Ojibwe Camp Part 3 (Later That Evening)

Later that evening, the dinner bell rang, and we all headed up to the main building for some grub. It had been a long day, and it seemed for a minute that the kids were starting to warm up to us. They even asked if we would be participating in the evening game of kickball. We accepted. Up in the main building the cook, Lonnie, had made pork chops, and I became acutely aware that my city boy, Pescatarian lifestyle was not going to fly with the locals. I ended up having a heaping plate of rice and several dinner rolls, and spent the rest of the evening in carb-shock. Also, when I tried to sit at a table with some of the campers, they immediately got up and moved to a different table. I wanted to call my parents in tears and have them come pick me up.

After dinner, the kickball game was on. Brian and I got to be captains, and we each picked our teams. The game started, and everything was great. The kids were having fun. We were having fun. All was good. I even started to believe that we were starting to break through and that things would get better before we had to do another three-hour teaching session tomorrow. The kids were laughing. The counselors were sitting in chairs, entertained. All was right in the world. When darkness fell, the game ended and all of the goodwill that we had seemed to accumulate during the sporting session disappeared with the sunlight. I tried saying “Goodnight” to some of the campers and was met with mad dog stares. Thankfully, we had been given our own cabin, so at least we weren’t tormented by the kids during the night. It’s the little joys that keep you going in summer camp.

During the night, I was awakened by a strange noise that I thought was coming from just outside the cabin. It sounded like someone or something was peeing on or near our bikes which we had left resting outside. The noise would come and go, but it was persistent enough to get my imagination going. Was it a giant bear? Had the campers decided to take turns urinating on our bikes? What was happening? I grabbed my headlamp and woke Brian up. In my mind, it was going to be a battle and I wanted back up. Turns out, it was a very, very large moth that had found her way into our cabin. She was beating her wings against the window and metal siding of the cabin. So, I killed her and went to bed. Nature zero, Sharif one.