No improvement yet

Well, I am 3/8 of the way done with camp and counting every second. Needless to say, it hasn't improved.

Early into last week's camp, I thought we'd hit rock bottom. Then the power went out. As if I could joke about that.

This past week was deaf week, and although the kids (24 of the 188 total people there) were mostly great, not all of the staff was. The ones who were not nice were rude, demanding and basically really bitchy. I'll skip the details, but let's just say I'm glad they're gone.

I did get to work outside the kitchen this week, but because f poor hiring decisions, I also worked inside the kitchen. I counted. I'm working eight hours in there and about 8-10 out. Each and every day.

At our debriefing -- which is more of a joke than anything; at 4 p.m. Friday, just send us home instead of waiting around until 6 to chat -- we went over our "highlights" of the week. I made something up.

I told Baloo my two real highlights were:

1. When, that morning, Pocahontas absolutely lit into the camp adminstrator because the maintenance man isn't taking out the kitchen trash. They'd had a confrontation earlier in the day and he called her a liar, saying he had, indeed dumped the trash out. He had not, and she had enlisted about eight different guys to get rid of it all. She was SO mad.

2. When the toilets stopped up (this was because the deaf girls kept flushing pads and tampons down the toilet, despite repeated requests to leave such disgusting objects in the trash) and Balto had to plunge and mop. Side story to this is basically he, a nice guy all the same, hasn't been doing squat at camp (and even leaving at times on errands the rest of the staff would kill for). It's really making two people in particular angry (not myself, but I am the listening ear) so the fact he had to actually do hard labor for a day was kind of amusing.

Working continues to compare to slavery. Besides the hours and wages, I learned the leaders, when they do get their one free hour a day, are not allowed to leave campus. They have to sit in this rat-infested (but camper-free) cabin in case they are needed.

Indy got sick, too. She has been so overworked it's insane -- staying in the sun all day. She could barely stand up and the administrator had to take her to the walk-in urgent care. The doctor said to go home and rest.

They wouldn't let her. Instead, she had to go to the administrator's house -- across the street -- and recoup there. She could have left Thursday for her parents', which is just over the border in Georgia, on Thursday and really had a long time off, but it's not allowed.

Honestly, I just can't believe this is happening.