Saturday, July 18, 2009

Week 3 at Camp Farley

Greetings from another great week in Mashpee! This week was a bit frustrating, but I feel as though I have progressed because of it. This past week at Camp Farley 20 kids signed up for ropes which is unusual for our ropes team and we had to eliminate a day of games. We usually facilitate trust games and group-solving games on Monday and Tuesday, but we only had room for one day. Later on in the week we realized that we could have and probably should have spent two days on games. All of them mastered the rock wall in one day and the zipline was flying by so we had to come up with something for them to do on Friday. I also felt as though I did not know my group as well as I had the previous weeks. On day four I still did not know some of their names which seems horible in my own opinion. I did learn that you have to be ready to roll with the punches and think quick on your feet. I also learned that I should not be afraid to recieve help and constructive criticism. I am so sensitive that I view healthy criticism as a punch in my face when it is really not. It is a way for me to better my leadership skills and approach. I am grateful for self reflection because you really start to realize things about yourself and your personality.

My cabin this past week was very....loud. No, they were nice kids, just extremely outspoken. A few of them did feel homesick and again I felt helpless, but I did learn something. I learned that each week I need to give my campers a great time. I was often apprehensive to soothe them when they were feeling sad and I felt horrible. I need to give my campers all of my positive effort to help create a safe and happy environment for them. You only get what you put into it so hopefully next will be even better. I had so much fun this week! The kids were so energetic and it made the games so much fun! Until next week!

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