NEW YORK - Back in Brown

It's a little sad going back to a world where every corner has a little screen or wad of paper telling you how bad the world is at the moment. Whilst waiting for my bus out of Springfield (courtesy of Colleen and the other wonderful Braceys) to New York I watched ten minutes of CNN and was informed that lives in the the American space programme are in mortal danger because of NASA's incompetence, that iPods are probably causing permenant hearing damage to all who use them and that Angelina Jolie has no hope of happiness like, ever. Now, none of this really came as a surprise (Space, dangerous, really? Sound pumped directly into the ears may cause damage? Shocker! And we all know the woman's unhinged. She married Jonny Lee Miller, for goodness sake) but it's a change from camp where you wake, eat and sleep to songs about great big moose, frogs going oom-ah and smiling at storms because Jesus is in your boat. It's going to take some getting used to. I think I'm going to spend tomorrow in Central Park with a good book to calm my nerves.

So, the last week of camp... A busy one as, like most other weeks, a lack of volunteers meant our staff was syphoned off for counselling duties leaving just myself, Mark and Colleen to run programs for the entire week. When you wake up in the morning and spend an hour and a half helping Finders Sleepers camp across ropes, followed by another hour and a half showing Horse Camp how to build a squirrel's nest before leading Basketball Camp on a night walk (with cleaning and leading meals and songs in between) in the blazing heat your head begins to do funny things to you. I was fully convinced that I had gone mad by about Wednesday. All in all, though, it was a good week. I spent more time with Horse Camp than was healthy, giving them all sorts of games, initatives and getting a little scared at the ferocious fires and shelters they built after only a half hour coaching from me. They were all lovely. And Finders Sleepers, already blessed with the presence of counselor extrodinaire Emma B, did a great job playing cricket with not a single piece of proper equiptment on the whole camp. It's amazing what you can do when you improvise. Of course, according to CNN, improvisation leads to a premature death, or something... Honourable mentions, too, for Adventure Camp with whom I conspired to have a Basketball Camp counselor successfully kidnapped right out from amongst them during a nature walk. It's amazing how devious and silent one camp can be and how unobservant and noisy another can in the same darkened woods at the same time.


Horse Camp's groovy shelter. Avaliable now from all good Walmarts. Horse campers not included.

Leaving was kind of sad but, actually, fairly painless. After four hours of cleaning in far too hot sunlight we were all glad to escape to places where air conditionning is a reality. I'm looking through my photo CD already, though (prepared by the mighty Adam B) and my staff photo. Won't be long before I begin to miss all you Aldersgate guys. You'd better start commenting on the blog, or I'll send CNN after you...

UPDATE: Have to relate an incident of most wonderful randomness. The heavens opened at around six and it's been pouring for over an hour here. I spent thirty minutes in a bus shelter just one block away from my hostel: that's maybe a three minute walk but the rain was that bad my cast wouldn't have made it back. After fifteen minutes or so, a lovely family came and joined me and ranted for ages on how terrible and unnatural the rain was (and no, meteological fans, I didn't correct their misconceptions on rainfall during extremley humid periods) before searching all their bags for a spare plastic bag so me and my cast could manage the sprint back to the hostel. I got soaked, but it meant I sat here and booked all my flights for my US travels. Thank you random family: I shall keep the plastic bag as a souvenir...