While I write this I am listening to campers playing down the hall. It is getting near bedtime and they are trying to savor every last bit of freedom before they are sent to bed and sleep claims them for the evening. This is the only English floor so with a little bit of pretending I could be almost anywhere in the world.
Not for the first time I am reflecting on the staff of this camp. While I do enjoy teaching and working with kids, the staff are certainly a large part of why I keep coming back to these camps, even if the roster keeps changing. This might be the most international group I have worked with so far. Working directly with me are six people. All of us are from different countries. If we include the entire camp staff, countries start to overlap but there is still a great variety.
It is such a little thing that feels like it should be obvious but those differences in countries and in upbringings and backgrounds add so much. Any difficulty that the differences might bring are overwhelmed by the positives. I’ll never understand those who praise countries for being homogenous or who want to limit the ethnicities/nationalities/religions/sexualities of those they associate with. It just seems a sad, petty little way to think.
Deadly Troubadour 