oy vey!

i've spent most of the past fourteen days hurling yiddish expletives around inside my head with virulent frustration. GYAC is so frustrating! bureaucracies are so crappy! people who do not feel exactly the same way about me about every single thing are so dumb! bwahhh!

one part of this experience that is not frustrating or crappy or dumb, though, is the Youth (that's what we call the campers 'cause gosh we're so progressive!). i am so lucky to be around them all the time, and also i am touched and sappy and get teary when i consider their vibrance and their brilliance despite the new orleans school system's various attempts at fucking them over.  

seriously: these smallish people i see every day are amazing. they think so well and speak so well and dance so well and are sweet and confused and teenager-y so well. i promise this is not hyperbole! one of my fellow counselors scoffed at their alleged brilliance the other day and i was really put off because it is not alleged, it is definite, and it is not scoffable at all.

speaking of counselors and adult-types, i am fed up.  counselors and adult-types are the sources of all of my frustrated yiddish expletive episodes.  here is a numbered list of examples because i feel like i have not vented enough in real life:

1. the GYAC powers-that-be first told us we would not have field trips, then told us we would, then changed their minds the day before the first field trip (so we had to cancel it), then told us two days later that we have field trips again. obviously, the campers, the campers' parents, and the counselors were all very frustrated by this.
2. yesterday, lack of communication led to an hour-long bus stop on the side of the road in ninety degree heat on the way to the pool. this was very frustrating for the thirteen counselors, sixty campers, two bus drivers, and countless passersby involved.
3. we still don't have teaching supplies. erlack.
4. a number of my fellow counselors are unable and/or unwilling to effectively communicate with their students and thus really really really like the idea of kicking people out of camp FOREVER AND EVER LET EM SEE HOW THEY FEEL HAH. this is so frustrating! we can't help people who aren't around.
5. lots of counselors and adult-types think it's a good idea to make young people cover up their bodies with shorts and teeshirts any time we have a water day and do not understand how that contributes to body shame slash is just plain silly. bwahh frustrating.
6. someone around me is always whining and none of those someones are campers. frustrating.
7. most of the someones that whine are also VERY AFRAID of challenging "authority" (read: inept higher-ups who make poor decisions and have poor management skills), even when said "authority" hasn't earned its respect or authority. this is lame and frustrating and difficult because i keep having to hear only a few voices speaking out against shitty policies/situations.
8. apparently our group meetings call to mind "freshman year women's studies courses" for some counselors.  this would be totally maddening and unfathomably frustrating if it didn't have so much potential for fun.  i can't wait to begin every sentence with the phrase, "As a Women's and Gender Studies minor," and to quote Andrea Dworkin at every turn. HAH.

HUFF PUFF WHINE BITCH 

i'm done. in other (good!) news, there are really really amazing counselors here and most of them are not whiny or misogynistic.  tomorrow we are going to the local bike coop, Plan B (so clever!) to procure transportation. we are also going to watch movies and eat stove-top popcorn, time allowing.

finally, my daddy is coming here this weekend, and i absolutely positively one hundred percent can't wait.

auf wiederzehn (?)

mwah mwah xox