Week one adventures

Sometimes I wonder why I've worked here so long, why I keep coming back. This is not one of those times. Week one put me with Pam, Lindsay and the Ropers (8-10 girls). The girls were amazing: any game we played they could play for half an hour without stopping. Any song we sang they wanted to sing a hundred times more. One of the discipline techniques I use is that when I call for the kids to get in a line, I promise to tell them a Philmont story if they can do it in less than five seconds; these kids earned more stories than I had time to tell. On Thursday night I worked at handicraft and three of my girls tracked me down to give me a little pocketknife that they got for me at the trading post, emblazoned with my real name. I think I'm still speechless about it. We did the submarine skit for closing program, and I think it got the biggest laugh of anyone.

More amazing than the kids, though, was Lindsay. I am aware that with my years of experience I can be intimidating to work with. A lot of group leaders, when teamed with me, tend to stand back and wait for me to tell them what to do. Lindsay led games in every down moment. She had our gear ready every morning before I finished picking on the bosses in the office. She led songs before I was too tired to lead them myself - in my mind an act of service worthy of a medal. I would love to work with her again, but I doubt I'll get the chance; she's too good to put with me.

Elizabeth is waiting for a computer, so I'll be brief. Brenna, Pam, Cameron, Krista, Morgan and I hiked Hart's Peak this weekend. For those of you with a Philmont map, we started at Ponil turnaround, hiked to Ponil, over the peak, got lost in a beautiful valley about half a mile from IW and had lunch, found the trail again, hiked down into IW, entirely failed to see Dan Dan, and hiked out to Six Mile Gate. The plan from there was to hike the road back to Ponil turnaround, but as luck would have it, Nick was there with an RT friend of his. The RT drove me the five miles back to my car and I drove back to pick the others up. All told, we hiked about six miles, but that seems to be enough for one day.