Today is day 21 of 30 and we are both loving every day and becoming sadder as the realisation hits us that we will soon be leaving this incredible adventure.
Camp began last week and in that time we've took kids to a forest hiking and to a water park. Cheska is enjoying camp in general and is pleased she hasn't got too much preparation to do for her art classes, and particularly musical class (dance and singing) which are going well. Cheska chose 3 girls from the younger group to take out (which is called Bible Buddies) and not only had a great time taking them to the park and to buy slurpees but was amazed at how appreciative they were. Jo is taking out sets of 3 street leaders each day (as she is on different camps) and is building up good relationships with the teenagers- which is ace to spend some positive time together as she sometimes feels its more telling them what to do in her role. Jo had one particularly good mentoring relationship last week on her first day with one guy who had blatantly got loads of potential but was unconfident and to top it off, he had four 10 year old boys join his class that were intent on causing trouble. By supporting and encouraging him as well as being tough on those boys, Jo watched a mini miracle as the street leader grew in to a confident and capable leader in just one day, smiling and having fun with the boys in his group.
Thursday 3rd was a very special day, Jo woke up and went upstairs to a 'Happy Birthday banner' with a bag, balloon and card to match by Cheska with a little help from some other interns. The kids at Cheska's camp sang happy birthday and presented her with a cup cake and then a big chocolate cake with candles after tea with the 'house-mate family'. The next evening we all went to Mount Cyprus to check out the beautiful view and then to Ambleside Park to play Ultimate Frisbee, hang out watching the sea and jam/worship. On the Saturday we went to Stanley park to ride tandem bikes but it rained so we just walked round a bit instead, then went to the aquarium to see the baby baloo but it was too expensive so we ended up just coming home and watching P.S. I love you with special hot chocolates and home made popcorn.
