Malagash 2008: Grades 3-5

Every once in a while you get a cabin that really stretches you. It tests your patience, well pretty much everything. And this was the week for me. My cabin started off with ten campers up in the craft shack, but by the end of the week it was reduced to 6. Two were sent home for behavior issues, and two went home on Tuesday night as planned before the week started. The first couple days of the week are a blur since I spent the majority of my time on the trouble makers. But the second half of the week was much much better as I was able to hang out with my campers and get to know them finally.
The week was directed by Glenn Leiper. He brought his fun and creative ideas once again, and everybody enjoyed the program. You can tell kids are having fun when they lose their voices. And we had lots of lots voices this week. As Ryan said Sebastian sounded like he swallowed sawdust. On the topic of Ryan, for winning Grogs, a cabin was allowed to shave his head. Unfortunately they did not have the best barber equipment, and it looked quite awe full afterwards. But he did get it fixed up later and it looked good.
The speaker this week was Peter Mathieson who spoke on the armor of salvation in a way the kids could really understand. I enjoyed having him around to have my usual Calgary Flames and NFL chat.

Some highlights of the week

• - Having Johnathan Forsythe. He did a great job looking after the campers while I had to take "disciplinary action". He was also a hit with the girls cabins as his hat was always in the hands of some crazy hat stealing girls.
• - Hannah Montanna is idolized by these young kids. Its quite sad.
• - Disco part and bobsledding with my cabin on the last night. The best one was when Jacob flew threw the air about 5 feet off the ground before he landed.
  
• - Birthdays! Emily had her birthday a few days before me, and I kept giving her bouquets of wild flowers. It was fun. I also had my birthday at the end of the week and got birthday kisses, which pretty much is the highlight of my year.

Some lowlights of the week

• - Having Julia exiled from the rest of the FFATS as she was working with the mini kids (Beginner camp that lasted the second half of the week). It was like she was off on her own little island.
• - Sheppard's pie. Never in my life have I not eaten a bite of a Malagash meal. Or told my campers they didn't have to eat if they didn't want AND to make sure they ate dessert.