Back from EYL

If I had not lost my job, I would not have been able to attend Youth Leadership camp this year, because I would have been busy working summer school. My daughter, Angel, and I attended youth leadership camp in 1997 and I have been wanting to return to volunteer as a staffer again since then. (Angel claims it was 12 years ago. I am not sure...) Unfortunately, when you work, sometimes, your employer will not allow you to take that much time off.

It is such a blessing when something bad brings something good into your life.

Friday before last, I drove up to San Antonio to visit with my daughter, Angel, and her little familia. She drove me to the bus station, and I took the bus from there. The bus drove up to Houston with a three hour layover and then proceeded to Huntsville. Because of safety, I chose to stay awake all night, which was good, because it did not look safe. When I arrived at Huntsville, there was no one to greet me, so I sat down on the bench, because the station was closed. Then this patrol car pulled up. I was greeted by the director of the camp and a border patrol agent. I rode in the back of a border patrol car with a rifle and bullets but no handcuffs. LOL... That was fun. 

I didn't eat breakfast or lunch on Sunday, because the cafeteria was not open. I was glad that I had packed some raisins and some green tea packets, but I was really craving real food!

I registered into room 220 (the double two's, as always!), and went in to take a nap. Training began on Sunday afternoon. They did not complete the printing for our handbooks, so we didn't get the notebooks until late Monday night. On Sunday, it was basicly an overview of what were would be doing and we learned a few games. After training, there was dinner and a staff meeting, but I was still hungry after dinner because I hadn't eatten all day. We were not through with the staff meeting until about 12:30am.

On Monday, we received all of the training in one day. OMGGG....  We learned more games and received instruction for the whole week. We didn't find out whom we would be pairing up with until the very end. I don't know if that was done on purpose or if it was done that way because the workbooks were not completed until the last minute.

I was very surprised that they paired me up with someone who had never been at camp before, especially since they recognized me as a new staffer. I was even more surprised that they paired me up with an "orange." We both had hesitations and my co-fac wanted out that first day! He said he was only there, because his sister forced him to be there. He added to the fire when he said that I was going to have to do everything, because he was not good at speeches or anything!

Our theme this year was fast food. My co-fac and I were Popeye's. We had to make a sign so that the campers would know who we were and we would know which kids would be ours. Junior said he could make the sign, but he wasted 20 minutes and didn't even make the P.  If I had known that he couldn't do it, I would have been 20 minutes ahead, but because we didn't finish with our staff meeting until about 1:00am, I decided to wake up early to work on the sign instead up staying up later to finish it. I thank God that I was able to make the sign so quickly, because at the rate I was going, I didn't think that I would have had time to go to breakfast.

I am 100% exhausted and I still have my bags in the car, so I will write more tomorrow. I'm sorry if my words are somewhat scrambled... I am just tired...