Wednesday Mud Day

Wednesday is usually a half day of work and the rest of the afternoon we spend on the San Juan River enjoying the coolth. This week however, I was covered in mud for approximately 90% of the time and only went into the river to wash off. Mud = fun, we have been waiting for this mud since week 1 (thank you rains of week 4 for providing the silt in the river for this extravagant adventure.

Cow Branding etc...

Calm before the storm, just hanging out in the desert like usual...
(note bull in back)

Us also hanging out waiting for something exciting to happen...

YIKES

I know lets circle the cars so that when we round up the bull it wont have anywhere to go BUT inside the corral

and it begins

ouch, never seen that before

yeah that's a bull, good job James and Julie

I now introduce you to Rocky Pointy Spinney, Heather's new best friends. Turns out he doesn't enjoy eating grasshoppers bigger than himself or crickets... any ideas?

Hike take 5

Today was hike #5 up Rock Point, which I led alone. I also happened to be the first person to see the rattlesnake on our hike back, (yeah that's right, first in my life!)



I also painted everyone on my staff postcards with little love notes on them this past week.

Climbing Rock Point, trips #1-4

Every trip up to Rock Point has been quite memorable thus far. Its quite amazing how high you climb and how far you can see. I still don't understand how we are able to convince high schoolers that its cool to wake up at 4 AM their time at home (5 AM here) and hike for two hours. We must be very persuasive..

camera was on manual focus for the first trip up, lame

#1 Thursday, week 1, just a handful of staffers, campers and counselors

#2 Friday, week 1, 31 people, half of the camp including most staff members





#3 Thursday, week 2, 40 people, record so far, touched a Desert Night Snake, took up the tail end of the group

#4 Friday, week 3, just a few shy of the record, led the group

Typical day in Rock Point, AZ

Today a camper has a fever so I am stuck in the MPR (multipurpose room, or K2 as we like to call it). Its Tuesday of week 4 and three stray dogs just decided to poke their heads in.

My typical day as a Site Director for the Sierra Service Project looks something like this:


















-6:35 alarm, snooze until 6:45 (sometimes, usually 1-3 times a week, we wake up at 5 to hike up Rock Point with campers and counselors. Our record is 40 people)

-7:00 sing campers awake

-7:10 gather campers and counselors for Spiritual Awakening with Julie; stretch and drink a cup of coffee (if there is a cup to be found)

-7:40 kick people out of the gym nicely for breakfast at the Chapter House


















-7:45 (yeah right, its always later than that) circle everyone up for announcements and Morning Devotion; help serve breakfast and probably seconds

- whenever I finish eating help Sandwich Makers, Kitchen Patrol and Bathroom Patrol simultaneously usually walking/running/catching a ride back to the school from the Chapter House

- during the work day I either work on entering receipts into a spreadsheet, sending/receiving e-mails and snail mail, washing rags for KP and BP, conference call with the other 6 Site Directors, call churches that are participating in the next week, visit sites with the Construction Crew or doing FREDs with Julie (a conversation with each work site that includes really awesome cookies), talk to community members, eat lunch and prepare snack for freetime


















-4:00 dish out snack to hungry campers and counselors, hang out and run around doing things like bandaging wounds etc.

-5:50 gather all for dinner, leave gym

-6:00 (hopefully) circle up for announcements and Din Din; serve seconds and help KP

-7:30ish program time: singing, mail time, site reports and Julie's fab program




-9:30 Staff/Counselor meeting

-10:ish Worship led by a work team

-10:30 (hopefully) lights out for story time! (a fav of mine including Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and the Giving Tree, Mr. T style thanks to the fool James)

-11:ish staff candle, plan for following day



I work with 6 wonderful other people (sometimes 7 if we have a Staff-in Training or even 8 if our Executive Director Rick is visiting).

Julie is the Spiritual Life Coordinator. We worked together our first summer on Staff in Covelo, California on the Round Valley Indian Reservation.













Terry is a Construction Coordinator. Even though he goes to Oregon State, I still love him!

Caitlin is another CC. We were campers together 4 years ago in Chiloquin, Oregon and her mom was my counselor!











Heather is the last CC, but certainly not the least. I met her for the first time in Covelo when she and her dad came to visit her older brother Nate who was my Site Director my first two years on Staff. Ever since we have lived in Eugene together and I am super excited for the next year of our lives there going back after this summer.
























James is one of the Chefs this summer. He has a mohawk and plays the guitar. He also reads really good bedtime stories. We were also campers together with Caitlin! Talk about small world...

Christina is the other Chef. She has red hair and is crafty. She is very organized.




We wish that Barry was on our staff. He was a counselor week 1 (I also had him last summer as well). He has a red truck, Clifford, and is really handy. He fixed our swamp cooler.













I love all of my staff members very much and I can't believe we are already half way through with the summer!