The rules of camp were simple:
1. Trowels are not weapons.
2. Catalog any artifacts you find.
3. Don't eat bugs.
In addition to learning how to properly wield a trowel, the kids had daily lectures/lesson where they learned about other outdoors skills. Day one was orienteering and compass skills. Day 2 was native plant identification. Day 3 was my personal favorite, Leave No Trace principles. Leave No Trace (LNT) is a method of camping wherein one takes nothing but pictures and leaves nothing but footprints. In essence, you pack out everything you packed in in order to leave the wilderness as you found it. I camped this way on my pre-orientation Boundary Waters trip and let me tell you, it's intense, but you feel really bad ass after. Part of this lesson was learning how to go to the bathroom in the woods. This had the kids all riled up! Imagine talking to a group of 25 elementary schoolers about pooping in the woods. There was no containing the insanity. So to calm them down, the counselors made them hike 2 miles. That did it.
Most of the camp time was spent digging in their "units" -- holes. They had to try to keep them level and keep the walls of the hole as perpendicular to the floor as possible. That takes a lot of focus for a 3rd grader.
Overall the kids did a pretty good job. We took lots of snack breaks so there wasn't ever too much time spent on one activity. My favorite bug-eater was Robbie. He looked like a little chipmunk/turtle with a round chubby face and glasses. On Wednesday, he got himself stuck in his rain jacket and it was my job as volunteer to free him from the rubber confines. While riding the bus back from camp, he turned to me and said: "So, what kind of restaurants do you like to eat at? You know, buffets, sit-down, fast-food?" I could hardly contain my giggle. He was just so adorable! My co-worker Amy overheard his question and proceeded to tease me for the rest of the week about my new "boyfriend".
Thursday the camper-rangers were being whiney, so the counselors decided to send them on another hike. Lead archaeologist Laura told us about a kid a couple years back who, while on a hike, kept muttering to himself "this is the march of a thousand souls" while picking up beer cans because "they're litter" :)
On this hike, however, the munchkins just kept complaining about all the medical "problems" they had. To be fair, one girl did have asthma and needed to bring an inhaler, but the rest just complained of really vague things and asked to go back. One girl, Zoey, or as Nurse Todd called her, "the bleeder", kept falling down on her face and would get nosebleeds. Then once they clotted, she would jam her dirty finger up there to itch and the whole thing would start over. By the third time, she had a gauze pad taped to her face. Kids. Zoey also had one of the little dudes trained to carry her purse. Starting 'em young!
Also, apparently the cool thing nowadays is to wrap colored duct tape around two of your fingers. Who knew the hottest accessory was hidden in your toolbox!
Zoey and her slave.
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