More camp stuff

Since Whitney is still recovering, she doesn't have too much to talk about concerning her day. I also am recovering, but owe my symptoms not to bacteria, but to children. I am tired.

Keeping an eye on even a few kids, making sure they don't fight or climb things (which they love to do in abundance), trying with futility to get them to mind or to listen, and just being constantly on your toes is exhausting. We are doing a few weeks of day trips and day camps, for ages 5 to about 12, and it is an immense undertaking.

These kids, too, are distressingly street-wise, and some of them truly worry me by how they act and by what they know. Others worry me in different ways-- take the boy (10-12 year range) who asked me, in the park on the way back from the bowling alley if he could use the toilet. Before I could really respond, he just whips it out in front of a bush and begins to tinkle away. Not only that, but he notices that the group is pulling ahead, and actually starts to walk while he pees. No kidding. Like it was nothing unusual to him.

But anyway, being a guardian to kids is tiring. Tomorrow we head off to see Wicklow Gaol (and maybe lock up a few of the bad ones there :-)!) and to the beach at Brittas Bay. It will probably be a rainy day again, but we will go to the beach regardless, because the last thing you want to do is keep these kids cooped up inside for any length of time.

So... wish me luck for tomorrow, and wish for Whitney to get better. We are trying to go to Galway this weekend, so the better Whitney feels, the better :-)