Hard to believe that the first week of camp is in the books. Really it couldn't have gone any better. When we started this camp five years ago it was our goal to expand at some point so that we could help more kids because it was hard for me to believe that a 2 week camp every other year with twenty students would make any difference whatsoever. And now every day I look at all the campers and teen leaders milling about and wonder ... How the $&@?!&$ did this happen? When it comes down to it I
think it began when Sophie and Lydia (the Paris primos) expressed interest in coming down with us. That was all the impetus my wonderfully energetic and creative wife needed to imagine what the program could become. At the same time Samuel and Nelly pushed us to become an official non-profit organization and took care of all the paperwork to make that happen. So with the means to gather funds we were able to put into place Tanya's vision. And here we are...I have to fess up to the fact hat one reason we began the camp was a very selfish one. We wanted to find a way for our own kids to become connected with Dominican kids. Although our kids participated in the camp that we created they didn't really interact with the other campers... until this year. I've been amazed at how much the gringos and Dominicanos have been hanging out together. I've already spoken of the leadership of the Dominican teen leaders but today the gringos stepped up especially in the taller de arte. All the teens led the campers in various art activities but it was especially moving (to me anyways) to watch Evan (our Evan) explain in Spanish how to do origami. Did I mention that it was in Spanish?
Alright, that's all I got. We're heading up into the mountains for a weekend camping trip and then three more teenagers are coming down on Sunday. We'll see what next week brings.
