Something different this summer?
So, what are you going to do this summer? Get a naff job in your home town? Not very exciting is it? Perhaps you might like to do something different ? Well, last summer I made that choice and I spent three months in America working at an American summer camp. There are many types of camps all over the States and I was at a Girl Scout camp in Ohio in the mid-west. I’m not denying that it was hard work, but it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
My camp, Camp Wakatomika (all right, it’s a stupid name) was a small camp with only nineteen counsellors. Half were English and half were American. No-one had met before camp started, but after the staff training week we got on brilliantly and felt like we’d known each other for ages. When the training week was up the kids arrived. As you can probably imagine, I was a little nervous at the prospect of being in charge of American children but I was happy to find that my preconceptions about American kids were wrong. The children all loved our accents as did the American staff and trying to copy our accents was a popular past-time.
The camp gave me opportunities to try new activities, for example trail-riding on a very unpredictable horse, and kayaking down the creek. It was also a chance to try and make a small difference to the children’s lives. Many of them came from under-privileged backgrounds and camp was their only holiday of the year, something that they all looked forward to throughout the year. They looked up to the counsellors and I think that they saw us as walking encyclopedias considering the number of questions they asked us - the most common being "Is this poison ivy?", as they held up a sample!
I’d like to think that the children who were in my care have as many happy memories of last summer as I do. As well as having a brilliant time (albeit tiring), I found that the experience taught me a great deal about patience and understanding, along with the enjoyment of living in the countryside for three months after spending my entire life in cities.
If you are interested in working at a summer camp in America this summer go along to the London recruitment fair, where there will be 200 camps represented.
