Welcome to Shawshank

Well I made my pick up to go to camp but somewhat reminicent toa travel day i spent from 11.30am to 10.30pm at the airport waiting to pick up 4 other camp america people to arrive. We got a Saffa called Nminsi (sp), 2 aussie girls: Holly & Rowena, a Pom- Kev, A scot - Marty and an austrian called Hazza (Harry) who talks like goldfinger but higher pitched. I actually thought Hazza was taking the piss when i first met him and it wasn't until the boss said " he's from Austria" that I realised it was his crazy high pitched accent.

I really am right in the middle of nowhere. The nearest shops are 9 miles away and the nearest "civilised" town is about 40mins away depending on who's driving. We got into camp at about 2 in the morning and i have to say i could have had ended up with much worse accomodation. The bunkroom is straight out of a war movie's boot camp except our bunks are made out of 2 x 4. We've made it our own though. We got our kitchen , complete with fridgeand microwave and the owner just stopped by and dropped of a TV, stereo and a whole bunch of food.

We spent 4 hours at Walmart the other day to get supplies and work out what we needed for our bunkhouse. I think its going to be a pretty fun time here, we get most of our nights off. Which is fairly much straight after dinner at 5pm. They eat ridiculously early here lunch is at 10.45am.

We're about a 5 minute walk from the river which is great. We went down there the other day after playing some b-ball with kids, not only can white men not jump but neither can Asian kiwis at 5'4.
I floated down the river a bit and just soaked up the deliverance like surroundings. My ears and eyes are constantly open here for duelling banjo's, mountain lions, black widows and copperhead snakes. Also there have also been a couple of Yogi sightings.

The kids here are all disadvantaged in some way or another and the courts or the system have picked them up somewhere along the way and they spend anywhere from 3 months to 3 years or more here. The few I've talked to have been pretty friendly but the boss has warned us that they can turn on us at the drop of a hat.

There's a chance that we're going to get a week of somewhere in the middle so we're looking at hiring a car and going down to New Orleans or up to Toronto.

Its funny for someone that used to bag cellphones a lot I feel like i've gone back to the stone age with no cell phone coverage whatsoever and very limited internet access.

Take care and watch out for thar' them mountain lions.

Matt