Hello all-
I just got done with graduation yesterday, the boys are gone and now we're wrapping up paperwork until Tuesday. Some highlights and lows of the trip:
I had 10 adjudicated youth for 30 days and we paddeled 208 miles down the Suwanne River.
The first week was hard because we were setting the structure for the rest of the trip. Getting to the river, teaching them how to canoe, how to camp, how to build a fire, how to poop in a hole in the woods.
We had 1 student who was bipolar, 1 on physcotropic meds and the rest just thinking they were perfect and had never committed a crime in their life. The laziest students imaginable. We had two takedowns of a student because they were being so physically uncontrollable. We spent 36 hours straight paddling 37 miles, into the night, even cooking dinner on the canoe with a stove. Of course after so many hours into the night the students refused to paddle and the sleep deprivation even led to a fist fight between two students. Imagine two students going at it on canoes, one was 300 lbs and over 6'5" the other 5'3" and 140 lbs. Trying to settle that was a night to remember.
Every week we had 3 of 4 nights where us instructors were to bed after 3:00 a.m. and up by 6:30. As most of you know I dont' do well with sleep deprivation. Both of my co-instructors said this is one of the worst courses they ever had. I also have never been so cussed out in my life, the students would threaten us and then 15 minutes later hug us because we, "showed them so much love they don't know that to do with it." So with all of the struggles came the laughs.
We have this thing called hard core points that students can earn for going the extra mile and those points will add up in the end to a party, we had a meal with lasagna. We had one student who ran 5 miles backward, and another two students who partner pooped. Meaning one student held a plastic bag while the other pooped into it. Not only did they do this, but they did it while on the canoes! 10 hard core points there.
We spent 1 afternoon at Manatee Springs, a beautiful spring with the clearest water you could imagine where in the winter there are manatees swimming everywhere. We passed by a small boat that was gator catching. They caught an 11 foot gator and had it ALIVE and tied up in the boat. Of course the three year old little boy by the gator's head wasn't afraid at all. We got to touch it! We also volunteered at an endangered animal park where we got to pet a baby cheetah. They are the loudest purers ever! I ran 7.6 miles sweep, meaning I could only go as fast as the slowest runners. This means I had to run for 1 hour 30 minutes straight. I couldn't feel my legs anymore. I had to run into target after dropping off the last boys at the greyhound and I have never felt so much culture shock. Hippie girl who hasn't showever in weeks, wearing tie-died pants with dragon flys on them and a brown shirt that was supposed to be earth green. This was possibily the craziest 30 days of my life, but I survived through it and am scheduled to do it again in June. Oh I love my job!
Love and hugs from sunny Florida!
