First of all, I'd like to truly apologize for the length of this post. Please read it in sections if you are intimidated by the number of words clustered on this page - as I re-read it now I am indeed going a bit cross-eyed - do don't feel guilty if you need to go away, watch some Youtube.com (suggested viewing: some MOVITS! music videos or Kat Flint's "Go Faster Stripes" music video) or go visit Aurgasm.com (amazing music - you'll find a link on the side) for a little break! But please, do come back - and leave comments if you like! I'd love to hear from y'all!
Alright - here goes ...
Big News! I'm off to Minnesota this Saturday (June 13th)! I'm going to be working as a camp counselor up there! As far as I am aware at the moment, I'll be assigned to Camp Friendship (one of three camps under Friendship Ventures) which is only about an hour and a half north west of St. Paul (up near St. Cloud). Now to be perfectly honest, unless I have a map, the names of those cities mean absolutely nothing to me, but that's okay because I'm sure you all know exactly where I'm talking about. Right? That's what I thought.
Friendship Ventures and all its organizations, etc. are for people with physical, developmental, and a combination of both disabilities. It's absolutely incredible because there are different sessions each week that are exactly like what you would find at camps that are not geared specifically towards those with disabilities. I love how the programming emphasizes their abilities and strengths, not their limitations. The camps and most of the programming is for all ages (5+ years - they even get several seniors!), and there are also several sessions that involve the family or close friends of the camper to come up and participate! Though there is a pretty steep participation fee, they offer scholarships - which I think is fantastic. Also, they encourage those in foster and group homes to come out to the various camps! Here's the website for everything: http://www.friendshipventures.org It's an incredible website - please look around! If you find that you are intrigued, please please please apply to volunteer or come up and work as program staff, a counselor, or in some other professional capacity!
Many people have asked, "Why disabilities?" It's a pretty simple, if old, reason. My family as well as several professors have greatly influenced my interest in disability studies (the area in which I will hopefully be specializing when I scramble into grad school and hopefully a career).
Bill (stepdad) and Nala (aunt) both have worked extensively throughout their careers and lives with those with disabilities: Bill as a special education advocate and Nala as a tutor as well as a teacher. They both had some important advice: "You will either love it or hate it; there's very little grey area, if any." I fully admit that I will be seriously tested and tasked, but I know that I am up to the challenge. I have so much to learn from them (campers, other program staff, etc.), and I just hope that I'll be able to internalize and appropriately apply everything!
Dr. Scott Lacy, formerly of Emory University but now moving to an incredibly fabulous intellectual and professorial/career opportunity in CT, was also and still is extremely influential. In his "Cultures of Africa" course in the fall of 2008 (wow - last year - it truly does not seem that long ago!), I worked with a great group of individuals within a session on different perspectives on disability in Africa for a student conference that we held at the end of the term. It was an amazing experience, and I got to work with, as I mentioned above, a great group of people! My particular paper was on disabled artists and their portrayals of disability (as a broad subject, their personal experiences, etc.) - I was intrigued by how and why they expressed themselves, and also by the increasingly-visible area of disability studies. Thank you, Dr. Lacy! There are probably hundreds, if not thousands of individuals who think extremely highly of Dr. Lacy (I do not feel the least bit guilty for exaggerating if you feel that is what I am doing, an opinion with which I respectfully disagree). But I digress ...
At Camp Friendship (where I will presumably be stationed for the majority of my stay in Minnesota), I will be staying in a cabin with fellow camp counselors as well as campers. Though the cabins are not air conditioned, I am told we get the luxury of mosquito nets - which will be certainly welcome if the stories of the size of the mosquitoes are true ("They're like birds! They'll suck all the blood out of you and leave you as simply a giant, inflamed, red, itching blob."). Yay. I just raided the outdoors section of a store for these fabulous new inventions called "OFF! Insect Repellant Wipes." I hope they work - they certainly cost enough. Grrr. If they don't work I'll simply have to resort to regularly dunking myself into a large vat of insect repellant with large percentages of DEET. Sure, it's lethal, but there are always tradeoffs, right?! There is no cell phone usage during camp daytime hours (7am - 9:30pm), so I'll be communicating mostly through email, which I will only be able to access after around 10pm. Please don't be offended if it takes me a while to get back to you - I still love you! Haha.
Once again, apologies for the extremely long entry!
Love!
~ Mei
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