oh give me a home where the buffalo roam....

on my way to avalon a week or so ago, brooke and i (yes, there is another staff member named brooke!) came across a herd of lovely bison. what awesome beasts they are! actually, during camp this past week, we were camping out with the high schoolers at a place called little harbor, which is a few miles away from two harbors...and i woke up in the middle of the night to sharayah telling me that a buffalo just wondered through our camp site!

so...we just finished our first week of summer camp. i can't say that it was my best week ever, but there definitely were some high points. throwing up off the side of the boat wasn't among that list of highs. i was out with a group of kids on a shark search. we were chumming for mako sharks...which basically means that we cut up a bunch of fish, putting them in plastic bags, and trying to entice the sharks to the surface. well, it turns out that we didn't see any sharks...but as we were sitting in the boat, there was a bit too much rock and roll action for me...and i lost my breakfast into the pacific. i thought i was over that sea sickness business, but i'm afraid not. one awesome thing though was that we saw a huge amount of dolphins swimming along our boat. the coolest thing ever was the baby dolphin that was among them. no joke, it was no bigger than two feet long. oh my goodness, it was so very precious!

we stayed the week at a camp ground in two harbors. i was an instructor this week, which meant that i didn't have to sleep with the girls in a cabin. i've included a photo of my view from the cabin i was in. simply amazing. can't believe i got to wake up to that each day.

the week went pretty quickly. lots of snorkeling and kayaking. good stuff.

i'm on the mainland now for the next two weeks. my team is here to do camps in newport beach. MSA has rented an apartment for us, which is kind of nice. it's going to be nice to have a place to go to at the end of the day. a place with a light switch, a normal toilet, a refrigerator, and good drinking water. :)

alright....have a great day!

b.

God's amazing creation...

alright....so we were out on a snorkel adventure yesterday morning. it was a beautiful day, by the way. california has this awful thing called "june gloom" where it's terribly cloudy until late morning or early afternoon...but yesterday morning, the sun woke me up. hardly a cloud in the sky. it was beautiful! so anyway, we had to test out a couple different snorkel locations that we are going to be taking kids to this summer...places i've never been to yet. as we were cruising along in the boat, i saw something that just amazed me. i had heard about them before, but quite honestly thought it was kinda silly. so have ya'll ever heard of a flying fish?! yeah, they're awesome! all of the sudden, someone pointed one out to me....it looked like a bird, but then at a closer look i could definitely see that it was a fish...but it had wings!! and it was flying. not just a big long jump....but actually flying and then diving back into the water. it fascinated me!! really....it was awesome!


and the snorkels were awesome too. one of the places we went was called ship rock. i jumped out of the boat, and was immediately amazed. the water was so deep...i've never been in such endless water. fran told me that it was at least 300 feet deep at places, if not more. it was kind of surreal...i was starring into this deep blue nothingness....and would suddenly see huge schools of fish, or gigantic kelp that i couldn't see the end of. it was so fun! as we jumped out of the boat and started swimming around the gigantic rock, we noticed that there were a couple sea lions sprawled out in the sun. they started barking at us. and it's possible that we got a little too close..maybe. pretty soon, they were jumping in the water and swimming towards us. now...i didn't know much about sea lions before moving to cali. i just thought they were some cute ocean mammals. well, they don't have the word "lion" in their name for no reason. so....we started swimming as fast as we could, but there was really no where to go because we were out in the middle of the ocean. it's funny now, looking back on it...but i'm not gonna lie, my heart was beating pretty quick! after a bit, we thought we lost them. so we started just enjoying the amazing stuff underneath the surface of the water. a few moments later, we saw the sea lions in in the water, swimming down below us. it was really neat at first to see them swimming...but then i remembered that they can be dangerous. so once again, we just started swimming really fast. they ended up swimming right under us and all was well.

our other snorkeling location was through a small cave. it was so great....it got to the point where the water seemed pitch black and i couldn't see a thing. kind of a strange feeling, but fun. as we slowly made our way around, things started came back into light again, and it was so sweet. it's unbelievable just how much goes on under the surface. it is truly amazing!

we're heading back to the mainland this afternoon. we'll be back on sunday with a group of kids for our first week of summer camp. it'll be interesting to see how it all goes. i have a feeling it might be a little choatic, just because it's a lot different than the program we ran at emerald bay and most of us have never done a summer camp. but...we'll get through it :)

much love to you all...

brooke.

highlights

this past week has been filled with some semi-unorganized training for the summer season. i'm still not quite sure what to expect, but i do know that summer camps will be a lot different. we moved from emerald bay (which is where we've been running camps) to two harbors. i've never lived in a place quite like two harbors. it's a town of about one hundred people...where there is one restaurant, one store, and that's about it. we will be living in a public camp ground that has an absolutely amazing view of the ocean! not kidding...it's stunning. we have to pay for our showers...a quarter for 90 seconds. my goal is to become a pro at a two quarter shower.

as far as the summer program goes, it'll be a little less education-oriented and a little more adventuresome. i'll still be doing a good amount of snorkeling. which, by the way, i went yesterday for the first time at the two harbors location, and it was amazing! i saw a crab, some huge sea hares, a brilliant kelp fish, a sea star, and a tiny garibaldi...along with a heap of other fish. we'll also be doing a lot of sailing. it'll be interesting teaching that, seeing as i've only done it twice now!

i was at the bolsa chica beach earlier this week and saw a dead whale. the thing was huge...although, it was actually pretty small as far as whales are concerned. it was a young one...and probably 20 feet or so. even though i felt bad for the whale, it was quite fascinating to see. it was being swarmed by gulls and was getting tossed around by the waves coming into shore. and oh man, the stench was like none other.

i've been kinda frustrated lately because i feel like my life needs to be simplified a bit. by that i mean that i've got too much stuff...too many possessions. maybe it's just because i'm living the life of a vagabond and my car is packed full of all my things, aside from the one backpack i take to the island. i just realize how many things i really don't need. i'm thankful for it...and i'm glad to simplify...because it almost feels like it drains me...like it drags me down having to cart around all this stuff that doesn't matter all that much anyways. for some reason, it seems to be heavy on my heart.

i've been back on the mainland this weekend...hanging out in laguna beach at sharayah's friend's place. i'm heading back to the island tomorrow for one more week of getting ready for summer camp.

hope ya'll have a great week!

well hello there...

thanks for being faithful readers of my "little adventures" despite the fact that it has been several weeks since i posted anything. we finished up the spring season at emerald bay with two of the busiest weeks we've had yet. many kids, crazy schedules, and good times. this past week i actually had off...so ian, sharayah, and i flew home to rockford to surprise my family! and what a surprise it was! man, i love that kind of stuff. they had absolutely no idea...and it was so fun and good to see them! it was a pretty packed week trying to hang out with people and relax at the same time. it was good for my heart though to be able to be home. but it was also fun to come back to california because i knew i was coming back to a job that i really enjoy.

i went to an amazing church this morning, which filled me with a desire once again to go overseas and love people and tell them about Jesus. that has been a reoccuring theme over the years....hmmm.

this afternoon we decided to take a trip down to mexico. which is so foreign to me to think that i could just spend the afternoon in mexico. stange...but i love it. it was a first time for sharayah and ian...so it was a fun experience. we strolled through the market area and stuck out like a couple of tourists. oh how i love being in different places! i know it was just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the united states border, but it's quite a difference. there was this one woman selling stuff at her booth...and i could hardly communicate with her...but she just brought a smile to my face. she wanted me to buy a hat so bad, and maybe i would've if i'd had the money just because i liked her. she had a sparkle in her eye. then there were these little girls trying to sell us gum. oh, they were so precious.!

it was a quick little trip...and now i find myself at a ridiculously huge house in laguna beach. sharayah has a friend that nannies and lives with a family here. and quite honestly, as nice as this place is...i just don't fit here. sometimes it almost upsets me when people have so many "things". the houses in this neighborhood are straight from the movies. but i must say, i'm just excited to have a bed to sleep on for the night. the alternative was a tiny sail boat shared with five other people. so i guess i got the better end of the deal.

alright. i'm off to get some sleep. tomorrow we start a week of training for summer camp...and wednesday we head back to the island.

for those of you that i saw this past week at home...it was great to be there!! thanks for being a part of my life!

much love,

brooke.