dbcalo

Well after my disappointing previous week I spent a week volunteering at a local diabetic camp for children called Camp McCumber. It was well worth the time given, I had fun, the kids had fun, and all was well. It kept my mind off of things and gave me something worth while to do with my time. I had the preteen cabin which consisted of myself and four other counselors to control 10 unruly kids. Our job was to test their blood sugar throughout the day and ensure that they didn’t dip too low or go to high on the blood sugar scale. below 70 was the danger zone and above 300 was the other extreme. The ideal number was above 100 but some kids liked to sneak in extra insulin without telling us. Only one kid in our cabin

To me the highlight of the camp was the kids warring on each other each age group of boys and girls ended up warring on each other; pulling pranks and what not to their cabins. It started out innocently enough with silly string. Ended abruptly when one of the kids from my cabin put shampoo in the the bunks of the girls cabin. We pulled a few pranks of our own on the kids too. The first one was where we tied the rope around a tree near our cabin with the other end tied to the handle of their door; tossed rocks on the roof; chaos ensued. Oh to hear them yelling how we had locked them inside. The second was the Snipe hunt! We told the kids that there were these birds about three feet tall that lived out in the woods that breathed fire, had glowing red eyes and what not. They had to be particularly careful of the alpha-male which was larger and more aggressive! Many of the kids — even a counselor — had never heard of this prank before; bought it completely. The boys weren’t as stunned by it but the girls were. The counselor tore open her sweat shirt she was so freaked out.

On the day we arrived we had notice that there was many lightning strikes from a heat lightning storm in the area that kicked off many possible sights for fires. The next day it became smokier still. Later we found out that Shingle Town had been evacuated and we had been place in the voluntary evacuation zone for an impending fire. Luckily for us the winds shifted. Leaving us with no electricity — and consequently no water — the fire just rained ash down on us for a couple of days. Red sun glaring down at us for most of the beginning of the week. Soon after we had a generator and PG&E had restored the power; giving us back our water. The only real problem we were faced with was not being able to flush the toilets.

At the end of the week after most of us counselors had dropped dead of exhaustion was the dance. The dance was alright. The day before they were to leave. All the kids had been trying to get their ‘dates’ all week long. Some of the our kids had women chasing after them; others not so much. All day they were preparing for the dance having been given dance lessons the previous day as one of the counselors was a dance instructor. During the dance only a few campers actively tried to get out of it by what I was certain was faking low blood sugar signs. So for the most part is was us counselors out dancing with the kids on the side lines watching. The next day it was was all over with parents arriving around 10 o’clock. Leaving ourselves around 1 o’clock.

Now its over.