A Life of Adventure

On Sunday, July 19, Theo boarded a bus for the MaKaJaWan Scout Camp in Pearson, Wisconsin. Pearson is a lot northwest of Green Bay and a little southeast of Rhinelander, if you're familar with Wisconsin. That puts it 300 miles and six hours away from Chicago. The nearest hospital is in Antigo, about half an hour's drive from camp. I know this because last year I was one of the camp chaperones and made the drive into Antigo very late one night with a scout who had a knife accident.

Theo and his best friend Nick will be at camp until August 1. The camp provides them with an old-fashioned A-frame platform tent. They sleep under mosquito netting, since the tents only tie closed. The boys have to keep all their gear under their cots. The tents are very dark, even during the day, so it can be a challenge to find clean clothes. Of course, finding clean clothes isn't necessarily a priority at scout camp. I did give Theo a few packing tips that he does admit have worked out well.

Theo's been keeping in touch via text message as well as with a few phone calls. The first week he finished his Lifesaving merit badge as well as the Pioneering and Fish & Wildlife management merit badges. This week he's learning Sailing, Horsemanship and Basketry. The weekend was a little slow and I think Theo got a little homesick. He even agreed to go to church the day after he gets back. Now that the second week is in full swing, however, he is busy enough not to miss us quite so much.

Tomorrow will be Wet Wednesday at camp. Wet Wednesday is the day the swimming folks jump in the water with all their clothes on, the lifesaving folks race to take all their clothes off and the boating folks swamp their canoes and kayaks and turtle their sailboats. Today was Theo and Nick's first day on the water in their sailboat. I guess they were practicing for tomorrow because Theo told me that they ended up in the water seven times.

If you would like to see some photos of MaKaJaWan, check out the Northeast Illinois Council website, www.neic.org, and click on the link for MaKaJaWan. Theo's troop is in Commanche campsite in East Camp.