It has been over two weeks since my last update, and for that I apologize.It has been a busy couple of weeks and, reading over my last update, much less poetic. I have just returned from two days of removing splinters (mostly from children’s dirty feet), building fires, and blowing my nose—an event otherwise known as camping with a cold. Sunday night I went with a handful of other counselors to set up the campsite (about 30 minutes away) for the arrival of the children Monday morning. Alas, I need to back up…
August 1st is Swiss National Day, an event much like our Fourth of July in the good old US of A. For us at CDE, that means the highlight of our time here as we get to go out on the lake in a privately chartered boat and watch the fireworks surrounded by the Swiss alps and the twinkling lights of the canton of Ticino. What’s more, this year marks the 200th anniversary of Ticino’s admission into the “Confederation Helvetica”, or the Swiss confederation. Basically it’s like celebrating your state’s admission into the Union. All that really means is the party was supposed to be bigger and better than ever. The only downside would be the 48 children we had to bring with us. All in all, it turned out to be an enjoyable evening. The fireworks were not all THAT impressive, but it was really nice being out on the lake and I got some cool pictures, which of course are now online (/see03/Day39/ ). If you ever plan a trip to Switzerland, I highly recommend trying to catch some part of the August 1st festivities as there is a very fun energy level and as I’m sure you’ve realized, the Swiss know how to party (as long as you’re done by 10). Unfortunately, as the night progressed, I began to notice that I was not feeling so hot. Sure enough, Saturday morning I woke up with a cold.
I had to work two full days Saturday and Sunday, so by the time Sunday evening rolled around, I was not really feeling like setting up a campsite. That meant that by the time we were done setting things up, instead of hanging out with the other counselors and enjoying the luxury of no kids (i.e. drinking around the campfire), I took some Tylenol PM and went to bed.
Monday morning I woke up to a phone call from my mom, which was quite lovely (one day I will figure out how people know which days I can sleep in, they always pick those to call me early in the AM). Really and truly though it worked out quite nicely. Since I was able to sleep in a bit, it gave me plenty of time to chat, which I wouldn’t have had on a regular day. Plus, it was kind of interesting talking on a cell phone from inside a tent. And then, the children arrived.
Now, aside from being ill, camping really is kind of fun. It pretty much consists of eating, swimming in the watering hole 15 minutes away (pictures are online), eating some more, and then making smores around the campfire. The great thing that I think I’ve mentioned before is that there is no schedule, lots of free time for the kids, and plenty of nature to keep them occupied, which reduces our job to babysitting rather than entertaining.
The watering hole is really kind of cool. The village where the campsite is located is called Camignola and is adorable. Check out the pictures, both from this session and last session to see what I mean (/see03/Day14/) . In order to get to the watering hole, we have to hike about 15 minutes through this village, which consists of quaint cottages, grazing cows, and eventually, a river. The river has some natural wide points that people have dammed up with rocks to create a very nice swimming hole. The surrounding rocks provide some excellent opportunities to jump into the freezing cold water (it is a river that flows down from the mountains, so it is QUITE refreshing). Last session was rather uneventful, but this time when we arrived at the narrow part of the river we found a tractor with a power shovel scooping out dirt to create another damn down river from where we typically swim. This was no problem as our watering hole was still in tact, so we just walked right past. On the way out, however, the shovel dug out quite a bit of earth and created a very narrow walkway along the edge of the mountain. As our group was processing to the main road past the shovel, the path gave way and swallowed one of our boys, we’ll call him Aria since that is his name.
I was at the back of the line and remarking how the water at this point downstream was really murky with mud from the dirt the power shovel was stirring up. Jokingly I said to Dominque, one of the other counselors, “if anyone falls in now, I am NOT going in after them”. Somebody remind me to keep my mouth shut from now on. About 15 seconds after making this comment a counselor from the front of the line runs back to us and says “one of the boys just fell in”. She said it so calmly that I didn’t get it at first. “Is the camper still in the water?” I asked, fearing I would have to make a very reluctant jump into the murky water ten feet below. Instead of waiting for an answer, I pushed myself ahead of our kids to investigate for myself. Sure enough, there was Aria, standing knee high in muddy water ten feet below us, covered with dirt and looking more than a little shaken up. Thank God he wasn’t drowning or I would have been pissed.
So now I have two problems:
1) Aria just fell in the water.
2) Our path out is now very narrow (about a foot) and very unstable, as Aria so beautifully demonstrated for us.
First things first: Aria was trying to climb back up the way he came, but given the circumstances, that didn’t seem like a very good idea. There was a way out about fifteen feet ahead that required him to wade through a bit of muddy water and climb up onto the soft dirt the tractor was sitting on. I told him to start walking but he was extremely reluctant. Meanwhile, I started to bring the kids across our “land bridge” one at a time, grabbing their hands as they walked over the danger zone in case I had to catch another fall. While in the process of doing this, the shovel operator noticed our plight and swung the bucket part of his earthmover in the direction of Aria. He set it down about six inches from him (which scared the hell out of the kids and most of the counselors) and shouted what I think was “get in” in Italian. Whatever it was, Aria got into the shovel and was carried to safety. Dominique managed to get a picture, so I’ll try and get it scanned ASAP. I finished bringing the kids across and we proceeded back to camp to give Aria a shower. I’m just glad the other kids didn’t want a ride too.
We had some more excitement today when Yana, one of our better swimmers, was jumping off the rocks (she’s in the blue bathing suit in the pictures and looks like she’s flying) and hit one of them when she entered the water. I was at my little lifeguard perch when she called up to me and told me she hit her leg and it hurt really bad. Great. I think she’ll be OK, Meghan thinks it is only badly bruised after looking at it tonight, but that didn’t stop us from having to carry Yana everywhere for the rest of the day.
So let’s see, to recap my experiences the last few days:
- Blew my nose A LOT
- Removed splinters
- Watched a child carried to safety in a John Deere tractor claw
- Treated a sprained/bruised foot
I am feeling much better now though, thank you for asking, and after a brief spell of loneliness, my friend Johnnie Walker is back with me. And on that note, I bid you all happy travels.
-S