Campamento

Summer Camp began today.

I helped with the 7-9 year old group. We had 47 little ones in our group and three leaders...you can only imagine the chaos. Today was just enrollment, snack and playing. Tomorrow will be more organized with a schedule.

My favorite part of the day was during free time. I saw a bunch of the kids from my group throwing sticks, stones, whatever they could find into a huge tree, probably 20-30 feet high. I pictured a big stick being chucked into the eye of one of the little ones...

Once I got closer and asked why they were throwing everything, I learned it was an Almond tree. I'd never seen an almond tree. There have these fruits that aren't very good but once broken open you get to the almond inside. Each and every one of these little kids were very aware of the delicious nut inside and that it was well worth the effort of attempting to through a stick 30 feet into the air to get the perfectly yellow ripe ones from the top.

Of course after this I wanted to get some down as well. After the kids realized I was fascinated they all started throwing thing into the air, mashing the fruit and handing me the almonds with there very dirty hands from all this work. One after another until I had a hand full of almonds!

In northeastern Ohio there's no such thing as almond trees nor would any of the children have any idea how we get those delicious almonds that we've all eaten. Although I was planning on teaching the kids today during the summer camp, it seems I learned more. I learned about almond trees come and how we get them down from a huge tree! Who knows what I'll learn tomorrow!