really worried about. Four out of our darling five knew each other and the one left out hadn’t ever been to camp. All the worrying was pointless! The cabin integrated SO well! I could not have put a better cabin together myself!

Something really amazing happened on the first day. In the chaos of the girls were coming in and getting settled, one of the moms came back in asking for Annie. Now, I had been trying to get used to responding to Pigeon, but I turned around anyway. She held out what I recognized right away as my Ninja Guard shirt. 

It is tradition that the Explorers do Color Guard (flag raising) everyday. There are some basic marching routines, but sometimes they shake it up. Even though I only did Color Guard around 5 times, I have done at least three of these with special routines (for example). My very first time we marched out and then in a circle  before we lined up to actually raise the flag. I’m not particularly coordinated, so it was never my best activity, but I really enjoyed it. On our last week as campers my cabin did Ninja Guard. The link will take you to a very short clip of what we did (we are the ones in black that kick). First, instead of marching up to the flag pole, we ran around behind the campers and came in the back (Someone held the flag for us and handed it to Raven). On the way back we did kicks, chops, rolls and general ninja stuff while Raven did  Tae-Kwon-Do forms. We got in position back on the concrete pad and she said “To the Trees and halt, one two” we ran behind our designated tree. “At ease” we peeked out. It was fantastic and all the girls loved it.

Later the Explorers made t-shirts with stencils and spray paint. We had been thinking we needed to do something like that, so most of us made matching shirts. We cut out  our own stencils and used up about 3 cans of black spray paint. It took so long. It could have easily been around three hours, start to finish. We were there longer than anyone else.

I wore my shirt the night we had a giant shaving cream war. I took it off to clean up and it disappeared. I checked the lost and found, and then after camp emailed people asking if they had seen it. No one knew where it was and I had just given it up as gone forever. And yet here it was.

During the chaos one of the girls had set her stuff on my shirt and it all got mixed up. She ended up taking it home with her laundry and her mom found it and saved it back.

I am totally amazed. I had completely given it up. I just about cried when she came in with my shirt. I really think that was a God thing. He used that to encourage me that He cares about the little things. It was like a little reminder that God was there and everything was going to be great. He gives us so much more than what we need.