last week of camp

So, the final week of camp has come and gone. It was different this year having the 3 weeks spread out over such a long time. We've always in the past had all 3 weeks one right after another. It was tiring, but you just kept going until it was over. This year was easier in some ways, but I found it hard to gear up each week and get into camp mode again. But it worked for various reasons.

The past week was a good one over all, I think. There were around 150 older youth there, and they were great. It was a mixture of kids from 2 other churches besides the 2 in Bastion, as well as a group of 11 from Onzole, where I had my jungle adventure (Nixon was there, the boy with the hand that needed my attention when I was there - it looked great, all healed up). It was the first time at that camp for those kids, and they had a wonderful time.
The music for the worship times was really good, Dale headed up a team of music people from Bastion and Alborada and they were excellent - I loved the singing time, and so did everybody else, those kids got right into it, clapping and singing their hearts out and it all sounded great.

The week went smoothly in the water and power departments, no problems there at all. And no major health issues all week, just one or 2 shortlived fevers and some headaches, and the usual sore throats. Nothing big at all, smooth sailing. All is well............... until Thursday afternoon. We were on the beach, having a lovely time, the kids were playing games, running back and forth. Suddenly a gathering by the water - "Heather, come quick". Uh oh, what is it, I have about 1 minute while I'm getting there to wonder if this is a big problem or a small one that everybody is overreacting to. But when I arrived and saw, my heart sank to my boots. Daniel (yes the same Daniel who got hit by the stingray 2 weeks ago) had been running and ran right onto a dead fish, which had big long spines along its back, one of which went straight into the bottom of his foot. He was in agony, rolling around with this very dead, rotting, reeking fish attached to his foot. I looked, got some water to wash away the sand, then tried to pull it out. I pulled, then pulled harder, and even harder, but could not budge it. So I took a minute to try to think it through, and pray, and wish I was somewhere else, and while I was doing that, Daniel got scared. He decided that thing was coming out and gave a mighty yank and out it came. All 3 inches of it, and when I looked at it closely to see if it had come out intact, it became clear as to why it was so hard to get out - it had barbs all along both edges of it. Oh so horrible! After I saw that bleeding wasn't going to be a problem, and he could move his toes, and didn't seem to have done any major damage, I knew that infection was the next issue. That fish had been dead a long time, so he would certainly need antibiotics. What to give him? Only one thing to be done - place another call to my longsuffering boss in Burlington and get advice. And thanks to a doctor who had visited 2 years ago, and left an assortment of antibiotics behind, I had the right one for the job with me. I had found the bottles of meds right before I went to camp, and almost left them here, but something made me bring them along. I guess God knew I would need them.

So poor old Daniel, he was very good about the whole thing, kept his sense of humour and took it all so well. He said "First the sting ray, now this. What's next - a shark??!! He's doing fine, it seems to be healing, no signs of infection, I am just having a hard time finding him a tetanus shot, which he surely needs.

There was another stingray sting the next day, to another kid, but I'm becoming almost blase about those now, especially after the other incident. And it seemed to be a relatively mild sting, he was better after only 1/2 hour in the hot water.

And so camp season wrapped up for this year, 3 good weeks, each different in their own ways, all successful. A great deal of very hard work went into those weeks by many people, lots of planning and organizing ahead of time. And much hard work during the time, by those directing each week, by the counsellors, by the wonderful cooks who produce such huge quantities of good Ecuadorian cooking, and by all the behind the scenes people. Ray and Kelly did a great job of managing the place, sorting out water and power problems, looking after the money side of it, doing shopping runs for the kitchen and manning the little tuck shop (which was a huge hit).

And now it's all over, and for me now, this first day of April means that I am about to begin the next new part of my life. School is starting and I 'll be working there for part of my time, and what will it all hold for me? Lots of unknowns ahead, but I do know that I am not heading out into this on my own, I am looking to God for direction and guidance.