Summer Camp

I know that as a fan of camping, it's always a good time for me to spent a wek or more in a tent. I also know that I'm not all that normal, and most people would find a week without pumbing, walls, the ability to dress standing up, etc. to be a difficulty rather than a vacation.
This summer I went camping again for my vacation. No big surprise - I've camped all over the world. This camping experience was fabulous - it's the 100th anniversary of the Scouting movement, and so Jamborees (really big camps) were being held all over the world. The Canadian Jamboree was held at Tamaracouta Scout Reserve in the Laurentians, about an hour north of Montreal. There were some 8600 people there, in 9 subcamps, and it was great! I was a sub-camp chaplain, which meant I was doing everything from unloading the food truck at 5:30am to translating (really, in that locale, the secutirty guys should have had at least basic french), to helping some kids with homesickness, to being (as one Scout called it) "The Bad News Person," to offering worship services, and getting voluntold to sing at the Sunday morning Scouts Own. Wish I had known that I was the only one - the words "Laura Marie, there's your microphone" when there's 4000+ people watching were just a TAD intimidating!
The most important part of the Jamboree for me was the fun - the laughter - my laugh was known throughout the subcamp (me? A loud laugher? No....) but the smiles and laughs on the kids faces was worth it all, knowing that they would go home and remain full of the Scouting spirit having had a fabulous time there. Most people think that paying to volunteer to work isn;'t really a great vacation, but for me, when you can see immediately the positive impact that something like this can have - it was money and time well spent.

An example of how fantastic my friends are...

Taken from the CBC...

Life’s Not Fair

By Kate Jones

July 13, 2007

Kate Jones works as a home care physiotherapist in Thunder Bay.

I believe in my heart that every individual around the world is born with inherent value.

I remember growing up, as the eldest of three sisters, hearing the constant refrain of “That’s not fair!” if one of us felt that she was not being treated equally. My father’s reply to this was always “Well, life’s not fair.”

I have come to learn that he was right. Life isn’t fair. But also to believe that the world would be a better place if he had been wrong. I believe that around the world, wherever you go, people are people, with the same hopes and expectations, joys and sorrows, as people anywhere else, and that they should also have the same rights as people anywhere else.

I recently had the opportunity to spend three years volunteering as a physiotherapist at a hospital in rural Tanzania, East Africa. While I was there, I attended weddings and funerals; I sang and danced with my friends; I held a new-born baby, and held the hand of an elderly man who was dying. My friends taught me many lessons about the important things in life, including the value of family and community. But I saw again that life isn’t fair. What did I do to deserve the happy accident of birth that had me born into a relatively well-off family in a prosperous country like Canada, with the ability and opportunity to attend university; which led to a well-paying job and the chance to travel the world? My Tanzanian friends: Edither, Judy, Mambo, Taybebwa, Jenester, Christer, Kandaga, Jeska, Denis will never have these opportunities. Life isn’t fair.

But then I remember back to my sisters, and our insistence that we be treated equally. I believe that all people, no matter where they are in the world, are my brothers and my sisters. I feel the need to insist that we all be treated equally. Here, living in Canada, I can make my voice heard as I speak out about social justice. I do my part to work for a more equitable society here in my community of Thunder Bay. I raise awareness about international development and how each of us can play our part to work towards a more just world.

I believe in my heart that every individual around the world is born with inherent value, and should have the same rights as any other person in this world. I believe that we all have an obligation to do our part to make this world a fairer place for all.

For This I Believe, I’m Kate Jones in Thunder Bay.