The Yellow Ninjas STRIKE AGAIN!!

Mindy here....day two of the work of the yellow ninjas down in Buras, LA. :)

As time goes on..getting used to camp just gets easier. It's been awhile since I've been camping, but staying in the remains of a gutted out YMCA is definitely a lot different than what I was expecting. But, like I said...it just gets easier.

Today was awesome! At first, I started out the day cleaning up the children's area, which wasn't bad at all. Later, it progressed to sweeping the majority of the main camp area with some really good, and diligent friends...or may I call them....ninjas! (you know who you are ;) ) That felt like such an accomplishment because the area definitely needed to be swept!

After sweeping, I joined more 'ninjas' in organizing another tent that was full of supplies. There were tons of boxes full of serving trays, utensils, and other things to be used around camp. There was also inventory that had to be taken of everything in the tent, which was also very interesting trying to organize and figure out what was what. Everyone did a great job getting that done. :)

After that, it was washing the lunch dishes in the very hot kitchen, then off to Boothville Elementary to play with the kids in after school care. As soon as we got there, the kids were so responsive and coming over to have us read them books and play games with them. It wasn't long after we got there when we went outside to the courtyard (their playground) to play games. We had snack, then I went to play soccer with some of the boys from the class. I was very surprised that they wanted me to play with them, but I got right in there and played soccer! Soccer turned into red rover, which then turned into a game of tag (which I haven't played since I was probably their age!) But that was very fun until I was running backwards from this first grader, Daniel*, when he stepped on my foot and bent my nail back, which hurt reeeallly bad. I teased him about not beating me up anymore which made him laugh.

After getting first aid from my wonderful advisors :) I went back to enjoy more fun and games with the kids. The school had a map of the country painted on the walkway in front to the courtyard and I was quizzing some of the kids on the states. It was so fun watching the kids work together to figure out which state I was wanting them to find! Some of the other kids went to play other games after a little while of "state finding" and I joined Daniel again to play basketball. He was really good about keeping me from getting the ball and he made several "scores" before I actually stole the ball from him. When I finally did get the ball, I was running from him when he tried getting the ball from me, causing both me and him to trip and fall. Again, I teased him about not beating me up anymore which, again, made him laugh. He's a good kid...or so I thought....

After all the kids left, I went to get my cup of water (which was sealed with a lid, I might add!) and opened the lid to get a drink. I noticed a little green eraser, drifting in the bottom of my cup. Now, I don't know who did it, but I have a sneaky suspicion that it was Daniel....the kid had it in for me all along....

Of course, I'm only kidding! Daniel was awesome and I had sooo much fun playing with all the kids today! It really made me want to work with kids...although, I already have two years of pre-nursing under my belt, and I don't really think I can handle being a teacher :) But I do have so much respect teachers!

Day two was definitely awesome. I'm having a blast working with everyone down here! Even though the camp living area (and just the camp itself) wasn't what I was expecting at first, I definitely wasn't expecting to be having as much fun as I am cleaning and helping out around the community in Buras. With so much of the area devastated from the hurricane, it is really encouraging to see things getting done to improve things. The yellow ninjas are the best! GO YELLOW NINJAS!! :) hehe i love you guys!

*Names have been changed to protect the young and innocent...well...maybe not innocent, but young anyways! :)