Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Just another beautiful day in camp Marriott… except for the food maybe

Editorial note – I made some additions to my post of yesterday for a few items I forgot. No need to go back and read unless you are bored, but I did want to make you aware.

We awoke to a morning with a bit of a chill. Nothing like Maine last week, but a very pleasant cooling. The breeze was blowing briskly down at the waterfront which made for very nice sailing for the small boats class. It didn’t bother the swimmers – until they got out of the water at which time they realized that it was indeed more of a cool breeze…

I have been spending a lot of time down at the waterfront and have not had as much time to spend stalking the scouts but I have seen many of them down at the waterfront. I was a “victim” for a number of them in lifesaving and am happy to report that all of them were able to rescue me without becoming a victim themselves – at least on the 2nd or 3rd try (Instructor yelling out: “Lifesaving class – who is the most important person in any rescue?” class screams out “Yourself!” – only thing worse than a drowning victim is two drowning victims). They also successfully surface dived and retrieved a 15 lb weight and carried it to the dock – again at least on the 2nd or 3rd try.

Dinner is supposed to given to the scouts to haul to camp each day around 5:30. They have had a difficult time getting it all out this week due at least in part to the large number of scouts and asked from some of the leaders to come down and help at 4:45. Out intrepid leader Bro. Haseldon was a willing helper and wandered down. The food arrived in camp at 7:00pm. Now, they claim that the truck was that late, but some of us have other suspicions. In all honesty, I think the only folks more frustrated than the scouts were the leaders who were ready to help and ended up doing nothing but waiting. I did receive reports from sources which are fairly reliable that the scouts who were stuck down their waiting for their troop food behaved in an exemplary manner. It should be heartnen for some mothers to know that they can wait and not act like the might on occasion act on Fast Sunday while waiting for dinner. Not sure what the issues with the food are, but thus far no one is starving.

Due to the late dinner the evening program was thrown off but we think we got everyone where they needed to and do. At this point in the week, there are a number of folks who are completing merit badges. Our scoutmaster attended a meeting last night and most of our scouts are on course and pacing to have a successful merit badge camp. I apologize for not having more specific reports for some of the parents wanting to know about each child, but with 20 kids and very limited time in which to file my reports that is difficult to do. As a general overview of the details – we have had one finger sliced open with a knife, hundreds of whittled down sharp sticks (and about as many blood circle violations – but those are decreasing), many scouts enjoying the rifle range, not as much food as the boys would like to eat (and due to that and going for seconds or 1sts above allotment meaning that late comers and/or adults going without some parts of meals), great devotionals, continued emphasis by the boys on fire building skills – or at least large quantities of smoke inhalation as they attempt to start the fires), tears and occasional calls home from 3 or 4 of the scouts (but they are all still here in camp), a priesthood blessing, and did I mention the large number of knives? I’m pretty sure that we better keep control because there are enough of them armed that it would be difficult for us to stop any attempted large scale mutiny.

Overheard in camp:
camper one:” Some of the boys were teasing me and asking if I was related to Harry Potter or dating Hermine.”
Camper two: “What did you do?”
Camper one: “I made this sharp stick and I intend to poke them with it the next time they do it.”
Camper two: “You do know that that sort of looks like a wand don’t you.”