first weeks of camp June 18, 2008

so it has been lots of fun this last week and a half. we usually have some type of adventure activity we run for the little kids in regular camp who are either in 3-5 grade or 6-8 grade or sometimes now we have high school groups too. so like this yesterday we set up low rappel and had two different groups come and go through it. it was fun. then in the afternoon after a very quick lunch i had to help run the high ropes course, then after that i had a little group of middle school girls do the low ropes course with me as the facilitator. everyone got through all the activities safely and with good attitudes and pretty quickly. last week wasnt as much the case. we had 3 different campers kinda freak out on us while doing the high ropes and low rappel. the one i had on high ropes was crying and shaking for like 45 min up there. we finally got her calmed down adn on the ground. i felt really bad for her but she was ok.  im going to take pics of all the activities we do and our tower etc and make an album on facebook so everyone can see what im talking about.

we went kayaking this past sat and it was fun. we didnt got for very long. it was supposed to be for training, so we had to practice self rescues, which basically meant we had to know how to get back in our kayaks by ourselves if they were to capsize. so… to practice this we had to go one by one and flip ourselves out of our kayak into 40-50 degree water, then blow up this little paddle float, stick it on our paddle, then use stick out our leg on our paddle and get back in our kayak, then pump out all the water that had gotten in with a little bilge pump. then we paddled back to shore and quickly changed out of our wet clothes to prevent getting hypothermia!  the water was so cold when you first got in it took your breath away. but once you got your breath back it wasnt too bad. and then after we were in dry clothes again it was fine. it was a really sunny nice day actually and it was nice to be in/around water again. i miss the water that is everywhere in la, even if it is brown.  there isnt much water here in co. its very dry, there are rivers though that are beautiful.

so the next day, sunday, i found out that i am taking out my first trip of narrow way expedition (nwe) campers! and its a trip called h2go, so we go kayaking for two days and car camp on lake dillon area, then we got white water rafting with noah’s ark rafting co. for two days and camp with them! i am super excited. i loved rafting and havent been in a while and since we go with a co, we use their guides who pick our camp sites and are kinda in control and they provide the food and all that which ive heard is really good too. so, it should be great. the guy counselor leading the trip with me is matt griffin. he’s really cool, i like him a lot and we should have a good time and work well together.  however, i will have 8 girls! and he’ll have 4 boys! so, please be praying that we will change these campers lives and be good leaders and examples.  also that we have nice warm sunny weather all week!   dont really want to be in the water with snow or rain and windy cold weather.  thanks for your prayers and support. ill be sure to update yall after we go. it’ll be this coming sunday til sat.  well, hope everyone’s summer is going well.

blessings,

dominique