Camp <3

Camp....awesome :) this camp was everything and more than i thought it would be. So all the families are poor inner city black families and i love them! The staff at camp made up a very diverse group.... There were blacks, whites, Straight people, Homosexual, Christians, Jewish people, all different kind of beautiful people! This camp was so loving and non judgmental and just so excepting of everyone, like everyone greeting each other with a kiss on the check and a hug and i was talking to a campers mom and she said i just love this camp because its a place where i come to just be myself and i love it here because there is so much love. and as i was talking to her i got really sad that like she can't get that out in the real world and then i started to think about Christians and where is the love? Jesus when he was on this earth talked to tax collect and prostitutes and talked and loved the least of them, he loved them, he didn't even say you are a tax collect or a leaper i can't talk to you So these weeks at camp i learned i am not called to judge but i am just called to love them.

The children think they are coming just for a normal summer camp where they do arts and crafts and go swimming in the lake, which they are, that is what they are at camp for. But the parents are there because they know it is a camp for HIV and they are at the camp to get help on how to tell their children that they have HIV, or sometimes the kids are taking pills 3 times a day because they have HIV but they don't even know it! My first week i has pre-teen girls and they have all been told about HIV. One girl who was HIV positive, the rest just their parents were but they were not. So since everyone knew about HIV we had a social worker come in just for like 30 min to tell them if you have any questions or concerns we can talk about it... and no one talked! and then she asked do you guys talk about this at home with your family... and they all said no!! I really think people need to talk about this more, i mean it is just crazy, its like this big elephant in the room! i think the parents need to talk to their children about it more and ask them if they have any questions.

That same week one of my campers her mom wasn't feeling well. So her mom came up to me right before lunch and said Leslie can you please make sure she stays here as i go to the Med Room because I'm not feeling good. Right away the young girl dropped her head and became really sad and wouldn't talk to anyone. So i asked her what was wrong and then she told me... I;m just worried, my mom has fainted before in the grocery store and it was really scary, i just don't want anything to happy to her. And that is when i realized that this poor 12 year old girl, she thinks that whenever her mom gets a headache she is going to die!! that is on situation that i was really able to see how HIV affects the families.
Another girl, is 12 years old, and her parents have HIV and her Grandpa and 2 uncles have died from it. So she is now bisexual because she says she doesn't want to Die of HIV and she knows that if she is with the same sex that her chances are lower of getting HIV.....

The 2nd week was totally different i had 10 yr old and none of them knew about HIV. I had 2 Girls who were positive and they didn't know why they took pills 3 times a day. So that was crazy to witness also.
This camp is an amazing place that helps these families deal with this Major issue in their lives. I pray God has me go back next year!! Because I'm already looking forward to it :)

I wish I could show you pictures of these beautiful families but because of privacy issues i am not allowed to post any pictures of the family.