By Diana

Hi all,

Sorry I haven’t been keeping you updated on our trip like I said I would.

Tuesday evening, we arrived at the camp, which is smaller than I imagined (but that’s a good thing). All 16 of us are in the big tent. The bathrooms are pretty nice for a camp, but have their rush hours. The meals are decent, although I have trouble now and then being a vegetarian. The people in general are friendly except for the other teens. (They keep to themselves.)

GET ‘ER DONE!

Wednesday morning we went right to work. We were divided into two groups and each group was given an assignment: drywall or roofing.

I got stuck with roofing.

Getting started was slow. We stood around in a lady’s backyard waiting for the guy to get our supplies and tell us what to do. By 9 a.m. it was getting really hot and we were sweating just standing there. It didn’t smell good by the way because the lady has a dog… dogs go to the bathroom in the yard… and when it’s hot, well, it smells… (Eww.) The dog is a Doberman and her name is Tasha. She was nice, but it didn’t go well with Steph, who’s scared of dogs. Anyway, we get started on roofing and we get the hang of it, so Peter abandons us.

We weren’t able to finish the job though because it started thunder storming. You definitely do not want to be standing on a tin roof when there’s lightning. You don’t want to be using electrical tools in the rain either, so we packed up and went to lunch.

We eventually finished it in three days, I think. It was hot and it thunder stormed the first two days. Tasha visited us often. There were some minor cuts, but nothing a little Neosporin and Band-Aid couldn’t fix.

Meanwhile, the drywall group was getting a little frustrated. We didn’t train to put drywall on the ceiling, so it took a while to learn how it works. They got the hang of it too though and when we finished our roofing job, we “united and conquered.”

THE CIRCUS IS IN TOWN

The other groups at the camp left and new ones (much bigger ones) came. The new ones are kind of obnoxious and loud. Within the first day or so, a couple guys from the new group made some rude comments about one of our female students. They also were about to say something to another female student until two of our guys sort of came to her rescue. Had there been no adults or rules at the camp, I think there would have been a beat down for such disrespectful comments. The new girls don’t take care of the bathrooms as well either.

I think I miss the old groups, but we have only one or two more days here. Then we are off to Atlanta!

So that’s a bit of what’s happened in the past week. Sorry it’s so poorly written. I’ll write again in the next couple of days about the camp’s chef, our culinary walking tour in the French Quarter and some other stuff. Stay tuned!