Baaaaaaaaack... for a minute.

[Jeimuzu]

I figured I should make an update. I'm nervous about posting here in case my supervisor checks the internet logs or whatever, but oh well. It'd only be a reprimand anyway, I s'pose.

Right, so I'm at camp. I'm in New York State, I won't tell you exactly where. I'm working with homeless kids from the city. It's crazy. I'm the program counselor for computing, meaning I teach around 100 kids every two days, and altogether I've taught around eighty lessons so far. It's pretty scary to think of it that way, really, but that's what the numbers are looking like.

These kids aren't like any other kids I've met. These are streetwise, burly, angry kids who from the age of seven yell "N****r!" and "Go f*ck yourself!" at each other on a regular basis. The older kids have a little more respect, and some of them are really funny, but it's still the hardest job I've ever done in my life.

The younger kids have tons of fights, when I was assigned to the younger kids I'd break up a fight at least once a day, usually more. And this is just working around my class, because outside of my classes I'm just like a normal counselor.

We get either two or three hours off a day, working from around 7am till midnight. It's a lot of work, and the food's horrible, the pay's not good, around 50% of the kids are diagnosed with ADHD and quite a few are missing their medicine, and the living conditions are truly atrocious.

Now, onto the good side. And trust me, it really is one hell of a good side, to me at least.

I've changed.

I've finally developed some confidence in myself.

I CAN do this.

Also, some of the kids are sweet as anything. A couple of the lower girls are totally adorable, and when the boys aren't fighting, they're quite good fun. I can pick out a few kids I'll miss. There's one 11 year old who played guitar at yesterday's talent show (and shares his name with a famous musician, actually) who's really mature and cool for his age. There's one guy from Trinidad who's quite good fun, always funny when we're swimming because he keeps trying to dunk me. The kids on the upper boys hill are pretty cool too, since a few of them are older than some of the members here even, so there are some pretty adult conversations. I'll miss some of them dudes.

I'm gonna appreciate all my home comforts, though. Like a good curry. And a nice bed. And a bathtub. And my family, most of all.

Camp goes on till the 21st of August, after that I'm travelling for a little while. I was going to go to Toronto to see Beebo, but that's clearly not happening anymore for various reasons. I'd go to Toronto anyways, but now it's not worth the paperwork (it's shockingly hard to come back to the US for my flight home due to some grey areas in the paperwork. It's quite odd...).

So, looks like I'm gonna stay in a hostel in NYC for a week, try and catch the WWE at MSG just for kicks, get a flight to San Fran for another week, spend my birthday there, and maybe go to Miami or Seattle for the next week, before flying back to JFK and then on to Heathrow.

Anyways, I'll finish up this little missive here, I think. It's pretty long as it is.

[panda]

What a fantastic adventure. Some kids can be great.!!

[biisme]

Wow. It certainly sounds like you're busy!!! And, yay for confidence in yourself!

[GMSuerte]

Kids.

Nerknerknerk.

[TriBi]

Good one!

Glad you've really gotten something positive out of it. Travelling (and getting out of your comfort zone) does have a tendency to do that for you.

Thats awesome Im glad its gone so well for you !

[heatqueen]

W00t, sounds awesome!!