The First Day

The first day in the Camp Monserrate just came to the closure. All the campers are sleeping peacefully surrounded by the sounds of nature. The sleep is well deserved. After 6 hours of riding a bus we arrived a little bit after 3 pm to Lake Placid, greeted by the Reis family, and all the counsellors. After an hour of different games which helped the campers and the counsellors to get to know each other better we got to know who is going to be in which cabin. This year, because of much larger number of campers Cabin 2 was brought back to life. The time before dinner was spend on getting to know cabin mates and unpacking the backpacks and suitcases.Another people who welcomed us here were Val, and RoseAnn - two cooks who will take care of al our meals. The burgers which we had for dinner were disappearing quite immediately. After dinner there was time for a Sunday talk in which the Camp Director - Mr. Staysniak explained how important the camp is. The talk was followed by group activities and another meeting in which all the campers got to know the schedule and rules which are to be followed here. We finished a day with a prayer in the chapel. Tomorrow will be the first day run according to the usual camp schedule.

I'd like to share also couple of my own reflections at the end of this post. After teaching in Nativity for two years, being a counsellor in the camp last year, today's trip brought me back many memories. I am happy to be here to take some photos, write few posts on the blogs and spend some time with this great community, From the very morning I could feel the special spirit of the camp, eagerness of the rookies to get all the things right and excitement of the veterans to help them with it. It seems like a good start for a very succesful summer. There are already some pictures from the departure and from the first day up in Lake Placid. Hopefully there are more to come. You can check them out here.