Somewhere Over The Rainbow.....

Well last Monday was pretty exciting for a variety of reasons. Our boss John has gone on holiday for 4 weeks putting Kev in charge. We are approximately 3-4 staff members short. So the guys have been sneaking off for smokes and because our groups are no longer by houses they are palming contraband from house to house.

Our morning activities got rained out so we ended up just rolling with and finding things to do and keep the boys busy. In the afternoon it cleared up and normal play resumed. That nights me and Rowena went to go hang out with some of the upper ranch houses. About 20 mins into a game of cards the rain picked up and the guys chilling outside the house on the porch sprinted inside followed by micellaneous pieces of wood and debris. Ten seconds later and the tornado warning came through and we got stuck there for another half an hour. Once the rain and the wind calmed down we decided we better head back to our houses before we got stuck in for the night. Unfortunately the road back to our houses was blocked by a fallen tree and so was the alternative route. We went back to a couple of the other houses before deciding to try getting round the tree 4x4 style in our borrowed beater Betty when we noticed that there was a rather large oak tree hanging from the power line. End of story though we decided that we'd risk it and we made it back to our houses. As I pulled up to our house all the other guys were walking up towards camp so I made a U turn and took them back up to the activities building so we could pick up some of the camping gear there as our lights had gone out and there were lanterns there. AS we were loading up the car Holly came tearing across the yard and was yelling " there's another tornado about 5 minutes away get inside now!'. So we all piled back into the car when Hazza takes off into the case managers building. So I start beeping the horn and we're all yelling for him to hurry up, he's gone for good on 5 minutes when Kev runs in to get him a couple minutes later both of them come out. When Hazza got into the car we all started getting stuck into him for farting about as usual, when he Kev lets us know that Harry was busy chattting. Just after we got the last of the camping gear back into our house the second storm started. We ended up just playing cards by lantern and having coffee heated by candles and talking to the other houses on the radios, turns out the second tornado jumped across the valley and went straight on from there so I guess we were pretty lucky. For a crazy situationit was pretty fun and there were a lot of funny stories the next day particularly the house whose boys did an impromptu last confession.

On the weekend we headed over to another camp to party with the other Camp America people and funnily enough nothing over here is without drama. Me and Kev were going tubing down the river when we get to our stop. Next thing I hear John my boss yelling to get out of the water throw my tube to the side and start chasing. So I'm running along in my jandals following everyone else like a headless chicken for about 5 minutes before I find out what had happened. Anyway earlier while I was making my way down the river a couple of guys saw a fight breaking out so they went over to intercede when this one dude ran up a bank straight to where our car was and smashed our windscreen with an oar. So everyone was chasing this one guy trying to catch him so we could get our money. End of story we didn't catch him but took his rental canoe which later we found out had a resonable stash of coke of on it. His friend who managed to get the crap kicked out of him told us he was coming back with "30 of his niggas and shotguns once they all got coked up again".

Moral of the story: let the hicks bash the shit of each other then raid their canoe.

But we still partied on, we had a real international party there were aussies, scots, irish, russian and english to go with our austrian, south african and swede and the aussies, english and kiwi of course. We partied pretty late on the river bank, swum till around 1 in the morning and slept out under the stars on a hard bed of rocks and got woken harshly by the sun but it was definately one of the things I did Camp America for.

Anyway I think thats the jist of it.

Laters

Matt

P.S. My mullet and beard are coming along nicely. I am getting my "I (Heart) MOM " tattoo next week. The anchor on my other arm has only just healed.

One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest...

Dear Avid Reader,

Well I know its been awhile but surprisingly I have been very busy.
Since I last wrote I have been on a Wagon Train think any western movie. We were supposed to stay overnight in a tepee but it was too hot. In fact we only got to ride the horses for an hour as well because the sun was beating down pretty hard. I ended up spending about 5 hours in the sun 2 days lifeguarding, yeah think Baywatch! Anyway the next day I managed to play sports all day and was pretty tired the next day. The following day was the hottest day we've had this summer, we were on heat advisory warning so in true Wheelchair fashion I got heat stroke and managed to start a verbal tirade with one of the other Camp America staff right before I proceeded to dry retch for about 10 minutes. Lovely. Anyway end of story guy got sent to another camp for being a lazy useless git but enough of that, except lets just say that I made sure I locked up my valuables the day he left.

Funnily enough my week hadn't ended there I was doing a tug of war contest with the 2 lockdown houses and after the first round I was standing there talking to some kids and next thing I hear 2 kids abusing each other so I turn around to see whats going on and end up getting knocked on the ground as one kid pushed the other and the back of his head whipped into the front of mine. I then had to go work as a house parent that evening and ended up with a headache all night but luckily and strangely enough no concussion.

So much has been going on I can't remember a lot of it, I've been spending quite a lot of my free time just chilling with the different houses so that's been keeping my nights pretty busy. Although the other the night we ended up going to a redneck reception at the Roadhouse and yes I do have pictures it was hella funny. Groom dressed as up in waistcoat and bowtie etc but wearing basketball boots and singing terrible kareoke. I am officially the Camp America Fire Bug as I seem to have a knack for lighting fires, all the practice as a junior pyromanic has finally come in handy. We spend a lot of time lighting fires at night and usually in the weekend there's no other way for us to cook food for 10 with a microwave and a small hot plate.

We went to St Louis last weekend just to get away which was pretty fun, spend it at the city museum which is hard to put into words so you'll just have to wait and see the photos. Its kind of an arty, playground that you pretty much just run around and find stuff to crawl through, climb up or slide down. Speaking of photos have I told you how much I am hating technology lately? WELL my ipod has decided to crap out on me. Nevermind the music as I can rip that all again when i get home but I have all my Europe photos and some early camp photos on their as well. Do you think it will still be under warranty if I throw it against a wall?

The last week has been spent with a bunch of christians running a basketball camp with prayer group at every quarter break. I've made sure that I've been "busy" with other things during this time as I get the feeling a fair bit of ceiling painting goes on in these parts and not to mention "exorcising the demon". They're trying hard to convert me but I just throw up the horns at them......
Because basketball camp has been on and all of the rest of the trainned permanent staff have been trainning this work it fell on me and Kev to work Hill. This was an interesting experience, I haven't raised my voice the whole time I've been here (hard to believe I know) but by the second day I was definately a few decibels louder. On the first day within the few minutes of having the boys I had to stop a fight. On the third day I officially became a "Hill Man" as I had to do my first restraint. It definately wasn't a pleasant experience. It wasn't like a fight or when you stop a fight and just take them down. We had to hold this kid to the ground for at least 30 minutes while he screamed non stop the whole time. While all this was going on the whole house went crazy. Others were trying to get out of their rooms to either see what was going on or settle old scores. One kid starting banging his head on the wall so we went to put him in timeout where he kept banging his head on the wall and punching himself in the face. He ended up getting transferred to a mental hospital. I hope I don't have to see a kid like that again, it was pretty scary it was like watching something out of a funny farm movie and I had no idea what to do.

Anyway I guess its all character building in the end and i am enjoying it, although I have kinda stopped eating a little bit (even stranger I know!) but the food is terrible and its just been to hot lately.

Take Care and make sure to comment

PS: To all my new and old friends in London if you happen to be reading this let me know how you guys are! Best wishes.