Day 17. The one after I missed a day

I did not have time to update last night and while unfortunate these things do happen during camp. I intend to explain why I missed posting as a sort of means to aquire forgiveness from my tiny cadre of loyal readers and to begin a dialogue that might help explain in some small part why I do this sort of thing time and time again. I only ask that If you read this you read it in its entirety, it'll be a bit longer but I hope it's worth your time.

Since I last posted we've been through our (at least the wranglers) busiest day of the week. On Thursday we do our regular two rides in the afternoon and also an additional ride in the morning. Understandably this makes for a very long day as we're leaving the pen at the time we're beginning to saddle on a more typical day. (If there is such a thing at camp) Well on this particular Thursday we went out and had 2 uneventful and smooth rides. Yep, that little bit of math that you did there was correct, there was a third ride that you might presume did not go as smoothly... If you did happen to presume such a thing, you did presume correctly. About halfway through this infamous ride in question we were headed down a slight slope, some brush on the right side of the line, a large patch of cactus to our left. At this inconvenient time one of our horses kicked at the horse behind him and the second horse, not wishing to be kicked more (a response I remember having during similar fights with my brothers) moved rapidly out of the way. The only problem is that his rider being completely unprepared for this was left floating in midair until gravity quickly brought him back to reality with a decisive plop. The great part was that he quickly got back up and upon the return of his horse he mounted and completed the ride. After the ride was over I awarded him the "cowboy of the day" award in the form of a can of mountain dew and all was well with the world.

Thursday night rolled around and the regular level of fatigue had developed. The counselors were with their kids out in after chapel time and the activity staff were in our regularly scheduled meeting and prepping for night games and debriefing the day... It was at this time that The "plan" went off the rails.

During the meeting we had a counselor stick her head in and request a director come out for an issue, shortly after the director returned (at a high speed) and informed us that there was a fight between two of the campers and that they needed help breaking it up. Immediately myself and a few others (planned for ahead of time) rushed out and helped contain the situation. From here on out the rest of the evening our standing mission was to have as normal a night of camp as possible while at the same time maintaining and restoring a sense of safety in the staff and campers.

Despite the disruption and a small amount of culture shock, I had the opportunity to stay up until all the campers were asleep. I intentionally use the word opportunity because there were a great deal of incredible things that happened during the stressful after-action period. In no particular order and in annoyingly brief detail...

I saw a group of boys happily camp out in the fort instead of sticking to the "safe" confines of camp. Their counselor is a pretty quiet guy but he's incredibly reliable when it counts.

I saw another cabin full of boys have a pillow fight that raged late into the night, craziness and hyperactivity abounded and that was encouraged and celebrated just as it would have been on any other thursday night.

Because we were busy with other things and our lantern had been misplaced by the time the group had gotten to the firepit there was no fire (or "lampfire") waiting. Not missing a beat the CIT's (counselors in training) quickly gathered flashlights and placed them in the firepit which resulted in a nice fake fire and songs and such continued as normal.

Friday was the regular scramble to clean camp and get everyone on buses followed by 99% of the staff crashing for a few hours...

Now, in the words of my good friend adam this was not a normal thursday but it was also not unexpected. Here at ACK we feel very strongly that any kid that wants to come to camp should be able to. Because of this history we often get the sort of kids that no one else wants at their camps. When I first came into contact with ACK a little over a year ago this seemed a bit odd and also quite risky to me, but I was assured by people who had been with the organization for a while that it was worth the risk.

Now allow me to expound upon that last bit for a moment, When I first started camp it was in a similar setting to this one in a very important way. In both south dakota and wyoming we have the risk of running into rattlesnakes while we are out and about our 'normal' camp activities. We are very aware of this issue and view it as a legitimate risk to balance with the effective locations we had back then and the camp I'm at right now. 

In the same way when someone opens their hearts and 'home' to kids from incredibly difficult situations the legitimate risk that we take on is that occasionally we have to deal with situations like fights, or behavior that isn't normal with lower risk populations. Some of us are trained for those situations and we are quite capable of dealing with them when they do come up, but there is little to no way to eliminate that risk entirely. Especially without removing our contact with kids who desperately need to know someone likes them, and that Christ died for them too, not just the white church kids from the rich neighborhoods. As one who has been around long enough to see the good along with the more difficult situations I count it a cost well worth paying. The Impact we have on any child who will give us a week of their time is incredible and any child should be allowed that opportunity.

Anyway, I'm exhausted and might not have presented my position terribly well in this writing. If it is chaotic and disjointed when I re-read it tomorrow night I'll post an addendum or clarification at that time.

As always if you get to this point I appreciate you, Whether I know you or not I am very aware that I do not perform my job adequately when I do it in a vacuum. Your prayers, support, and regard are incredibly important to me and I cannot thank you enough.

Nick