I wonder if I've driven everyone away by these, because I can't imagine these posts being interesting for anyone but me. If you have read all four of these the whole way through, you deserve a big gold star.
It's a natural fact that when you put 100 women in a cramped location, that drama will happen. Us men are normally (aside from Gale our fearless leader) just not privy to all of it. This day, I got a faceful, and lived to tell the tale.
I arose at 7AM to the sound of a woman in tears. Usually, our quarters are off-limits to the womenfolk, but since we had the sweet digs, including a nice little kitchen table (and did I mention the AC?), our cabin had become home to a few meetings, and sometimes just a nice hideout for the camp leaders to get out of the way and get things done. No worries, but crying meant something bad. I dressed quickly and came out to see what was going on, and found the camp leader telling Gale how another woman had usurped her authority and changed things out from under her. With only one full day of camp left, we offered the best advice we had: continue to serve the girls, and try your best to not let them notice what's going on.
After she left, Gale and I talked it out for a bit, and we figured out that the two leaders had been butting heads for weeks, and it had carried over to camp. The meetings every evening where we correlate the enxt day's activities were not happening, so people weren't on the same page. Thankfully, I don't think most of the girls noticed, but we realized that the contention between the two leaders was most likely the source of the "dark vision" that Gale had before camp. Alas, there was nothing more to do but get back to work, so after a quick shower and breakfast, it was off to the races.
Today's big feature was a canoe trip across the lake for the fifth-year and older girls, something we've never let them do before. To pepare, we set out all 11 canoes, and cleaned them of spiderwebs and mayfly nests. I was expected to give a brief talk, so I placed my scriptures in a plastic bag and stuffed them into my backpack, along with sunblock and bug spray. We got the girls loaded into the canoes and sent them off, after giving them directions. I stayed back, and one of the leaders and I waited to make sure the girls were headed in the right direction.
Have you ever met someone that just thrives on drama, that actively seeks it everywhere she goes? We had one of the at camp. Let's call her Emily. She's in her sixth year, and she's been at the center of drama every year I've seen her. I can't imagine living that way, but that's just me. Anyway, since she's not an especially strong swimmer, we placed her in the middle of a canoe with two good swimmers, and sent them off. Sure enough, their canoe zigzags across the lake, with us slowly trailing them. I tried to give them advice, but it just wasn't working. They made it to the other side, all the while complaining that their canoe was cursed. Uh-huh.
Melissa and her helpers in the kitchen had set out a nice fancy lunch (crab salad on croissants, ooh la la), and after lunch I gave my talk. I wish it had gone better; I spoke about Rebekah at the well, and from the few words written about her (Genesis 24), some of her characteristics. I got so nervous that I failed to conclude the talk properly; I had wanted to show them that if they prepared themselves properly, that the right man would come to them, that they didn't need to worry about chasing down the right man. Not terible, but it could have been so much better.
After that, it was back out to the canoes for the trip back. One pair needed to use the ladies' room, and didn't want to squat in a bush, so they made a vapor trail to the other side of the lake; I had to haul tail just to make sure I could see them as they turned around an island in the lake. And predictably, Emily's canoe once again fell behind, as they just seemed unable to keep the canoe going straight. I tried to instruct them again, going so far as to tell them, "Paddle left! Paddle right!", but to no avail. At about the midway point, Emily reached the end of her tether, started screaming about how frustrated she was, and stopped paddling, along with the rest of the canoers. We paddled over to them, grabbed the rope at the front of their canoe, I tied it around me, and pulled them in. As we neared the shore, I heard Emily say, "We should probably help, huh?" to which I thought, "Please don't help." Hehehehe. We then pulled the canoes back onto the shore and returned to camp.
Next up for the campers were skits. In previous years, they were elaborately prepared, but this year each cabin was given a bag of props and asked to come up with something in one hour. The men's skits used to be pretty lame, but since Jim and I (both natural hams) showed up, things have gotten much better. We took our bag and managed, in one hour, to cobble together something based loosely on "The Wizard of Oz" that I wish I could find on YouTube, because it really was funny. The girls' skits were good too, although the girls often forgot to E-NUN-CI-ATE and talk to the audience. Good times were had by all.
Dinner was pizza, which led to the most unexpected beat-down I got all week. I was casually eating my salad and pizza, and decided that I was going to need a third slice, as I had a long night of tearing down canopies in my future. I had no sooner sat down with that third slice (and a mess of green beans), when I hear "ARE YOU CHEATING?!?" to my left. Stunned, I look over and see Maddie, a third-year girl who'd said maybe three words to me in her previous time, Staring me down. I had no idea how seriously the girls took my diet, sheesh! Feeling a bit guilty, I explained that I would be doing a lot more work that day, and it was just a small slice of Hawaiian pizza, and could I please have it, with puppy eyes and everything. That smoothed things over. ;)
After that, it was off to tear down canopies and put away the canoes, oh joy. The work was only interrupted by a detour to put on all my black (I'm a ninja!) and get to shoot a Nerf arrow at the leaders, who then got to attack me and beat me down. I didn't get to stick around and see the purpose of the thing, but I'm sure they tied it in nicely.
One final thing: we finally got to relax with a late-night swim at the pool with all of the adult and girl leaders, followed by letting the girls raid the fridge and stay up late and goof off for a while. Good times. There's no way anyone got to sleep before 2AM.
Oh, and here's day 5 in a nutshell: we cleaned up, got on the bus, and made it straight home. Yay!
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