Logan- I need water. My lungs are drying.
Eli- I'm so thirsy, I could drink out of an elephant's trunk.
Ben- Why does it have to be my canines?
Eli- (said from the car the day we drove for twelve hours) When I look that way I can see 3 things: the mountains, my nose and the signs.
Ben- (probably said that same day) There's nothing to do but use my imagination.
Eli- Red hair.....now there's something you don't see everyday.
Logan- Mom, you don't want to see what I'm doing.......
What happens here in Puerto Rico...camp, kids, dead iguanas, hermit crabs, painting and much more.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Noche de Tacos
Jon and I have realized over the years that we are really bad at a couple of things. Perhaps you can guess the first one when you look at how often I post things on this blog. Long distance communication is not something that comes naturally to us unfortunately. We are and have been working on that with varying degrees of success.
We are also not so good at cultivating community.
The weird thing is that we both like people, we like to talk, we like to hang out, we like to have people at our house. For some reason though it rarely happens on its own. There are some people who just show up or call and say "come pick me up, I want to come over." I won't mention any names....Stephanie "I'm comin to your house this weekend" Almonte! Personally, I love it when they do that. And if they left it up to me or Jon it might not happen since we are severely lacking in the let's do something today category.
Recognizing these flaws has made us try to be intentional about creating community here at camp. I live ten feet from Julio and Beth's door. I have hung out with Beth for a period of more than 10 minutes with her maybe once in the past month. That's no good. Realizing that part of the problem is just life and busyness, we decided to start "taco night". Everyone has to eat right? We all eat around the same time, right? So why not do it together once a week. Tonight was the first "taco night" we have had since before summer (due to camp busyness and our trip to the states). Here's a peek at what it looked like:
Imagine my kitchen with it's beautifully tiled floor and fully functional electrical abilities...ahhh imagination....now imagine three tables set up together, Logan is helping to put cheese into the bowls, Eli wants a yogurt cause "they're really good mom", Beth (who later will stand for 45 minutes by the refrigerator making up weird magnet phrases in spanish..un momento bien duro..with Stephanie, oh yeah, she and Fred came late and finished off all of the food) is cutting up a to-ma-toe, the elders Mr. Lawrence and my dad are in a deep conversation about something very serious and entertaining, oops....Logan just spilled a bunch of cheese onto the table. "Don't worry mom, I got it," said while swiping it all onto the floor. Sunny, the golden retriever, is trying to scratch down the back screen door because Grandma is here and needs to pet her immediately. Sit down everyone so we can pray.......Ben, put the book down and come here to eat. Mr. Dave comes back with a big bowl of ice for drinks which Grandma eats later for desert because Mrs. Barbara is not here and she usually brings that. It was decided that Jim, the new guy from Michigan, will be the desert bringer now. Hear that, Jim? Hey old timers....sit down so we can start. So they sit down together and show Ben the almost 11 year old how to be obnoxious (like 11 year old boys need help with that) by hitting the bottom of your cup with your fork. Logan, don't take a bite; we're going to pray.
We are also not so good at cultivating community.
The weird thing is that we both like people, we like to talk, we like to hang out, we like to have people at our house. For some reason though it rarely happens on its own. There are some people who just show up or call and say "come pick me up, I want to come over." I won't mention any names....Stephanie "I'm comin to your house this weekend" Almonte! Personally, I love it when they do that. And if they left it up to me or Jon it might not happen since we are severely lacking in the let's do something today category.
Recognizing these flaws has made us try to be intentional about creating community here at camp. I live ten feet from Julio and Beth's door. I have hung out with Beth for a period of more than 10 minutes with her maybe once in the past month. That's no good. Realizing that part of the problem is just life and busyness, we decided to start "taco night". Everyone has to eat right? We all eat around the same time, right? So why not do it together once a week. Tonight was the first "taco night" we have had since before summer (due to camp busyness and our trip to the states). Here's a peek at what it looked like:
Imagine my kitchen with it's beautifully tiled floor and fully functional electrical abilities...ahhh imagination....now imagine three tables set up together, Logan is helping to put cheese into the bowls, Eli wants a yogurt cause "they're really good mom", Beth (who later will stand for 45 minutes by the refrigerator making up weird magnet phrases in spanish..un momento bien duro..with Stephanie, oh yeah, she and Fred came late and finished off all of the food) is cutting up a to-ma-toe, the elders Mr. Lawrence and my dad are in a deep conversation about something very serious and entertaining, oops....Logan just spilled a bunch of cheese onto the table. "Don't worry mom, I got it," said while swiping it all onto the floor. Sunny, the golden retriever, is trying to scratch down the back screen door because Grandma is here and needs to pet her immediately. Sit down everyone so we can pray.......Ben, put the book down and come here to eat. Mr. Dave comes back with a big bowl of ice for drinks which Grandma eats later for desert because Mrs. Barbara is not here and she usually brings that. It was decided that Jim, the new guy from Michigan, will be the desert bringer now. Hear that, Jim? Hey old timers....sit down so we can start. So they sit down together and show Ben the almost 11 year old how to be obnoxious (like 11 year old boys need help with that) by hitting the bottom of your cup with your fork. Logan, don't take a bite; we're going to pray.
Thank you Lord that even though we are not very good at this community thing it happens anyway. It's fun. It's good. It's important. Buen provecho!
Friday, November 12, 2010
Mr. Jim
So about a year and a half ago Julio, Beth and I went up to Grace Adventures in Michigan for their staff training. We braved the cold wet June weather, ate at the Olive Garden (not available in PR), played with Chase and Mia at Mr. Don and Mrs. Sandy's house, and learned a lot about training a camp summer staff. It was a great time. While we were there, we met a lot of really fun people. One of those persons was Mr. Jim Gamble. Not to long ago Jon (the hubby) recieved an email about a guy who was interested in coming to Puerto Rico to work at camp. Lo and behold, it was Mr. Jim. So Monday Mr. Jim arrived to a soggy Campamento del Caribe to begin working as the program director. Finally today we had a nice sunny pretty mosquitoe filled day for him. Those of you who have been to Puerto Rico and campa before may want to write to him and give him any advise or must see/do things. I'm sure he would appreciate it!
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
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