Camp Wawona, Part IX

When I went over to Medical on Tuesday night to have a blister I'd developed by practicing archery too much, I was surprised by the sheer number of campers there nursing injuries from Dare Base. Apparently, the game gets a lot more intense with older campers. The next evening, as I was preparing a few things for the wranglers' departure, Rachel, the girls' director, invited me to go on the camp out on the top of the hill with the base campers. I accepted gladly, and had a wonderful evening with the campers beneath the stars. We all slept on a tarp in the middle of the horse corral, which had a wonderful view of the sky. We played a few games, and had a very thought-provoking discussion on modesty.

In the morning, I looked up at the sky and thanked God for its vast blueness and for the brightness of the clouds. Breakfast was at Indian Camp, where the boys had been camping the previous evening, and it was a bit of a hike to get down there. As I waited for my breakfast, I discovered that the doctor who had treated my blister the previous day had also been to Romania, along with his wife. She and I talked a long while, a conversation that energized me for the day ahead. Lunch prep ran into rodeo prep, with a very small break in between. I did not even stay for the entire Rodeo; instead, I went down to the Lodge kitchen and helped my friend Yvonne, from crafts, prep food for the staff party. This involved making melon bowls and cutting the mangoes--by the time I finished with the mangoes, I was so tired I could hardly stand. Still, I enjoyed seeing the food art everyone had created--the award-winning "Pac Man" was very inventive indeed.

After campfire last night, I was happy to greet my dad and my uncle Mark as we set off to do a moonlit Half Dome hike. Adorned with glow sticks, battery-operated Christmas lights, and head lamps, we started off from Curry Village right around midnight. The moon shone brightly between the dark trees as we marched through the night, laughing and enjoying each other's company. It felt good to be on the trail again, and feet seemed to have been craving it for all too long. The air was nice and cool, and I found that we made much faster and more pleasant progress at night than we ever had in the blistering heat of our other escapades up this trail.

The sun began to rise as we started up the cables, bathing the glittering granite rock in golden light. Once at the top, we had a spectacular view of the sun streaming into the valley through the various mountains, and the view of Half Dome's shadow on Glacier Point was magnificent. We enjoyed a breakfast of olive hummus, string cheese, baked tofu, Cheez-its, trail mix, dark chocolate, and Lizard Fuel before attempting a few acrobatics on the top and heading down again. We were shocked, nearly scandalized by the number of people on the trail today--we must've passed well over 300 hikers, and going down the Mist Trail was tricky with such traffic. Finishing up right around noon, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at Curry Village before wearily heading back to camp. It had truly been a spectacular hike.

Camp Wawona, Part VIII

After lunch on Thursday, Myron cheered me by inviting me to his trailer, where he showed me some pictures of the staff and camp from when my aunt Lisa worked here--a fact of which I was not aware before then. He also showed me a staff list from that time--wow, a staff of 90 and definitely much larger camps than we have now. I wish I could see what it was like then. Feeling refreshed by this conversation, I braved the PUC phone system once again--and won! I actually reached human beings, not answering machines, who were able to help me solve my problems. Megan and I continued our wall decorations with a gigantic continuing story that will, once finished, reach from the ceiling to the floor.

Hearing that the equestrian staff needed music for the rodeo, I actually hauled my laptop to the top of the hill and they used my music. It is very emotionally satisfying to hear Garth Brook's "Standing Outside the Fire" played on loudspeakers. It was also very therapeutic to play darts and actually hit the mark once or twice. The rodeo itself lacked some of the verve it needed, but the play afterwards was better than ever, and my friend Ashley and I reveled in it. She also stole my hat, which I repaid by walking her home.

On Friday, I fasted--and hands down, it was the hardest fast I've ever done. 36-hour famine nothing, this was a challenge. The kitchen is definitely the worst place to work while you're fasting, especially when our chef, James, goes off and makes cheesecake, my favorite. I distracted myself by trying a farther target at archery--my goal is to actually get a bull's-eye on it before the end of the summer. Also, I went down to crafts and made my beloved father a mug while talking with some of the medical staff, who were very pleasant people. As I did so, a scratch on the bridge of my nose started bleeding like crazy. One of the nurses helped me patch it up--but then, right before the Friday night play, it started bleeding again. They put a Snoopy bandaid on it, which I removed before going on stage. The fasting paid off--the campers were deeply moved by the play, and my nose did not bleed during the play, despite my fears. I felt so weak afterwards, though, I was scared I wouldn't make it down the hill. When I made it to my room, I put on my warmest pajamas and slept like a rock.

I never ate a bowl of oatmeal mixed with peanut butter so gratefully as I did the next morning. It had been 38 hours on nothing but water, and not easy. My cheer returned with the food, and I worked happily on lunch and dinner, enjoying a concert by a number of the staff in between. And, after dinner, I got to taste that cheesecake that had so sorely tempted me the previous night--a true delight, well worth the wait! Campfire afterwards was as crazy as ever, rounded off with a celebration of the birthday of one of our office staff, Tiffany. What was crazy about this party was that we decorated the bus with streamers, balloons, and various props from camp plays, and surprised her there. There was body-surfing and chair crawling, and we were off to cowboy camp, where we built a nice, big bonfire. With this crackling merrily, we played a nice, long game of Psychology which lasted until around midnight. I retired around 1:00 AM, very happy.

When I woke up the next morning, I noticed an unfamiliar bag next to my bed, laden with a movie, fresh reading material, a bag of Peppermint Patties, and no less than three varieties of licorice. Apparently, my parents stopped here around 1:30 AM without waking me, and left that there for me; how sweet of them. The vacuum cleaner blew up on me again this week, but at least it was early on so that I did not struggle with that same possessed vacuum cleaner all morning. Dinner gave me the first glance at our new campers--a few of them look older than me, which is a fairly dramatic change from the last few weeks. For campfire, they did the pirate play, which made me nervous because my ring got lost on its way to the person who wears it. After some searching, however, it was found, to my profound relief.

Well, the end of the summer is in sight--already we have our days off schedule for August, leading up to the end of work. For those interested parties, I am off on August 1, 3, 7, 9, 13, 16, and August 19 is my last day of work, up to debate based on what arrangements need to be made for me to return home. I'd be happy to see any of you in the meantime, and I wish you all well.

Camp Wawona, Part VII

After a frustrating round of phone calls to PUC's various answering machines, I dearly felt the need for exercise and walked up the hill to the archery range. The instructor was preparing to leave, but he let me practice anyway and it was a very good vent for my anger. The instructor was good company--up to the point where he locked me into the supply shed when I was putting stuff away. Being used to such boyish pranks, I just waited patiently, mentioning how I could just very well stay there indefinitely, long as I made it to work on time the next day. Finally, he let me out, laughing his head off.

Feeling a lot better, I gave phone another try--and got nothing, so I pursued academic interests until dinner. At campfire, I actually got conscripted into a commercial for the camp store, which was hilarious--I love Elise, the storekeeper. She's been very patient with my endless requests for stamps. Afterwards, we hung back to see one of the snakes from the nature center eat. Alas, it paid no attention to the large, white rats offered. My room mate and I sat and sang songs by candlelight before we went to bed--it was very relaxing.

After work in the morning, I came to Megan and I's lodge room to find it spotlessly clean for a change. I hugged her, I was so grateful. Looking at are walls, we suddenly decided they were too depressingly blank. So, we hauled off to crafts, borrowed some materials, and made for ourselves two large heraldic shields, magnificent coats of arms for one of our walls. At dinner, we began celebrating our co-worker, Brittany's 20th birthday with a cake that caused one kid to believe we had baked Dusty, the camp mascot, into it.

Then, in a carefully choreographed arrangement of arrivals, we went up to the Chalet, where one of our supervisors lives, and threw Brittany a surprise party. It was a evening of delights--culinary delights (artichoke dip, cake and ice cream among other things) and crazy girlish delights, such as finding over a dozen ways to model a very interesting birthday present Megan had given her as a joke. I was reluctant to leave when the time came to do so, and Ashley and I were practically skipping down the hill from too much sugar.

Anyway, it's been a good time here with the nice, relaxed pace of family camp. Tomorrow, many of the staff are fasting and praying for tween and teen camp the next two weeks--they will be a challenge. I wish you all well and hope you are having a wonderful summer.

Camp Wawona, Part VI

I took the walk down the hill after the Friday night program with several of my co-workers who were afraid of the thick darkness. I did my best to reassure them, though, and by the time we neared the base of the hill, we were laughing, marching in time, and in a fit of complete and total silliness reciting the Pathfinder Pledge and Law and singing the Pathfinder Song. On Sabbath morning, I actually put a dress on for the first time in four weeks; I had to for my own sanity. It had been too long, and it felt wonderful to be in my church clothes, if only for about an hour.

After lunch, I packed up my camelback, took a glass of Inca Cola, and set out on the hike to the falls. I was glad I did: I found myself walking with Marshall, the archery director, and he turned out to be a treasure trove of information on medieval weaponry, the sort of things I need to know for the novel I'm writing. A group of the staff and I went off the trail and over many boulders to get to the falls. It felt good to go cross-country on solid rock, something I haven't done in some time. Later on, there were two baptisms at the river, after which I went back to the craft building. Wonder of wonders, the birthday gift I had made for my friend Caroline was finished, for which I was profoundly grateful.

When I went to do housekeeping the next morning, the vacuum cleaner I was using first refued to work for me at all. So, my supervisor came up and put a new bag in it, no problem--right? Wrong! As I was trying to clean upstairs in one of the messier cabins, it emitted clouds of dust at me and then promptly exploded, dust bunnies everywhere. You can imagine what kind of thoughts I was having about the Dirt Devil company at this time, as we radioed my supervisor once more to fix our "possessed" vacuum cleaner.

That evening, I went to campfire, ready to relax because I thought we weren't doing the play. Giselle, our programs director, came up to us about five minutes before the program started and told that yes, we were in fact doing the play. Although unexpected, it actually didn't turn out too bad. Our audience was much smaller than last week--there's only 15 families here for Family Camp, and it's been much easier on the kitchen staff, almost to the point where there's not enough work for us to do.

At breakfast yesterday, I discovered that one of these families was actually from my now former school, which was cool. The first part of my morning break was spent sending Caroline's gift, the second part, taking my daily hike up the hill and sopping on the way down to take an archery class. I actually hit the hay bale without problems on the first shot, to my surprise. Lunch went smoothly, and my afternoon break was spent productively studying music for the NCC's convocation this September. At dinner, I got to make churros, a very enjoyable process. The pirate play that night had some interesting glitches in it--a prop teapot actually had gatorade in it, much to the surprise of the actor who thought it was empty. He coughed and sputtered a bit, then moved on with the scene while the rest of the cast on stage struggled to avoid laughing. The pirate captian looked great in my jewelry, which I lend to them for this play.

After campfire, we had a pedicure party in the lodge, which was very relaxing and fun. I enjoyed not just fixing my feet up a bit, but just chilling with the other female staff. They really are nice, and I almost want to come back next summer just o be with them. . . but who know where next summer will take me? Just being here was a surprise, and a very good one. There's no telling what's next.

Camp Wawona, Part V

On Tuesday evening, my parents came and we took off to Oakhurst with my friend Alexandra for a midnight showing of a film I have been anticipating for some months. When we arrived we were only the second group in line, which was wonderful for getting good seats. As the night progressed there were even costumed characters who came out and made appearances. I enjoyed the enthusiasm and creativity of the whole event; had I gone to the theatre in Pleasant Hill it would not have been nearly as much fun. Once the doors were opened, they had a raffle for some cool movie prop replicas and other assorted things, and an auction for some other charity event the same organization will be holding. Obviously, Oakhurst has a very active, involved community.

The film in question was excellent, and even inspired me to write some not-too-shabby poetry along one of its themes. We arrived back here at Camp Wawona at around 3:00 AM, and I got about two and a half hours of sleep before going to work the next morning. After breakfast, I spent some more time with my parents before they had to take off. They had, of course, brought all the items I had requested, which made me grateful, but not as grateful as I was just for being able to see them.

Yesterday, I broke open my bottle of Inca Cola from graduation. To smell the golden cola and to taste it transported me back to Cascas, Peru, where I first tasted it--the fragrant garden in Monte Sion, rainy afternoons in the town square, looking out at the Southern Cross in the night sky. These memories sustained me through the lunch work shift, which was particularly frantic. I enjoyed my time off in the afternoon very much, lying down a bit, then returned to work to prep for the rodeo. Some say that this week's rodeo was the best so far--the wranglers really did an amazing job at their choreographed drill, which they were not able to do before. During the hay bale race, a camper messed up her ankle and I found myself reassuring her.

After the evening Black Bart program, we had our weekly staff party, where we sat, relaxed, and listened to the music of Scott Cable, one of our aquatics staff who has also been leading song service for the evening meetings. His music is amazing--not just easy on the ears, but the lyrics themselves are incredible. I could have sat and listened all night, and it wasn't until I reluctantly found myself helping them pack up that I was compelled to leave. It was, in short, a very nice way to start my day off. I slept in until nine, a true excess for here, and took care of quite a few items of business I've been needing to do.

Well, I know that some of you are headed off to campmeeting this next week--Redwood, Soquel, or otherwise--and I wish you happiness and safe travels in that. I hope you are all well, and am glad that you continue to give me news of your travels as you go about this summer.

Camp Wawona, Part IV

On Thursday evening, the play featured a wonderful band of pirates--the actor who was playing the captain, unfortunately, was suffering from severe back pain. So, they put him on some pretty heavy pain meds before sending him to the staff party on the top of the hill. The party was fun enough, with s'mores and a game of sardines, but more fun was joining the group walking this poor guy home. His meds were making him act very weird, smashing cake into the program director's face and saying all kinds of strange stuff about the lost art of skipping. It was all we could do to prevent ourselves from dying of laughter before we handed him off to one of the guys to receive a cold shower.

The highlight of Friday evening was when one of my co-workers, James, was finally able to give his lady friend the saxaphone he had gotten her for her birthday. It was a two-tone beauty, a Cecilia in fine condition. It was wonderful to watch her face light up as he presented it to her, reminding me of when my parents gave me my oboe. As the staff continued on to perform the passion play, there was an excellent response to it and it went very smoothly.

After lunch on Sabbath, my friend Ashley and I went up the hill to feed apples to the horses, which was very peaceful and relaxing. There was another batch of baptisms that evening, which was interesting because it was 7 baptisms on the 7th day of the 7th month of 2007. Just a coincidence, but a very fascinating one. At campfire that night, we were entertained by Pastor Eldon as he actually had a conversation with both Dusty and Gerald, the new puppet, in an amazing feat of ventriloquism. He even managed to have the two sing a duet, to our astonishment.

Housekeeping went by very quickly yesterday, so quickly that I actually didn't get the overtime I usually get on Sundays. I took advantage of some of the extra time to call my friend Caroline to wish her a Happy Birthday and to make it to my play on time. The play probably went more smoothly than ever before--without any cues, we had our lines dead on, our entrances were perfect, and we looked great save for one minor little "costume malfunction" towards the end of the play. Our chief's underskirt fell clean to the ground, to a large uproar of laughter. We stayed steady, however, and acted straight through it.

I spent a good deal of my day off watching Luke, one of my supervisor's children. He's a sweet little 2-year-old boy who was very good today, walking all the way up the hill with me and splashing around by the pool. We went over to swinging bridge as well, and I was almost reluctant to pass him back to his mother. I had a lot of other things to do today, though, so I suppose it was just as well.

Camp Wawona, Part III

My parents and family friend Brad Foster were kind enough to visit me on Monday, and they took me out to a wonderful lunch at Tenaya Lodge. The food was excellent--artichoke dip with pita chips, some Indian curry soup I could not pronounce, and a wonderful lemon-lavender creme brulee--but the company was even better. After this, since Brad had never been to Yosemite before, we took him to the Big Trees at Mariposa Grove and took the tram tour. I was floored by the sheer stubbornness of such trees as the Grizzly Giant, the Faithful Couple, and the Bachelor and the Three Graces to last out through several centuries worth of fires and droughts.

Eventually, we came back here to Wawona, stopping at the store for food. My bosses gave my guests the grand tour of the camp, highlighting the wonderful new improvements that are about to be made to the camp. They were happy to see Brad, as he had once been their employer, making for a very joyous reunion. Also, when I turned in for the evening, my new room mate, Megan, was there. She is a wonderful, lively girl who plays the guitar beautifully and makes good conversation. I feel very lucky to be staying with her.

Brad and my parents bade me goodbye the next morning as I went back to work. When I got off, I was walking away from the lodge when I found Donny, our videographer, staring at something at the foot of the stairs. I went over to investigate, and it was a very handsome alligator lizard. We chased it for sometime until we caught it and took it to the nature center, where I somehow wound up teaching a cabin of girls about cats. That afternoon, I went to the river for a swim, which was remarkably refreshing, steeling me for the news I received that night that my aunt and uncle's land burned while they were away on a hike. I was shocked and saddened by the news--it was beautiful land, with wild oaks and rolling hills.

For Independence Day, we celebrated our weekly rodeo with extra patriotic spirit, doing the same activities as before, but just with a slightly more enthusiastic bent. Red, white, and blue was everywhere, and I enjoyed singing along to the country music in the background as I served popcorn. The cowboy play was even better than last week--they had had more rehearsal, and more colorful costumes.

Today was my day off, and this time my wrangler friend, Alexandra, and I spent it together, first watching a very ridiculous 80's movie called The Labrynth on my computer, then hitching a ride to Oakhurst with the camp director and his wife. There, we spent some very relaxing time perusing a book store before catching another ridiculous movie, Transformers. We had lunch at a nearby pizzeria before returning here. All in all, it was a very fun day, and I'm glad I was able to spend it with Alexandra.

The new work schedule has just come out, and I will be off July 9, 13, 17, 19, 23, and 28, very much subject to change. I have plans for July 9 and July 13 will very likely change, but just about any other of those dates is open. In the last few days, I've gotten to know one of the more seasoned staff members here, Myron, and he remembers when my mother, father, aunt, and uncle were here, so it's been interesting to talk with him.

Camp Wawona, Part II

Thursday night we had a rodeo here at Camp Wawona, and that was a wonderful amount of fun. I wound up painting kids' faces, and even doing the makeup for one of the rodeo clowns, which turned out looking even better than I had hoped. The activities for the rodeo included a barrel race with the horses, hay bale races, tug-of-war, and potato sack races. The wranglers all looked sharp in their American flag shirts, and they put on a good show.

I was astonished to wake up the next morning and discover that I was already 25 minutes late to work. I made it there in an epic record, 8 minutes--fortunately, my boss has already picked up on the fact that this is not normal behavoir for me and just to not let it become a habit. The day got better from there; I spent the afternoon at the corral with my new friend Ashley, one of the staff kids. She taught me a lot about horses I didn't know before and was incredibly curious about. That evening, I finished the hike up to the top of the hill for campfire and, as I arrived, was handed a costume and became a part of the passion play for that evening. It was a powerful piece, and it affected me deeply. Obviously, it did some good for the campers, too, because when Pastor Elden invited them to sign the "book of life" they've had running at the camp for the last few decades, most of the camp came up.

Sabbath offered a nice, relaxed day, even if there was still a little bit of food prep to do. After lunch, I went with the campers on their hike to the Wawona Falls. It was wonderful to get to converse with the kids, to interact with them and their counselors. After dinner in Indian camp, we got to witness the baptisms of some of the campers, one of whom had been giving me a lot of cheek earlier in the week. The last campfire for that group was very entertaining, with a variety of acts--chin puppetry and the like.

Yesterday, one of our kitchen staff showed up to work sick, and we had to send her home. It could take six days or six weeks to cure, and doesn't sound like fun. We turned camp in preparation for the group that is here now, all of us earning overtime. We performed our play again last night, the costumes looking better but many of the lines lost, alas. There will be better weeks.

Some of you have become preoccupied with how to contact me. All the contact information for the camp is at campwawona.org, and I can be reached by any of the means listed there. If you wish to visit, that's great, but please check in with the office in Oldtown before coming and trying to find me. If no one is inside the office, pick up the phone outside it and tell Teresa that you're here to see me. It's camp policy, sorry.

My apologies that no pictures have appeared on the blog; it turns out that I brought my camera, but not the cable for it. I will take care of that as soon as possible, and in the meantime, I will start furnishing past entries with pictures that have just come in. Thank you for your patience.