Summer Camp
Camp Habitat!
So we've been in Kentucky for over a week now, just under a week left before we leave. Our time out here consists of two projects, the first of which was the first week, where we worked at the housing authority of Franklin, aka the projects. It was mostly yard maintenance type stuff, but I did build a couple hand rails along a porch. The second part, and the main reason why we're here, is for Camp Habitat, a week long summer camp for middle and high schoolers, mainly the ones attending the single school in the county.
Our campers showed up saturday afternoon, and were all split into 10 crews total. There are only 40 campers, so each crew consists of 4-5 campers, an assistant crew leader (us N-trips), and a crew leader, which is someone from the community. The reason why my guys are just assistant crew leaders is so that the students can build relations with whoever from the community leads them, and so that they see that helping their own community is not just worthwhile, but exciting, fun, and honorable. On our second day in Kentucky, we got a short orientation, which included a brief synopsis of Camp Habitat and the jist of it is, the main gal behind it all a few years back was on a mission trip with her daughter, and it struck her that while it's great to go out to different areas to help service the community, there's a need in her hometown as well, and it would benefit not just the community, but the youth, to be inspired to help work and improve the area in which they live.
The days are a pretty typical camp schedule, but we start around 8am and finish around 10pm, with a couple breaks in there in places. Work goes from 8-4 (or 5), and then after dinner and whatnot there's an activity later in the evening. The activities range from team games (the kids were split into 6 teams, different from their crews, and all given bandanas of different colors) where points are accumulated, to a pool party at the town country club, to a night of giant inflatables (I imagine bounce houses are what they're getting at), and tomorrow we're only doing a half day of work, before going to a farm with a giant field and creek running through the edge to have a cookout/game time.
The work, despite having the Habitat name on the signs, is not exactly constuction oriented, but rather what I consider "spring cleaning." Trimming bushes, washing siding, cleaning gutters, and painting here and there. It can't be too strenuous or dangerous because of liability issues of working with teenagers, but in the heat, even mundane things draw a sweat.
This has also been my first time interacting with teenagers since, well since I was one. And I'm not talking about 18-19 year old college teens, but rather 13-16 year olds. It's the first time where I was far enough removed from being in that age range to really see how teens act, and I can understand how parents patience are tried constantly when raising kids through these ages. The first thing I noticed was that if there is a group of say, 5 teens, and you ask one of them a question, say, do they have any pets. Instead of hearing one kid's answer, which you were expecting, you have every single kid simultaneously answer the question, as if they all thought it was directed at them.
Another very interesting aspect of working with them is that I'm finally on the other side of the fence. Growing up it's always looking up to these older kids who seem so much wiser, smarter, and generally larger than life, to an extent. But now, I am that person. Well, my whole team are those people. I see the kids showing us a new thing that they can teach us, or trying to show off in front of us, trying to be buddy buddy, because having a friend college aged seems like the coolest thing at the time. Likewise, the adults (crew leaders and staff) treat us as equals, while the kids get treated as, well, teenagers. So that alone is quite a weird feeling, where the adults talk one on one about things with you, instead of yelling at you to stop making a mess when you eat your food because someone has to clean it up. It's a whole different world from where I'm standing, and it's fascinating.
I'll update some more in a few days about the things we've done during camp, but I wanted to give a brief update about how things are going here, the answer to which is amazing. My whole team is already really close to the kids and the town as a whole, and we're going to be the saddest of anyone having to leave after it's all over. But when it happens, we'll have more memories from this week than any other project we've done thus far, and we'll be itching to go back to summer camp.