Wednesday, July 16, 2008

camp quality drop-off

i suppose i should tell you about dropping pooka off at camp before i tell you about picking her up. that would be reasonable.

i was a little nervous about how she would handle it, because she maintained for so long that she wasn't going to go. 3 weeks ago when jane (her companion) sent her an email, she started to get excited, although she didn't really want to admit that to us.

the night before, she did NOT sleep well. she tossed and turned, kicked, cried out, "No, " and in general expressed a lot of anxiety in her sleep. this is according to my niece who had the distinct misfortune of trying to sleep next to her. being two floors above, we heard none of this and slumbered blissfully tossed and turned anyway since we were in someone else's bed (which used to be our bed, but that's beside the point).

i didn't realize quite how nervous kisu was to be dropping off his first-born child into the arms of strangers in the wilderness where they had no access to communication devices. well, the kids didn't anyway. (boy are we spoiled by cell phones, or what?) i was mainly worried about how she would adjust; i knew she would be taken care of.

when we arrived at the campgrounds, jane was thrilled to meet us and started to jump right into getting to know pooka. pooka, typically, was a bit more reserved and that demeanor was augmented by the fact that she had just woken up from her 'on-the-road' nap.

she quickly warmed up, however, and we stayed awhile to watch her get acclimated to the surroundings and to cement her transition to the substitute parent. they tackled a few crafts and then we all went to get lunch. during lunch we relayed some insights to pooka and jane shared some of her background. once that was done, jane said that they were going to attempt the scavenger hunt and we took that as our exit cue. pooka cheerfully said, "ok. bye," and gave us hugs and kisses before scampering off after her new friends.

wow, that was easy.