City Girl Meets Country

Coming to Missouri I was not too sure what to expect. And I was in for a surprise. Coming from the Springfield airport to camp there was a lot of hay bails, and a lot of farm life. I arrived at Camp Barnabas on May 21st. We had about 10 days of staff training before any campers came. I had been thinking I was working with horses all summer, but I was confused. I am working with horses the second half of the summer. The first half, I am in charge of a PETTING ZOO! No joke! Twice a day I feed, 2 goats; Marley (he has dreads), and Jenny, a sheep-Forest, a llama-Kallie, a miniature horse-Gracie, a calf-Lucky (with a HUGE bottle), a pig-Penny, an iguana-Rockie, three chicks-Moe, Curly and Goldie and a turtle-Owimboway! =)

Before getting here I thought I was going to be the most challenged by the campers. Turns out the campers are what keeps me sane! I run the funny farm BY MYSELF! The campers come down for 45 min 3x a day, groups are usually 10-15 people. The campers are AMAZING! We have finished one week of camp, this last week was adult campers, all over the age of 20. Ranging all the way to the 60's range!

I can't really describe how beautiful the campers that come here are. God is really opening my eyes and my heart to seeing His creation and purpose for their lives. I met some of THE most loving people this last week, and some couldn't even talk, well not verbally anyways.

We have parties here every night. The campers love to dance, which is great cuz I love to dance too! My day starts at 7:30 and ends at 11:30, it's hard, but worth it. MO is def very hot by the way and super humid! O and on a fun note, I typically pick about 4-5 ticks off of my body EVERYDAY! haha nice...

So, things here are good. We get 24 hours off a week, our short time to go to our nearest town of Monett, do laundry, go do a Walmart run, call people, do email stuff, rest, and work on deepening friendships here with the staff. haha yes, it goes by way too fast! ;) O and also, I had to take out my eyebrow piercing. I could have gotten a retainer for it, but I waited too long and then I couldn't find out here in the country. I am keeping my nose ring, I put it in when I sleep so it doesn't close too. I can always get the brow re-pierced, no biggie.

Well, that's all for now. No word from the Peace Corps, I just turned in my fingerprints to them last weekend though, so I am now really really done with my end of the application. (I think!) That's it for now friends. I miss Cali more than I thought I would. I don't know if I could live the farm life, or the Mid-West life to be honest...=) XoXo