It's Monday already?

Today is Monday, but really I am not completely sure what day it is. Life here is different, things unexpected can happen and really all you can do is keep moving and not criticize any of your goof ups. And last night I definitely had a goof-up. 

We were taking the boys back to Pastor Nathan's house, because we were just hanging out and had to go drop them off. I was riding shotgun because apparently I have a good sense of direction. And let me just clarify that we are in a 15-passenger van and Miss Sarah Bourns is driving. And we had to do quite a few turn arounds because it is only the second day of driving in this beautiful city of Covington. We finally get to their street and pass Pastor Nathan's house, on my direction, and when we realize it Sarah stops and pulls into the next driveway.  So of course we have to turn around right? Well, I just tell Sarah that she has plenty of room and honestly it looks like she does. But she didn't. So the left front tire rolls into a ditch. That is filled with water. Stagnant water. 

I get out of the van right away because I feel so embarrassed about coaching Sarah into this ditch.  I go on the other side of the ditch and see that it really isn't so bad and it will be easy to push the van out. So I cross the ditch to the driver's window to tell Sarah this. Bad idea. 

As soon as I step, my right leg plunges into this stagnant, smelly, muddy, marshy ditch. My immediate reaction is to get out of the ditch so I take another step and my left leg also plunges into this gunk.  But I have to get out of this so I keep going but my right flip flop falls off into this miniature swampland.  I am freaking out. But no one is out of the van. They are still in there. Do they think I can push this van by myself? But then I find out that they could not get the door open. 

So they are out and I am trying to explain to them that my sandal is somewhere in this ditch but our priority is to get the van out. But this proves to be easy and Ben and Josiah show their worth as the men on our team. And then I tell them that I have only one sandal, and seriously everyone starts laughing. And on Alisha's urging I go back into this four feet deep ditch to try and find my right flip flop. The water is up to the middle of my thighs.  And of course, they just had to take a picture. What made it entertaining though, was that Josiah slipped a bit and one of his legs ended up in the murky water. 

I never found the sandal. And really, I don't think I want it back. 

Anyway, today was quite a long day. It was the first day of training for the camp next week. We had to be at the church at 8:00 for breakfast, but the training did not start until 9:00. And we were all highly 'encouraged' to show up before that, preferably 8:45 to not be at all late. 

The highlight of the training was meeting everyone that we will be working with.  There were a lot of 14-15 year olds who were considered 'Counselors-in-training.'  Apparently, they were in the camp last year and just couldn't stay away.  The other people there were 16, 17, and 18 year olds.  Us five were some of the oldest. There were some kids in their twenties, but not many.  It seems like a lively bunch and I cannot wait to get to know these individuals better and make relationships. 

We also were told what age groups we would be working with. The first age group I was told, were the 11-13 year olds. But then Chassidy, the director of the camp, switched me with Rachel and made me a counselor for the 8-10 year olds. However, I was not feeling totally comfortable with this age group, but I knew that wishing for another age group would not be helpful.  But then later, much much later, Alisha was talking and saying that she did not feel comfortable with the 5-7 year olds. And immediately, I told her that I was feeling the exact same way about the 8-10 year olds. So now I hope to be a counselor for the 5-7 year olds; we still need to talk to Chassidy about that. 

The rest of training was going through the hand book, which was very monotonous, but very necessary. Too bad towards the end, Ben and I kind of started talking and making comments and drawing shapes. It's a good thing Alisha, Josiah and Rachel paid real good attention. 

One of the main things that is required of us as counselors is knowing the cheers. And there are quite a few of them.  And these cheers happen when someone says a trigger word, such as a number, or the word 'so' or the word 'money.' Each trigger word triggers a particular cheer. Too bad we have to know all of them. But if it will help the kids get energized, I'm game. 

I am really excited for the camp to start because I cannot wait to see what God will do in our lives and what God will do in the campers lives. But until camp starts, we have CPR classes and training to look forward to this week. 

After the training for the day we went and got ice cream at Hershey's ice cream. Don't let the name fool you, they are not associated with the Hershey chocolate. But it was good and we got to talk about the weeks when Sarah will not be there. Let's just say it will be interesting, but I know that with God and Sarah's modeling, we will be able to survive. 

After ice cream we went to Rouses Supermarket for some toiletries. While we are there we are walking around and see a soccer ball. Alisha and I have been wanting to play soccer for a while now so we go halfsies and buy the ball. I'm not going to lie, just buying that soccer ball made me happy. 

For all our meals, a rehab group that takes place at Faith Bible called the 4:13's cooks for us. They are a nice group of gentlemen that even invited us to play basketball with them. I think that they were just talking to the boys but I wanted to play too, so I followed.  I really think they were surprised. I really did not do that well, so I kind of joined Alisha and Rachel and Sarah on the sidelines before it ended. For dinner, the groups made us red beans and rice. It was actually quite good, and very filling. We also had some salad and spinach.  

We all then came to the house that the girls are staying at and watched Akeelah and the Bee. It was a very cute movie, kind of predictable, but a real feel good movie.  Too bad, some of the dialogue of the movie is not known because of Ben's continual comment making. 

After that, we went to drop the boys off at Pastor Nathan's house. Luckily this time we did not drive into any ditches. I still rode shot gun too. I must be good at learning from my mistakes. 

We all went inside and Pastor Nathan's kids were still up. One of his sons, Emory (3 years old) I can tell is going to break my heart. He loves to cuddle and his smile is so bright and full of vitality.  We became somewhat fast friends.  When the girls were leaving his face was so depressed; he even asked if he could come with us.  Unfortunately we had to say no. 

The most amazing thing about this outing is that we did not take one wrong turn or have to turn around.  We always know where we are, but sometimes we just don't turn on time. But not tonight. We are slowly learning the roads of our summer home. By the time Sarah comes back with the high school group we will be pros.