Child Observation Report

There is a feeling of satisfaction when staring at my blackened, disgusting feet that is nothing like anything else. Each toe and crevice is crusted in a filthy glase of dirt and dusty grime. I am thinking if I have to pick my feet out of a hundred others, I would not be able to recognise which pair was mine. My sandals look as though they have been dragged by a herd of rhinos for hundreds of miles. There is something magnificent about looking down at my feet after a day at summer camp and thinking, “Yes, I did something great today.”
I volunteer as a teen staff at a summer camp called Camp Winnarainbow, located in Laytonville, California on a piece of land called Black Oak Ranch. The camp has been open for forty years now this July and was created by the iconic hippie Wavy Gravy. Wavy created the camp as a place where children of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds can come together to create a

community full of fun, experience and adventure. His philosophy is to teach children to express themselves, step outside of their comfort zones, become self-confident, and bring this attitude home after camp is over. Wavy is a man who has dedicated his life to having fun and helping children see the world in a different way through participating in the performing arts.
The main area of camp is designed in a circle of tipis, each one having the name of a color of the rainbow. There is a camp theater where skits and performances are held, an aerials site where a trapeze and silks hang, a big top equip with gymnastics beams and mats, a tightrope, and a unicycle track. Every day, the campers can choose a number of activities to participate in which could include going to Lake Veronica, learning how to breakdance, or how to mimic bird calls.
The camp counselors and teen staff teach classes and have responsibility for a tipi they live in with the campers.

As a teen staff, I live in one of the tipis for my time at camp with nine to twelve girl campers. The campers in my tipi, I have full responsibility for. The system of having tipis is designed to create the idea of a family in each one. For my time at camp, my co-staff and I help the girls in our tipi to bond, make friendships, and make sure that they are getting the full camp experience. We are in charge of sleeping in the tipi every night, making sure the girls are getting along, and to treat every girl like a sister. I am there for the campers as a role model and a person they look up to with utmost admiration. When I was a camper at Camp Winnarainbow, I remember thinking the counselors were the most amazing people I had ever met. They were so fun, weird and silly that I wanted to be exactly like them when I grew up. Now as a teen staff at Camp Winnarainbow, I strive to be the same camp counselor as I saw the other counselors to be when I was a

camper.
Camp Winnarainbow is truly my favorite place on earth. It is still the place I look forward to all year and when summer finally comes around, I can barely control the excitement I have to be back on Black Oak Ranch. Camp was the place where I learned how to find magic in everything around me and where I could completely be myself without any judgement. I learned that being weird and crazy is the most important thing you can be in your life because life is really all about having fun and being in the moment. Camp created an environment I could come back to knowing I was safe and people cared about who I was. At camp, my dreams and aspirations matter, I can believe in whatever magical beings I want to and everyone’s feet are blackened and dirty.
Each year I come home from Camp Winnarainbow, while showering off the “camp feet” and watching the brown water swirl down the drain, homesickness washes over me as the water from the shower head washes over my hair. Although I am home for the rest of the summer; back to my own bed, pets and family, I feel homesick for the place that I have left to come back home to. I already miss my camp friends, the camp community and the heat of Laytonville that is so obviously not present in the foggy town of Mendocino. Yet again, I will have to wait another twelve-months to return to the place where I really call home.