Camp Anawana

Please tell me that you have watched Salute Your Shorts, the great Nickelodeon classic television program? That you hold Camp Anawana in your heart?? Is it sad that I can still sing (most of) the words to the theme song? Unequivocally, emphatically no! Gosh I loved that show! As it goes, I never really went to camp camp as a kid. Like where you go and stay in cabins and go canoeing and hiking and play horseshoes. Yeah, not so much. I went to music camp and leadership camp and nerd camp (though they called it "Center for Talented Youth")- all of which I am VERY thankful for, mind you, but some part of me always longed for a camp like Camp Anawana. Where someone would steal all the boy's underwear and run it up the flagpole. Ah yes, childhood. I also always thought that if I had one more summer in high school or college to have a job, I would have been a camp counselor. To be fair, I probably would've done so at a music/leadership/nerd camp, but alas, the dream lived on....

Until I got to help plan and spend a week at camp (wahoo!). I have already written a bit about the camp, but let me just share some of what we got to do! Seriously guys, this camp had everything. And it's in ROMANIA. Of course first and foremost we were there to spend a week getting to know God a bit better. So we had a fair amount of teaching (no pictures of that) and singing:

And then pretty much all the rest of the time we could be, and hence were, OUTSIDE. Or inside sleeping, but given the choice, I don't know how one could even conceive of being indoors. I mean, so ok, there was the requisite pool and ping pong tables:

But more importantly there was archery:

Football (soccer):

Volleyball:

"Bull" riding:

Hiking:

Watermelon eating post-hiking:

Tie-dying (we brought the supplies, to be fair):

Bike-riding:

Horseback-riding:

And even more (huge chess board, basketball, river swimming), but that is enough pictures, I think.

And what camp would be complete without a CAMPFIRE?? I brought along our stash of marshmallows and taught everyone how to roast marshmallows and make s'mores. And the Nigerian women sang tribal songs and danced around the campfire. And the Romanian staffed just stared at us all in amazement. Like ya do.

After it all, I was just quite tired and needed a nap. Outside of course. Apparently the camp dog also felt she needed a rest. Like ya do.

Quite a successful week, if I do say so myself. And now I can feel that my life is just a bit more complete, now that I've been to and essentially been a "counselor" at a camp camp. It only took me coming all the way to Romania to do so.