Camp Sizanani: Camp, Day 1
Meet Wendi Sue Gresanti, associate director of Pine Grove Day Camp in New Jersey, USA. She attended the September 2024 session of Camp Sizanani, living and working as a bona fide vochelli alongside our South African staff. Read her blog to get a taste of daily Sizanani life!
The campers were arriving this morning and you could feel the excitement in the air. We were to meet for breakfast at 8pm but received a knock on the door at 7:40 asking us to come to a meeting for Vochelli Specialists (the staff members who escort the campers from activity to activity). This was our assignment for the week. We went to the training center and helped prepare the folders for the campers with notebooks and pens. We received a composition book to take notes ourselves. We set up the backpacks with four water bottles to carry with us. Found out that the campers could all drink from these same four water bottles throughout the day. After breakfast, the buses arrived. One hundred and thirty five campers got off the buses to the Vochellis singing their “I’m so glad” song. I’m so glad, the campers are here...
The campers looked like they were excited yet a little timid. We welcomed them, pulled their luggage off the bus and escorted them to the theater to set them up with their group and bunk Vochellis. I learned I would be with the oldest campers (boys and girls ages 17-19), my sister Janet with the 15-16 years old group. We had been briefed on any concerns for the campers. I had one who suffered from seizures, one who had “spiritual gifts”, and others with food allergies and other minor medical conditions.
After settling in, the Wellness Drive began. The campers would travel by group to see the Nurses station for a full check, the optometrist , audiologist and dentist. Janet and I were assigned to help at the nurses station where there were four nursing students and their director, along with the volunteer doctor Yvonne, doing the intakes. Janet and I did weight and height, calculated the BMIs, took temperature and later did the blood pressures to help move things along. The nurses took their medical histories, discussed their blood pressure issues as needed (there were more high blood pressures than you would expect for these aged campers). Some campers had lung issues, unhealed wounds. One was determined to have spinal curvature causing some pain. Many campers expressed how this was the first time they had ever seen a doctor. Janet and I tried to keep things light for the campers as many seemed anxious at seeing the doctor and nurses. We got to see all of the 135 campers in one day.
After dinner, we went to the campfire as a welcoming and to sing songs and kick off camp.