home again

[mongoose24]

soooo i'm home again after being at kiwanis camp for 2 weeks. it was both awesome and horrible at the same time. don't get me wrong it was the most rewarding experience that i will ever have and something i would never give up for the world but at the same time its probably the hardest thing both physically and emotionally i will ever do in my life. the first week we had adults which was very hard because we had to deal with the fact that like with the group we had none of them lived at home and only 2 of them had contact with their family. the camper i had was 38 years old but was mentally between 2 and 3 years old, barely walked so we had to have her in a wheel chair and was epileptic. her vocabulary consisted of "mama, papa, who, e, i, o, u, hi" she had little use of her right hand, she had to take meds 4 times a day and HATED IT, it took at least two of us to get her to take them, sometimes up to 5 people and she needed constant attention or else she would start hitting herself and others and throwing things that was in her reach. on top of all this she also came down with pink eye and had to go home for 24 hours. she needed diapers too and since i am just the luckiest person ever she was also on her period that week. the second week i supposed to have the easiest camper in the group but instead got one of the hardest. he has downs syndrome and was very violent and more verbal than the first camper but not a lot. could do things that the first camper couldn't do like wash himself, dress himself and do some of the activities more on his own. but on the other hand he also needed someone to hold either his hand or arm at all times or else he would run away, we had to run after him many times once we actually had to get all the staff together to search for him after he ran away during breakfast. during this week i got spit on, hit with a stick, had rocks thrown at me, got kicked, hit, got cussed at (his favorite was fuck you), yelled at, and of course ran away from. he also had troble with meds and we were not told about this so the first 2 days of giving meds meant running to the bathroom because he would throw up after he took them. i actually this week missed my camper i had the first week even though she was hard physically i knew what to do for her, i could not figure out the second one... on top of it he was an 18 year old boy so psychologically he was so wanting to be independant and doing his own thing and here i am trying to tell him what to do and when to do it and controlling everything he did for a week. we were actually going to try to send him home a day early but then i got hit with a guilt trip from his grandma about how she appreciated what i do so much and its so nice for them to have a nice place for this boy to go one week a year where he is accepted and can have a good time blah blah blah and yeah so that 24 hours of freedom went down the drain. which actually wasn't a very good one considering he ran away, spit, cussed, hit, and threw rocks at me during that last day.
i know it sounds horrible the way i am describing it with the campers but honestly i wish i were still there. the surroundings are beautiful, the people are so nice and you get so attached to the staff and counselors that are up there as well as the other campers. there are many campers that i really really really miss right now and its sad because i probably will never see them again. i hope that i can see some of the staff again, i think that i am going to go back next year as a staff member. i could never go back as a counselor just because of the emotional drain it causes but i know i need to go up again. it is just the most amazing place. i have so much more to write but i will wait for later.