Fun activities

Michelle, Lobo and Alex are in the canteen. The first week of camp is over, and they are comparing activities before they go to bed.

Michelle: Hey, so, what did you guys do today?

Lobo: Well, the worst thing was the morning chores! Cleaning the showers was gross! I don’t want to do that again.

Alex: So what about the chores, I don’t really mind. I have to do chores back at home, too, so I’m used to it. I mean, I got to be in a paintball war! It was really crazy because you had to be so quick. We were in an open field with nowhere to hide, exceptdown in the tall grass. The other team was the Cherokee tribe. They were pretty fast. I had this gear on to protect myself, but it still hurt if you got hit somewhere. I was hit in my left shoulder. We had so much paint all over ourselves, we couldn’t tell who was who! It was really fun!

Michelle: Who won?

Alex: We did, of course! So watch out, we’re the champions!

Lobo: Well I got to try SUP. It means Stand Up Paddle boarding. It was very windy out by the lake, so I tipped over a few times. It was so warm, I actually enjoyed falling into the water. We wanted to see how deep it was, so a few of us dived down to try to get to the bottom, but it was too deep. Our coach said if we wanted to dive to the bottom, we should take the SCUBA course and learn how to use diving tanks and suits because it is so deep.

Michelle: Wow, did you know there’s a car at the bottom of the lake? If you take an underwater camera with you, you could take a selfie in the car at the bottom!

Alex: Yeah, you would look pretty funny driving a car at the bottom of the lake, Lobo!

Lobo: What about you, Michelle, what did you do?

Michelle: Well, my favorite thing was definitely the night hike. We put some glow-in-the-dark paint on our faces. We took our flashlights and followed the leader in a line because the path was so narrow. There were so many stars, it was so bright! We even heard a coyote howl. Finally, we got to an old Indian cave with old paintings on the walls. We built a fire, and my friend Patrick found an arrowhead! Our guide taught us some Indian words so that we can have our own little secret language, along with the camp code words.

Lobo: What camp code words are you talking about, Michelle?

Michelle: You know, like when your guide tells you that your chore for the day is to clean out the ‘Bobs’!

Alex: What does that mean?

Michelle: Hasn’t your guide asked you if you need to ‘growl’? That means do you need to go to the ‘Bob’. Bob means the outhouse, or the toilet, here at camp.

Lobo: NASTY!

Michelle Well, you have to admit that it’s kind of cool to have these words to use. Imagine if our parents and other people have no idea what we’re talking about, right?

Alex: But why do they call it that, the ‘Bob’?

Lobo: What, do you want them to call it the ‘Alex’?

Alex: No! I really want to know! Shut up, Lobo!

Michelle: This camp began 100 years ago. Think about all the names and graffiti carved into our bunk frames. I’m sure there are lots of stories and adventures that have happened for there to be all these camp codes and Indian words that people use. We just have to find out what they all are!

Cabin guide: You’ll have time to do that. It’s only your very first summer at camp. Lights out, guys, and back to your cabins