the end.

Camp is officially over.

I said goodbye to all my kids yesterday and today, and Lord knows I'm really gonna miss em.

Here are a few more pictures for you to love on.

Here you have brothers Keshaun (age 7) and Aair (age 5). For the most part Keshaun is a great kid. Helpful, good to his lil bro, and full of energy. But when he throws a tantraum, he trumps the rest. For a solid 30 minutes he will refuse to cooperate with me or any other leader until he gets his way. Of course, I'm not having any of that, and his little behind winds up in a lot of trouble. But such is life eh? I love him through our highs and lows. He's got a good heart, and if anything, he's got a lot of determination. His little bro Aair has a very cute lazy eye that gives him an air of mystified innocence (no joke). His voice is soft, he never gets upset, and loves to show off how well he can crash his little scooter (and himself ) into trees. Its pretty damn adorable.

Here you see sisters Junay and Destiny. These young women are full strength and dignity. Junay is in the 4th grade, is a rough talker, and is sweet as hell. She loves roughin' it with the boys in 4 square and competing unrelentingly with her classmate William Wiles. Destiny is in 2nd grade and is absolutely beautiful. She loves taking me by the hand down to the playground where she consistently beats my butt at any type of tag we play. She's feisty and incredibly intelligent. These sisters take the cake.

This is a beautiful picture. On the left you see Nedeshka. She's in 2nd grade and has beautiful, ultra-curly golden hair. She's a mixed baby and is stunning. I love her a lot, and I gladly soak up any moment I get with her. On the right (with the eye patch) is Itzaida. She's in the 1st grade and is the cutest little girl this side of the Atlantic. She has the bad habit of thinking that the rules we give the kids don't apply to her. When we tell the kids to be quiet, she always misses the memo and can be heard gaily chatting to whomever will listen. She's super spunky, is always well dressed (hence her fake pearl necklace), and wows all the leaders with her green/yellow/purple eyes. She's a keeper.

This is Rene. He kind of looks like Spock. Not in this picture, but in real life. He's so good. so so good. If I could take a kid home I'd take Rene. thats all I've got to say.

This is Sean. He's in 2nd grade and he's never caused me any trouble. He's a bit stubborn sometimes, but then again, aren't we all? He's often very serious. Though he smiles a lot he's not a huge jokster, and doesn't cause many issues... he just kinda goes with the flow. And when you have dozens of kids who are constantly pushing against the flow, ones like Sean are a breath of fresh air.

Here you see (from left to right starting in the back row) Mira, Shira, Dajah, Shayla, Brianna, Tunisha and Brittany. I hung out with these 7 girls for the last day together. It was just me and all of them, and you can bet that things didn't exactly go smoothly. All of them (expect for Shira) are in the 1st and 2nd grade and definitely always have something to say and always want to be the first one to say it. They are all so beautiful (don't you agree), and though they sometimes gave me a lot of grief, they also brought me a lot more joy. These young women live tough lives but still fight hard to play hard. I love 'em. love 'em love 'em love 'em.

thats all for today. I'm not sure if I'll keep updatin' this thing. I leave Camden on Friday (August 13) and will be back home on the 22nd. If you're interested in the rest of my life... well, just talk to me in person ;)

thanks for comin' along with me on this journey, esp. to those of you who kept up with this little page of mine.

peace & love

little women

me and some of my girls.

Tonight was Girls Night, and c'etait incroyable! I had a blast hanging out with the young ladies of camp Faith this evening. After a yummy (but ridiculously greasy) dinner of pizza, chips, cookies and punch, me and the other staff members collected the makeup and nail polish we scrounged from a near by dollar store and dolled our little ladies up. Needless to say, the girls loved this. Now I don't wear make up or nail polish, but luckily my girls were young enough to not care that my work was far below high quality. I absolutely LOVED doing this. Even though most of them were in their fancy dresses and cute heals, they went wild with excitement. They hooped, hollered, ran around in circles, and danced without music.... it was beautiful-I loved every noisey minute of it. At one point in the evening a few boys tried to sneak in to disrupt our fun. Well boss lady Jenn gave the girls the go ahead to attack, and all 25 little misses mobbed the sorry young men till they were begging for mercy. I sat quietly in the background and watched the scene. it was something pay-per-view woulda paid good money to air... ;). Little inner city women are a wonder to behold. I'm in love.

this was a good night.
thanks Lord.