1st week at the Camp. Lesson #1: Learn the Beauty of Simple Life.

I feel quite exhausted after this first week at the camp, because it was so packed with events and I met so many new people, and moreover, had to even memorize a lot of their names, at least, all the names of my kids, which is, to be exact, 28 names:)
My first impression of the camp when we arrived and settled on Sunday was that I was put in the conditions that didn't feel comfortable to me at all. I am a person who cares about comfort around a lot, and if I see that it is not looking the way I wish it looked, I might get stressed.
To be particular, I as a counselor, lived in a barrack with 30 kids and 2 other counselors, and we were sharing a weird-looking bathroom with another floor of the barrack, so it was like 3 showers for 60 guys. Plus those showers didn't look good at all. The first night we didn't have the hot water, no lights in there, and only 2 out of 3 showers were working. I wasn't feeling like a happy camper...

Here is a picture of the showers that we have in the camp

The barracks we live in are quite old as well, and I think they were not re-furnished since 1989. At least, I found a sign on one of the dressers in my barrack saying smth like: "We were here. J, E, and K. July 7th, 1989". Just think of it, it is the year when I was born, so it is like 19 years ago!

My barrack on this picture is the middle one with the letter E on it.

So overall, I was a little disappointed at first, because I thought it would be really hard for me to feel good in these conditions.
Also I don't have much in common with sports so I was also a little uncomfortable about working in the SOCCER camp, and that was only adding to my little nervousness (however, later it turned out, that I am just a perfect counselor for the soccer camp!).
Then in the afternoon I met my kids for the first time, all of them guys age 11-17, and they seemed quite fun, and I knew I felt quite confident about being their counselor, because I already have a lot of experience working in the camps. It definitely made me feel better.
And then in the evening I went for a walk around the island, and it was so beautiful to watch the sunset, the island fort and the wild nature around me, that I actually realized that even simple life with bad showers, not the tastiest food, and weird beds might still be so beautiful and it is so easy to enjoy it. Realizing it totally helped me to go through the rest of the week and absolutely enjoy most of it and have great times with my teenagers and make them enjoy this time too.
I think it is one of the most important things I learnt during this past week, even though it's not the only lesson. More thoughts and reflections on past 6 days in the following posts.