RHODE ISLAND - Belchertown

So I never thought I would find myself in a town called Belchertown. I didn't even think such a place existed. But, lo annd behold, two of the Aldersgate staff live in this most wondorous of places. I am currently in the living room of lifeguard extrodinaire Colleen on a laptop trying to find the @ sign (note to Americans: the SHIFT 2 combination is for quotes only. Deal with it.) More on the amazing Colleen and her wisdom at a later date.

We've finished two weeks of camp and I miss some of those kids like crazy. Not so much the one which lied about his swimmming ability and tried to drown himself. Or the one which attacked another one with a chair. Oh, and the one which threw a log at me? Not going to be sending him a Christmas card. But the others were pretty cool. Special shout outs to Britta, asker of the immortal question "which would you prefer: breast or hair cancer?", Meghan, Kate, Adam, Brandon and all the other millions of wonderful sports campers. I know most of you didn't really like sport, which made our week's worth of sports programming a tad redundant. But most of you behaved yourself and stopped climbing the side of the bathhouse when I screamed at you (except you, Devin)


Sports Camp doing what they do best. Not sport

Sports camp was also a fascinating experience in coping with changing situations. I spent the weekend preparing for the arrival of my five kids. Learning their names, ages and things like that. By Sunday afternoon I was up to six. Then came the maggots. Remember the hogans from a few weeks ago? Well, here's an interesting sidebar. They're a favourite breeding ground for both ants and mice. And where you get ants eggs, you can get maggots eating them. Teri (summer camp director and all round great shouty woman) discovered this along with her merry band of sports campers shortly after arrival on that dark Sunday. Cue a swift relocation to waterfront cabins and, suddenly, me having nine campers to look after. Half a week later and Adam leaves on three day break (long story but ends with "the lucky swine escaped") and now I have eighteen of the little so and sos. Moral of the story: never bother learning names. Another thirteen more will come along soonafter.

Shoutsouts also due to the funky guys and gals of Unplugged camp. They play music and they play it well. Their version of Pinball Wizard was a fine a Who cover as I've heard from a couple of guitars and a scratchy mike. Jonathan, Becca, Sam, Karl, Shane and Britta (again) all demanded names mentionned. Consider yourselves mentionned. Now leave comments or I'll get really angry and throw fruit at you all (another long story which ends with "and then our head director, Jeffrey, threw fruit at everyone in the dining hall.")


Unplugged in da house.

Next week I become a camp director and, like a shorter less impressive hat version of Indiana Jones, head back to the hogans to see if they're liveable in. I reckon so, but the fifteen or so ickle ten year olds I'm in charge of for the week might disagree. Not that they get any choice in the matter. And one of my partners in crime, Laura, and I went down ahead of time to peppermint spray those ants to oblivion. They won't be bothering us again. Maybe. But after sports camp, I figure I'm ready for most things this summer can throw at me. Even my soccer training went down well (Americans think it's cute that I compare them all to Premiership players they've never heard of) And, hey, those fourth of July fireworks? Mighty impressive.


Red, white and blue fireworks to celebrate American independance from the British. I was sitting right there with South African Megan taking pictures and nobody noticed me. Take that, Americans!

But it's the weekend and it's Belchertown. Enough about work! I need to get in my twenty four hours rest before the kids arrive again... Blessing to all London viewers. All things considered, your weeks sucked. But, hey, we got the Olympics! In your face New York, Paris and terrorists!


Laura demonstrates the most popular contribution to the Friday night staff meeting at Camp Aldersgate