CAMPING!

The first thing I did in my return to life in Boston last week was to go camping with twenty-something sixth, seventh, and eight graders from JQUS. Along with Mr. Chang and his wife, Mrs. Chang, we stayed for a week at T.L. Storer, a boyscout camp. Imagine all those kids from Chinatown, Roxbury, Dorchester, and other inner-city neighborhoods living a week in the woods alongside with disciplined suburbanite boyscouts, having to salute the flag, live in tents, and endure coyotes at night!


What was it like?Bugs in tents... hiking 5 miles... strange food... homesickness... The days were a lot of fun, filled with waterfront activities, climbing walls, rifling, archery, and getting to know each other better. But the nights were a little scary for most of our kids... I spent every night going tent to tent, picking out the spiders and checking for slugs, assuring students that there was no bear, etc. Yes, there were coyotes howling every night, too. We had a few sicknesses-- mostly from not going to the bathroom or not eating correctly. In the end, however, I think everyone will look back at this trip fondly.

Highlights for me: counting to 500 on the even numbers with a kid at 11PM to put him to sleep, jumping off a bridge into a river with one of my incoming 7th graders, flipping over in a canoe (yet again), having great conversations with former students, beating Jovanna and Demetris in basketball, and watching our group come in 3rd place in the Magee Cup Relay