OK, I just posted a long rant about camp and it got eaten. Brilliant. As if last week couldn't get worse.
Anyway, camp horrible. Just absolutely horrible. They are understaffed and everyone is doing stuff way outside their job description.
I am light years away from mine. I'm still in the kitchen, only now I am doing the work of two people instead of one. The other person, who thought she was making $9 an hour but tried to make a go at $30 a day, walked out Monday.
And the maintenance guy also quit Sunday, too. I've plunged toilets, dumped trash and everything else. I've gotten one hour-long break in the week, which came on Monday. On my way to my cabin to brush my teeth, I got intercepted to do my real job and spent 40 minutes trying to deal with a homesick kid.
Kicker on that was he is a day camp kid, not an overnight. And this was an hour and a half short of pickup time. I couldn't believe it. He was whining, pretending he had a stomache (he'd been to the infirmary earlier with the same phamton complaint) and sobbing to the point of snot dripping out of his nose and hanging in mid-air until he sniffed it back in.
So, since then, I do not wander far from the kitchen. I make a quick run to the break room, dodging spiders and cockroaches to check my Internet, and then run back to the kitchen.
No job offers yet. I am getting antsy on Amarillo. I know the federal government takes awhile, but I've no idea what to expect next, or when to expect it.
The past week started brutally at 1 p.m. Sunday, when the first thing out of the director's mouth was "So, let's debrief on last week. What were the bad things that happened?"
This should be done BEFORE you leave for the weekend so you don't have to relive the nasty memories you just spent a day and a half trying to forget! (To her credit, she learned this and yesterday we debriefed in more positive (meaning anonymous) fashion.
Tomorrow (my work week is from 11 a.m. Sunday until 6 p.m. Friday) the four members of the supervisory staff -- and I hope everyone returns -- meet an hour before everyone else. I am relieved. I spent three hours Thursday talking to my staff's concerns and want to pass them on. They're disturbing.
One girl, honestly, I will be surprised if she comes back. I talked to her Thursday and she was so tense I could have snapped her in two. Poor thing. She's only 19 -- not ready to be working so much, with so much mental and emotional output.
Another, who is about 20, came back in the kitchen at one point sobbing. She'd made an innocent mistake -- which was all right in the end -- and it just pushed her over an emotional wall. She said it was the second time she'd cried that day.
Another, on the supervisory staff, did the same thing Friday. These people are just too young to have to deal with this emotion-wracking crap.
Next week, we have been warned, will be the most intense week. First, we're at capacity, plus it is deaf week. In addition to a full round of campers, we will have 25 hearing-impaired kids and interpreters. Busy, it will be.
I am going to be in the kitchen at least this week, too, I think. They keep hiring (or pretending to hire) people who don't show up. Even when one gets there, they need two, and they need to make sure they stay, so I will have to stay in there long enough to train them.
It's a quarter of the way done. I am so relieved. I'm just so exhausted it is not funny.
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