The camp is put on by a group of us PCVs in the town of Victoria in the smallest parish, St. Marks. In Victoria, there is a place called Father Mallaghan's Home for Boys. It is at Father Mallaghan's that around 15 boys ranging in age from 10-18 years old live because their families cannot support them (usually due to poverty). It is also at Father Mallaghan's that the 15 coolest boys in the world live and we were oh so very blessed to have an entire week of fun with them. Seriously, the week was a blast and it was a nice little reprieve from our other jobs on the island. This week also felt like we accomplished a lot more (in our minds) according to our Peace Corps mission than at our sites the past couple of months. Now, I could sit here and write a novel about the camp, each kid, all the fun we had, how awesome the other volunteers were, the beauty we saw on the island, etc. BUT I doubt your feeble minds could handle the truth. Hell, my body barely handled week, I have 6 or 7 fresh cuts all over my body, a wicked sun burn that from day one never had time to heal, 5 nights of sleep on a couch, and (thanks to Casey) all the kids believe that I have two bullets in my stomach from robbers. That's neither here nor there, let's take a look at what happened throughout the week.
Camp started each morning at 9am and ran until 5pm. I started each morning with some goofy stretches with the boys to get them excited and the blood flowing. I was going to do some energizers from Montreat, but in hindsight it was good that I didn't because it would have been a bit complicated for the kids and I doubt they would have been into it. The first day, we started off tie-dying Team shirts. Hannah and I were the counselors for Team Stressless which consisted of us, Clinton, Laudell, and Jason--quite possibly the most challenging group. We wore those tie-dye shirts everyday which meant that they were incredibly disgusting by the end of the week, I think I might cut it up into pieces to use as rags now. The rest of Monday we hunted crayfish in the river (a task I was awful at), started our Pinatas, made balloon race cars, and then ended the day with a sea bath. At the end of each day we spent about an hour and a half to two hours at the beach to rinse off, goof off, and have fun. Typically, the sea baths were a time for the counselors to relax for 5 minutes in the water before getting attacked by the kids wanting to wrestle and have chicken fights for the remaining hour, it was probably the most tiring part of the camp. Having 4 kids climb on you at the same time for 2 hours is very taxing on your body, especially with a wicked sun burn. My body is still screaming at me.
Tuesday was a particularly relaxing day for the counselors because, after my morning stretches, the entire morning session was a football clinic done by the Jason Roberts Foundation. Kids eat that stuff up in Grenada. Any opportunity to go play football is ceased without hesitation, in truth, it's hard to keep track of kids once you hand them a football to head to the pasture, they go nuts. That afternoon we had various craft stations for the kids. Things like necklace making, face painting, origami, and the egg drop which was my station. I can't speak for the other counselors, but I think everything ran incredibly smooth. My egg drop station was over at the pavilion at the football pasture and unfortunately everyone forgot to take pictures of it. However, the kids loved it. I had them pair up in teams to work together in making a contraption that would make or break an egg when tossed from the top of the pavilion. I am happy to say that we only lost 2 eggs that day. Success. After crafts, it was sea bath time followed by our end of the day team meetings and marble hand outs. As a way to keep the kids in line and behaving well, we set up a marble system. Every day, each team could earn up to 3 marbles for doing nice things or behaving properly. They LOVED marbles. The counselors also loved the marbles because if a camper was complaining or not cooperating we just had to drop the word marble and their attitude instantly changed for the good.
Wednesday was an extra tiring day because we hiked to Tuftonhall River for the majority of the day. The hike was about an hour each way and we spent about 2 hours at the river playing in the water and eating lunch. It was a blast and extremely refreshing. In the afternoon when we got back we were supposed to watch a movie but had trouble setting it up on the TV, so we started sea bath early and spent a little over 2 hours wrestling and swimming. All this created many, many tired counselors. I think we all passed out at 8pm and lagged behind the next day.
Thursday was a fun filled day. In the morning we went on a "nature walk" to find sticks for kite making. The walk ended up being a stroll down and across the street, it was all said and done in 5 minutes tops. So much nature was seen... Everyone was cooperating extremely well with kite making that we kept it up for another hour and pushed back our science experiment. After the campers were all strung out making kites (see what I did there) we headed to the pasture so that Casey and Katie, our resident experts, could teach the kids and counselors some basic Yoga. At first, it looked as though the kids were not interested at all and this was going to cause tons of problems, but a few minutes in they really really enjoyed it and it was a huge success. Great job, Casey and Katie! After lunch, we started our science experiment which was making solar cookers out of cardboard boxes and tinfoil for the kids to make "pizzas"--pieces of sliced white bread with tomato paste and cheese on top. It was a somewhat complex experiment so some of the campers (maybe just me and Hannah's group) needed some assistance, but it went very smoothly. Wonderful idea Errin! Well, these ovens needed a solid hour and a half at least to cook the pizzas so we passed the time by going to the pasture to play football and other shenanigans. These kids just would not tire, they were like energizer bunnies and played and played and played football for what seemed like days. They worked up their appetites and we walked back to the home so they could enjoy their pizzas before heading to the sea to rinse off and play even more.
Friday and Saturday were the epic conclusion to the camp. We headed off Friday morning, without my stretches :(, in the back of a truck to Bathway beach for a camp out. The journey to the campsite took a few hours because of distance and stopping to pick up materials and some of the counselors that lived on the route. When we arrived we quickly set up tents before we lost control of the kids as they were excited to go swim in the beach and play football and cricket. While some of that was happening most of the counselors prepared the oil down. I think I made Bear Grylls proud this weekend as I used his knife for anything I could, but I also used it to take a chunk out of thumb (oops) while cutting up chicken. Whatever, I always say that the best way to clean a cut is by handling raw chicken in dirty water. Oil Down takes a while to cook so we all continued to goof off and swim/play while we waited. We also used the time to bust open the Pinatas they campers had made earlier in the week. The kids loved it, probably because they were getting lots and lots of sweets which the counselors were weary of. A group of campers on a camp out is hard enough to keep track of, providing them with handfuls of sugary goodness is suicide. At night, we had marshmallows and hotdogs for the kids to roast, as well as glow sticks for them to play with, not sure which they enjoyed more. All I know is, Matt, Casey and I spent a good hour trying to get the damn fire started because there wasn't any dry wood around. Also, I don't know about you, but I like my mallows nice and golden. These kids, however, would keep their mallows in the fire until they were black, pull them out, blow out the flaming ball of sugar, and stick them back in the flame. They repeated this process at least 3 times, they liked their mallows extra charred I guess. The kids FINALLY fell asleep and the counselors got as much shut eye as they could sleeping on nothing put back packs and shirts while waking up every so often to take a camper to the bathroom or to get water.
In the morning, we were supposed to be eating Tania Log, a delicious Grenadian breakfast that is akin to porridge and made with water, spices, coconut, tania, and lots of sweetened condensed milk. MY GOD it is delicious, especially when you pour some on bakes, close your eyes and imagine you are eating a glazed donut. However, the guys coming to cook it for us were rather late and leftover cake was not cutting it for breakfast for the campers. Matt had the brilliant idea to take the kids on a hike down the beach to a small little cave to waste a good hour or so. I went with him, Bear Grylls knife in hand (tied to a stick like a spear because I could), and we told the kids their was treasure to be found in the cave, just one of many white lies we told that week. It was actually a pretty entertaining hike, solid idea Matt! After filling our bellies with as much Tania Log as possible, we, the counselors, began to pack things up and take down the camp while the kids went nuts in the sea and all over the camp. Matt and I were tasked with cleaning the giant steel pot in the sea that we cooked all the food in, not an easy task. While we did this the campers had a flour fight up at the camp witch little bags of flour Errin had prepared before running to the sea to rinse off all the white marks. At this point, it was time to head back to Victoria in the back of our trusty truck filled with all our gear and cranky campers. Camp Tufton might have been finished logistically, but the day was far from over. We still had the couple hour drive back to Father Mallaghan's, dropping off gear and some of the PVC's along the way, a closing "ceremony" at the Home, and then the long bus rides home for some of us volunteers to reach our own apartments.
All in all, the camp was very long and taxing on each Volunteer, but we all absolutely loved the time we had with the kids! They truly are special. I'm still rather exhausted at this point so it's highly possible that I left out plenty of good stories, but I feel like that's enough for y'all to read. A special shout out to Errin and Jackie for setting up the camp and leading it. Another shout out to Errin for letting Casey, Matt and I crash at her place in Gouyave each night and for them cooking our dinners while I watched and played music ha. And a future shout out to all of y'all reading this because next year I will be in charge of leading the team of counselors setting up and running the camp and we will need plenty of your support and help!
Look on facebook for all of the pictures, but here are some that pretty much sum up the camp!
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