My Kids Camp Roommates

Laurel, Leah, Tiffany, Dorcas – BOTHER all these security measures!

One of my favorite parts of Kids Camp was rooming with three precious little girls: “Dorcas,” “Laurel,” and “Tiffany,” ages 10, 9, and 9 respectively. A friend of a fellow staff member, Dorcas was an eager learner and a patient teacher, helping me to learn the Ghanaian national anthem and a song in Twi. Laurel was a shy sleepyhead from a village several hours away. Tiffany brought an incredible Mary Poppins bag: hers was the smallest of all, but she kept bringing forth treasures for us all, from candies for the other girls to books we read aloud together during the afternoon rest time.

To my surprise, the books were all American, such as Boxcar Children and Babysitters’ Club. It was great fun reading this genre to the girls and interpreting all the American slang to them (“Do you know what ‘hit the sack’ means?” “Do you know what ‘cut the chatter’ means?” They never did, and agreed with me that these were funny ways to phrase things), laughing at cultural differences (“I know that in Ghana baby girls’ ears are pierced as soon as they are born; but can you believe that in America, some parents won’t let their daughters pierce their ears until the girls are 14 or 16?”), and telling them about the different foods mentioned, from lasagna to M&Ms. One of the American teams that came for Kids Camp brought M&Ms, which were handed out the last day. It was all I could do to keep the surprise from my girls when I discovered that none of them had ever tried M&Ms!

On the last afternoon, they played with my hair as I read: braiding it, combing it, styling it. Ahhh – I love having my hair played with! And I completely remember how fun it was as a little girl to play with someone else’s hair. “All girls who like to brush and comb should have a pet like this at home.” (Can anyone besides my family identify this line? =D)

Although all three girls came from Christian homes and assured me they were believers themselves, we carefully reviewed together the basics of salvation, covering verses such as Romans 10:9-10 and Ephesians 2:8-9 to establish that grace and faith are all that is required: we cannot depend on our good deeds to save us! We also shared devotions with each other every morning, reading Genesis 1-3, Psalm 103, Isaiah 40, and Romans 8 together.

As we left our room each morning, carefully locking the door behind ourselves, two hands inevitably slipped into mine. =) I tried to make sure they all got turns. Yes, they kept the bathroom floor perpetually wet; yes, someone once didn’t use the toilet – at least she did use the bathroom =D – but I wouldn’t have traded the time with these girls for anything. =)