Yay-rah-rah

Okay, so the camp Olympics have been going on this week, which meant I was responsible for officiating the archery and track meet events and it got met thinking about competition. I like to think of myself as not very competitive, but secretly I can go a bit mad at times and get really wound up. I don't like getting wound up about competitions because I think it's, personally, unhealthy, ergo I don't get excited about competitions, be they in game form or otherwise. I can only play about half an hours worth of four-player Goldeneye before I go a little bit mad. But that may just be because of the DK and paintball cheats. So, it was interesting watching three hundred men and boys go nuts over a re-enactment of the Olympics. I am faithfully told that Collegiate Week (the then day uber-competition at the end of the Summer) is far more competitive.

From the archery range I didn't hear much of what was happening elsewhere. After all, I had ten eager eight to ten year olds waiting to face-off in a gruelling battle to see who was the least shit at hitting the target. Five arrows each, two kids, starting with the youngest. You won't be surprised to learn that this was the real test of my patience. In fairness the kids didn't get that wound up, they were a bit competitive, they were also good little sportsmen so there were no fall-outs. On the obstacle course however, where I was officiating the horse-shoe tossing competition things were a bit different. I have never seen people get more wound up about getting a horse-shoe around a pole. The significance of it just went straight over my head.

This weekend is the weekend of writing letters home to the parents. We mimicked the NBA draft in order to pick our particular children to write about. The unfortunate thing is that the more you get to know a fairly diverse group of kids the more their personalities come out and flavour the way you see them. Luckily, most of the kids are great but a handful are a trifle difficult to like at times. I hate actually putting that in writing, but it's true and it's something that I see as a professional challenge. My name came out of the draft first so I got to pick my "favourite" camper. The others had made it fairly clear who they wanted but I felt, at the time, that I was capable of writing something nice, constructive and positive about all of the kids. Now I have writer's block.

It's not even as if this is a big, serious thing - all I have to do is write a little bit about myself, a little about the kids and how they're getting on etcetera, etcetera. But it's proving difficult. The biggest problem really isn't finding positive things to say, it's more that two weeks isn't really enough time to appraise anything, let alone a person. Besides, I'm meant to have a vague idea of what sports they're good at - between archery, waterfront and arts and crafts I don't really know. The biggest, biggest problem I have is that I don't like the idea of a placatory letter - where the parents read it, worried that they're child is not having a good time, anxious about this, that and the other and I just tell them they're having a gay 'ol time and everything's fine and dandy. I'd rather something constructive, positive but honest. That isn't my job though, I realise that, I'm not here to tell them that their kid is spoiled, selfish and doesn't care that other kids have noticed. I'm here to reassure the parents that their kids are having a good time and everything is fine, which is fairly true. However, I've decided I'm not going to lie; in some cases this limits my list of positive adjectives somewhat.

Now, I'm going to tell a short story about how a dispute over showering led to the flood-gates opening. One of the kids in the cabin is a bit of an outcast and not from lack of effort. He's boisterous, a bit rough at times and has a tough attitude - but he is a nice kid when you get past the bravado. Also, he doesn't like showering and I get the impression daily cleanliness isn't a priority back home. There's an unofficial policy here that there are home rules and Camp rules. Regardless of whether you shower at home, daily or otherwise, you shower at Camp. Lots of kids come from spoiled backgrounds, others come from broken, braking or unsteady homes. Camp needs to be a different place, a second home where different rules apply. Anyway, this kid came back late from movie night and everyone else had showered. When we told him that he had to shower, when it hadn't really been an issue since the first couple of days, he started crying. At first I thought he was being a tired little brat, then he started talking about how he was being left out and suddenly a dispute over cleanliness had become something else. It's weird how these kids bottle up their anxieties. Their day to day behaviour is pretty consistent, play, eat and act on every impulse they have until all energy is spent. I hadn't realised that this was a fairly effective way of hiding the things that worry them. I'll let you know how that story ends if and when it does.