End of session 1/beginning of session 2 and the bear!

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Session 1 came to a close with a typical Camp Nejeda 'close of session' ceremony. Its called The Burning of the N.

So i guess I better explain it.

Everyone gets dressed up all nice for dinner, and dinner turns into a banquet.

We are outside for a while before and after the meal, snapping pictures and talking. The best are below.

Once it gets dark, the girls and boys gather in seperate circles on the field..all holding candles. We have to give a talk about how the flame represents the image and memories Camp has imprinted on your heart, but, unlike the flame..these memories burn forever!

We then march down in 2 lines down to the side of the lake, holding the candles. At the edge of the lake, campers and counsellors stand up in turn and thank people and say how much they will miss it.
We sing slow songs...then the fun starts.

One guy walks out on the dock and lights a burning torch. This signals 2 boats, each with 2 people in, who have been waiting out on the lake, on opposite sides, in the pitch black, to light their flames and row into the centre of the lake, and turn to row to the back, where people are waiting, and so is a 10 foot wooden N (standing for Nejeda) the flaming torches are collected and the N is lit.

By this point, our candles are out, so the N lights up the whole place, and the sky above is full..and I mean full of stars. It is so peaceful!

We then talk some more around a bonfire and go to bed.


Then we only had Saturday afternoon off before session 2 kids (10-13 year olds) came sunday morning.

We've had them for 1 night so far, as I write this and we had a dance..where i got to use my own DJing software....but at this age, they request stuff we can't play. They want songs that are labelled with Parental warning over the lyrics..so they have to settle with Cascada and the spice girls!

Now, today..something exciting did happen! We were at our seperate unit meetings (and this was at 2pm!) and there I was talking to all the male campers about cabin rules, when Jeni (the girls unit leader) comes on the radio and says "there is a bear in the girls unit!"

Now, New Jersey is known as black bear country (as well as The Garden State) and we have bears around camp during the night..but I never saw one last year..so before i could get down there (which at this point the girls had all started to make noise to scare it off..which is what you are meant to do) some of the guys flew off in its direction to literally chase it away. I couldn't get there in time, as i had to get all the campers calm..so i thought my chance of my first view of a wild black bear was gone.

How wrong was I..as we started walking away..back it came. It wasn't vicious, it was just minding it's own business...but they are dangerous. I was told it was only passing through to find an area to live in..it was about 200 pounds, making it a teenager who had just been kicked out of home by Mum to fend for itself. This one (if there is only one around and not 2 or more) was spotted a few days ago..and now I was only 500 yards from it and over the moon I had seen it!

Then came the maintenace guy, who hunts..and with his came his paintball gun..so he chased it away and although Jeni and I hung about..it never came back!
i didn't have my camera 😞

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Photos

Pat and Me
The English, loud and proud at Nejeda

Senior Staff
The people that ran the show

The Burning of the N
The N, from across the lake

Unit leaders at the end of session 1
Me and Jeni at the banquet

Nejeda team
The whole staff team