back at camp

Wow, it´s a whole week since I last updated this. I´ve been out at Playas since last Tuesday, with limited access to internet.
I came out here last week, and with nobody at camp just yet, spent a lovely peaceful day on Wednesday. I alternated my time between the beach and a hammock underneath the cabins, in the shade, in a lovely cool breeze off the ocean. I walked on the beach, read, dozed, thought, prayed, stared at the ocean, and did a lot of nothing much. It was very soul restoring. And I didn´t feel the least bit guilty about it (well, only a tiny bit) because I knew that soon enough the peace would be over.
And sure enough, Thursday morning, a bus full of Canadians and some youth from the church in Alborada arrived. And then in the afternoon more arrived, and finally late that evening a bus packed full of youth from Bastion arrived. That bus was so full it was bulging! They all came for a training weekend, a time for all these potential leaders to spend time learning about serving at camp. So for the next 2 days there were Bible studies, workshops, time spent on getting ready for this weeks´ camp, and then lots of fun too -soccer games, beach time. It was good for me to see them all in action, because I have seen so many of those kids grow up, coming to camp as children and young ones, and now here they all are, growing or grown up, becoming leaders themselves. It was a very good couple of days.

Then yesterday, was the start of the childrens´camp. 2 busloads of children (ages 9 to 12, more than 100 of them, all from Bastion) arrived to a welcome team of 2 guys on the tallest stilts you ever saw, and another guy beating a drum, and hundreds of balloons. The noise was astonishing, between barking dogs, banging drums, bursting balloons, and yelling kids, but those kids were well and truly welcomed!
And so kids´camp has begun. There were challenges yesterday, we had no water for 24 hours, it all vanished on Sunday afternoon, and didn´t get sorted out until yesterday afternoon. Made things more than a little difficult in the kitchen (and the potential for problems in the bathrooms was something I didn´t want to think about!), but Ecuadorians are a resourceful people, and we managed to get things done. But great was the rejoicing when we turned on a tap in the afternoon and water flowed!
So the week is ahead, and I´m praying for good health for them all and safety on the beach, as always. There have been unusually high tides again. And for patience and wisdom for a lot of new young counsellors.
And now I´d better get back to that camp to see what illness or injuries await!