Daniel's Summer Blog

A two weeks ago today , I was getting extremely antsy waiting for graduation to end so that I could drive down to camp immediately afterwards. The caravan consisted of four cars and nine people and all of their luggage, which mercifully fit in without issues. We drove from the Boro to Asheville without incident, found J-Po and tossed him into the car, and then only stopped again in Clayton. I managed not to get lost, but of course that meant that two of the other cars did. We reconvened at the Circle K which was ridiculously expensive, an unfortunate omen for the rest of the summer. Despite arriving 5 hours after the advertised time, it did not appear that we had missed anything.

Camp Yofi was an amazing and immensely educational experience for me. This was my first prolonged contact with autism, and while I approached with a fair amount of trepidation, it was far more familiar than I had expected. At the tower, there was really very little difference between Cochavimers and their siblings. Camp Yofi operates according to one might call "Family-Camp Style." There are daily full staff meetings, everyone does shmirah, and everyone is exhausted after one weekend. The great thing about yofi is that the staff-guest ratio for once "favors" the staff, because each child with autism gets a chaver, someone who is with them for all peulot, and then the anafim are very well staffed.

Something else I noticed at Yofi is that either because of the weather or just the Wrath of God, a multitude of flies and other insects descended on camp. After about a week of swatting and waving of arms, some orange fly-attractors appeared and seemed to have lessened the burden of the swatting (wo)man. That and a bought a two-pack of swatters at the DG and have brought the war to the bugs.

The composition of the tower is unusual this year. Not in the personality of its staff (see previous years) but in the number and distribution of its members. We have AdAm and I, seasoned veterans, and then two JC's one of whom was a CIT with us. Then we also have five mishlachat members. To begin, nine is far greater an number than has even been on tower staff (I have experienced summers with only five). This is great in terms of belayers and hours worked, but we also have to traing seven people from the ground up. To this end, we had four long days of training on the tower, Odyssey, swing, and wall. While all the training was immensely useful for the new staff, it was very tiring and prevented them from doing anything but peulot erev with their eidah. In theory, this means they will be excellent tower staff members but mediocre mumchim (mixoim). We will see.

As usual, I am feeling my age at camp. I am older than most of the mishlachat, and the entirety of the staff minus the roshes. I have plenty of friends among the youngins, but it just seems to weird to me that they are no longer campers. I seems like so long ago that I made that transition. It is that transitional period that stays in my memory, while the intervening years are all a blur. Also possible is that my mind has remembered the horrors of that year and has forgotten the comparative calm that followed.

Shavuot is upon me! I have half an hour to shower and throw on a polo shirt. No shaving, there is just no point before a two-day yomtov. Wednesday is arrival day, and while I am going to the airport, I hope I will not have any reason to pass through security.