Staff Training

This week of Staff Training has been terrific.  I found it spiritually refreshing, informative, and I also made plenty of new friends.

I was nervous on Monday.  I wanted to be well liked and accepted (without the weird look in one’s eye).  As previously posted, my brother is extremely popular; I just found out how much.  I sort of shadowed him that day (and probably the rest of the week:).  I got plenty of “Hey, you’re Makario’s sister!  You guys look so much alike.”  I took it in stride, knowing that it would come and choosing not to care.  I made friends, met somebody’s special friend (and gave her my blessing), and ate. I like camp food.  We had a “get acquainted” time in the chapel.  We were supposed to tell 1) our name 2) our current location 3) pick something off a table and tell what it represented to us.  I had the best thing in mind too.  I was going to pick the toy guitar and say, ” I picked the guitar because I don’t play the guitar.  If asked to do so, I probably wouldn’t because I don’t know how.  God wants up to get out of our comfort zones.”  BUT the girl in front of me chose that object so I had to think of something else at the last moment.  I picked up the calculator (because it looked cool) and said, “I picked this calculator because God wants us to be..uhh….smart.”  The entire chapel errupted with laughter.  Can you say embarrasing?

The next day I had Dining Room Crew.  I learned how to properly set the table and how to pitchers on the table so that they would not bother ADD people.  Being a CIT has wonderful privileges.  Free food and coffee (I have had five cups in the past two days–decaf though:).  There wasn’t too much to do with dining room.  When I think about it though, there is not too much to do with any of them.  You just have to learn where things are.  There were many classes.  One class that I found most interesting was a study of courtship vs dating.  Boy was that interesting.  There is a fine line between the two and I think that is what I shall stick with.

I suppose another positive thing that came out of it was,  I faced my phobia of canines.  My phobia of dogs is still alive and well, but now, I suppose it is feeling ill.  There was a stray dog that followed me around.  I was freaking out and did not know what to do (but apparently, I hid it well because the dog did not have a clue).  They gave an announcement that morning saying “Please do not pet the dog(s).”  Almost everyone broke that rule (except me, why pet a canine, that just makes no sense).

Josiah and I got to hang out a bit.  We went on the swings together and were going to go boating but that didn’t work out.

This years theme is AmazinGrace (based on the actual games).  We were competing against other cabins.  Some of the sections were particularly memorable. There was this one part when only one person could participate; the rest or his/her teammates had to pick out food for the other person to eat.  The choices were a raw potato, saltine crackers, vienna sausages, and baby food –we had to choose three out of the four. I could have done it.  Timan’s food really doesn’t taste that bad, but I didn’t volunteer.  We also had to put a tee shirt on a pig.  I am starting to wonder if I accidentally wrote “Not an animal person” on my application.

That is pretty much the highlights of my week (and I am tired of writing).