We spent this last weekend back at the lovely campground in Aldeia (the same one from Annika's post about São João) as counselors for a teen camp. It was a wonderfully fun, exhausting, challenging and unforgettable weekend.
The most challenging part for me was the language. We've all gotten pretty good at having one on one conversations, but when it comes to leading discussions or trying to follow a million people talking at once...it's just exhausting. Thankfully, we were all paired up with some other wonderful counselors. I was paired up with a girl who was incredibly patient and understanding, while still pushing me to lead as much as I could. We had some awesome campers and were able to get to know a lot of new kids, and continue to build the relationships with kids that we've met at other camps or see every week at church.
Every night there was a different theme for dinner. We all dressed up and got silly and had a blast. The themes were camouflage, superheroes and circ du soleil.
(This was a little after dinner, where they picked the 'best dressed' from each team and made them come to the front. When they were introducing me they mentioned that I was an American...so the judges started asking if I was an impostor and decided that to prove my innocence I had to sing the Brasilian National Anthem. One problem: I don't know the Brasilian National Anthem. Eventually one of the guys behind me started singing in a really high voice and I just started mouthing words.)
(Annika even learned how to juggle so she could be in character for the circus night.)
There was a haunted house type thing where all the boy counselors were scary monsters. The campers had the option of going through it if they wanted to, but a majority of them decided to go even if they were a little scared. One of the girl counselors was TERRIFIED, but still decided that she wanted to go. Since she was a counselor and not a camper, the boy counselors decided to take advantage of the fact that she was already scared and focus all of their scaring efforts on her. At one point, I lost my grip on her hand and all the "monsters" carried her off into another room and wouldn't let me go save her. As weird as it sounds, it was a blast.
Alisha also brought back marshmallows and graham crackers from her recent trip home and we got to share s'mores with some people. We had to cook them over the stove, but they were delicious. A few of the boys ended up playing "chubby bunny" with the leftover marshmallows and it was hilarious.
The leaders of the camp also like to make silly videos to show each year. Here are a few of the ones that we watched this year at camp. Now, if you don't understand Portuguese, you won't be able to understand them, but they're pretty funny just to watch too. And you'll get to see a little bit of the city as all of the videos were taken in Recife and most at the Boa Vista church building. A few of the ones we've watched are "a história do homi cone" and "ninjinho trailer". Alisha is actually in the "grito da guerra-equipe deserto" as it was the war chant for the team she was on during the camp. Click here.
