Camp Namanu

While partaking my first snack on the first afternoon of chaperone duty on my three-day, two-night stay at Camp Namanu--home of Llewellyn's fifth-grave outdoor school--I felt my excitement rise when learning of the complex food and waste disposal processes we were to follow. The rules are pretty simple, I think, but to outsiders it probably feels frustrating. With all the thought they put in to how to remove waste from the camp, surely an equal or greater thought went into the rest of the camp processes. But I think both Aaron and I left a little disappointed.

Camp Namanu lies about 30 miles east of the central city. The forecast for was the 90's in the valley, but fortunately our location was about 10 degrees cooler, plus we were adventuring under cover of the forest most of the time.The science aspect of the camp was pretty light: they talked about stuff, stopped and analyzed things they came upon, but there wasn't any experimenting and not much hands-on. Considering the age and number of kids in each group, this was probably for the best. I think the kids enjoyed playing the short games that tried to demonstrate a principle they were learning in the field.

The reason I think Aaron left without a tinge of disappointment was the food. He called it "too complicated." He loves his food plain and simple--like cooking his own hamburger over a hobo stove--and the menu rarely matched his interests (his food allergies make him more apprehensive than need be). One fun aspect of the dining experience was the collection and tabulation of ORT, which I thought was a made-up word. Anyhoo, the camp staff in charge of the meal would collect all of the ORT (waste food), weigh it, then compare it to all the other meals for the trip. The kids really got into it and made a conscious effort not to take more food then they intended to eat.

Despite my perceived negativeness--part of it is that the 4th grade outdoor experience just feels super-exceptional in quality--I support the kids going and didn't regret taking time off to attend as a chaperone. There is talk of within the walls of the school that they don't want to continue this program in the future; I sure hope not, as the kids need a right-of-passage to help them transition to the middle school environment.

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