Orientation Marches On!

We continue to sit in a boiling room and learn the stuff we need to know to be the best we can be! it hurts so good.
My favorite time is when we step out of class and play some camp games with "bang", "Ninja" and "Hoedown" being some of my favorite so far. The EPs have been great and are a way for us counselors to take part in all the events the girls will do, and that we will be leading, YIKES.

We hosted "The Counselor Talent Show" in which I got to show off some karate! It was great fun and I think everyone was a little surprised... A few people came up to me afterwards and said that they were surprised I could be so serious as I am always so bouncy and energetic. I smiled and thanked them. Over all the show was great! My favorite performance was one that re-enacted "Don't Stop Believing" by Glee! I laughed the entire time, it was so hysterical!! The Lifeguard trainees, as usual, then reported to study hall to study for our multiple tests that would determine whether or not we were ready to officially wear the red swimsuit.

We were up at 7.30am swimming laps and doing drills. We then went to breakfast, freezing cold and dripping wet, and panicking for our official Final Practicals that we had that day. At the last second, myself, my international buddy Sam and the crazy Kelly were saved and told that we were going on a Kayaking trip down the Green River.

It.was.magical.timing.
The three of us were selected as the kayaking instructors for the summer, provided of course that we passed our lifeguard exams which camp seemed sure we would. Their support felt so nice.

We marched over to "the kayak shack" and loaded our boats onto the top of a 4x4. We drove down the interstate and into a beautiful gorge, surrounded by an amazing and enveloping forrest. We were taught how to half roll and how to buddy rescue and all sorts of other handy tips and tricks to teach the girls in the lake. not only that, but some skills we may need going down this river-trail with the instructors. We headed off down stream with our two guides and had the most amazing time going down the white rapids for miles and miles!
Our guides were a ton of fun, and one was even the father of a camper we were soon to meet! The showed us tricks we would never be able to do and kept us laughing the entire trip. I felt so lucky to be on the water that day, and so ready to return to camp and succeed in my practicals so I could keep this up all summer!

It was a phenomenal trip and we returned to camp, physically drained but hyped up on adrenalin. It was time to return to reality... Practicals.
We walked into the heart of the most stressed bunch of girls I have seen in a long time. Anna, Shelby, Angie and Taylor were all in the middle of their exam and all looked as if their world was slowly coming to an end, and my heart began to race. Our instructor has a tendency to increase the stress level in any situation, as seen here, but I have no doubt she will make us the best lifeguards we could possibly be as she constantly pushes us past the limit. We were all meant to test out that day but not one of us finished the complete test sets and so, we all remain trainees for now.

That evening was counselor initiation night, but let me explain. Every single person here is part of a "Tribe", either The Cherokees, The Navajos or The Mohawks. The campers and counselors alike are divided into theses groups and compete against each other in many games and events throughout the summer. That evening was the night that all the new kids on the block were to be initiated into their tribes, including myself! We were gathered in a room and blindfolded. We were placed in a line, hands on the shoulders of the initiate in front of us, and lead blindly to an unknown location.  We were "hazed" the entire way but it was all in good spirits, as we walked down what felt like the steepest and longest hill in the world!

When our blindfolds were lifted, we found ourselves at the bottom of the waterfall, in what is known as the Tribe Fire Ring. All the tribe members were divided into their tribes and all the initiates sat on benches on the open side of the semi-circle. We watched as the meeting began and all the Chief and Co-Chiefs circled the fire. The initiates were called up one by one and called upon by a tribe. I was called by the Navajo tribe and walked to my Chief and Co-Chief who painted my face with tribe colors and symbols and welcomed me to the group. This continued until everyone found their place. We sang war cries and chants and then wrapped the evening up and went back to our cabins. The evening was such fun, and I was beginning to feel like I belonged.

We were told that if we washed our face paint off, we would greet the day by being thrown into the lake but I didn't believe them... I was sorely mistaken. Straight after breakfast, all the defiant newbies were sent tho walk the plank (also known as a diving board), fully clothed and laughed at! It was great fun and everyone was such a great sport. We were sent to shower and then returned to orientation, where we were finally assigned cabins, age groups and co counselors (Co-Co's)! My Co-Co Barbie and I were assigned the Beechnut Cabin, which will consist of girls approximately 13 years old, which I am super happy with. We moved into our new cabins from the temporary ones, and since Shelby and myself were next to each other both in our new and old cabins, we decided to pack everything into her car and drive our stuff over. Camp has a bunch of what seemed like one way roads and so, to get say 300m one way, we had to exit camp grounds the other way, drive around, enter through the bottom gate and drive back through camp. We made it to our new cabins after nearly causing a 5 car pile up, but lets not talk about that! Once we had unpacked all our things, we had to navigate the gauntlet once again to park Shelby's car down in the meadow, meaning that we had to hike back to camp as the meadow stood far below the actual camp grounds.

A constant bell then began to ring which signaled a fire drill. We all made our way to the flag pole on Lakeside and gathered for role call. Captain Billy and Ms Judy, the owners of the camp, addressed us and told us all how happy they were to have us, and surprised us with the news that we were to "put on our dancin' shoes 'coz we're havin' a Hoe-Down!". The dance was to be held in the gym and our guests were to be the staff of Camp Carolina, our all-boys brother camp just down the road. The theme was basically be as American Cowboy-ish as possible, which was difficult as I don't even have much of that stuff at home, let alone here at camp! Luckily, with the help of some friends, I was dressed in Plad and dungarees in no time! We all left to get ready and met a few hours later, as the busses of boys started to drive in. We played a few "get to know you games" before making our way over to dinner. The guys were all great and had just as much energy as we did, which we all showed off by chanting war cries and singing mad, loud, upbeat camp songs at/with each other. We made our way to the barn where we were lead in many different types of line-dances and the sort. We all had such a blast and finished the night off with the Cha Cha Slide, one of my personal favorites, and only dances I can actually do! The strangest thing that happened the entire night, was that I met a boy named Grant who is from SA and lives in JHB as well! It was so cool to be able to chat to someone who understands my accent, and all the quirky things that come for being South African. We all said goodbye and, even though the boys left, all us girls stayed in the gym and danced to a few more songs before we got shut down. A memory that will stay with me forever is when Garrett and Eliz tried to send us to bed by turning off the music, we all kept the party going by singing, in its entirety, Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" so loud and proud that it hardly seemed that the music had been quieted. It was such fun.

The next morning, the lifeguard candidates awoke to a sinking feeling in the pits of their stomachs: Final Practicals were today. We has been dreading this for many days and all felt so nervous, knowing that it was a pass or fail situation and that if we didn't pass, some of us would no longer have a job at camp. Personally, I was with petrified and inspired, and I knew we could do this

The test consisted of a passive and submerged victim being rescued from the deep water and having a spinal injury, meaning that neither their head, neck or spine could be moved. We were divided into teams and Rescuer 1 would swim out to the victim and roll them onto their arm so that their head would be out of the water. Rescuer 2 would bring the Backboard to her partner and get the injured person onto it, making sure they were secured and that their head was strapped into place. The team then swam to the dock and had to get the pinned victim out of the water, and perform two minutes of CPR using an AED (defibrillator). All this had to be completed within five minutes, and was unbelievably stressful. If you passed being Rescuer 1, then you had to redo the exercise as Rescuer 2 and visa versa. I am very happy to report that we all passed this test. We unfortunately ran out of time to do the First Aid Practical section of the exam and our instructor would come back the next day to finish that with us. The rest of the day was back to orientation. We played an amazing game called "Counselor Treasure" wherein each person brought a personal possession to the circle and explained why it was so special to them. Tears, tears everywhere. So many of us cried but it was sweet, the love and support in that room was palpable. All the time we have spent together has really brought us close together, which I feel is very important for a team of leaders who will be pushed to their limits this summer. I brought my scruffy little elastic bracelet with me which my little cousin TJ had made  a few days before I left. She handed it to me with a sad smile and said "don't forget me in America". It means so much to me and reminds me not only of her, but everyone back home who means so much to me.

We were then informed that we all had the night off and were welcome to leave camp grounds and explore, as long as we were back by midnight. 7 of us piled into Anna's car and headed off to dinner at a great Mexican place called "Papa's and Beer" where the food was so good and so huge that Kelly and I shared a meal, and still struggled to finish! After dinner, we drove to Walmart for a last minute shop before the campers arrive on Sunday. It was so much fun because most of the people from our camp were there and our shopping group just got bigger and bigger!

We headed back to camp and again hiked back from the meadow, laughing our butts of because of something or another. We got up early the next morning and reported to our final Practical exam: First Aid.
We all passed!!!!!
We were all so happy and were marched up to the lodge to receive our certificates! We returned to orientation to a massive ovation and many smiling faces.

Barbie and I are now in the final stages of preparation before our kids arrive tomorrow! We are both feeling good and I am confidant that we are going to make a great team for first session!