Forget "Summer Lovin"; I'm lovin' summer!

I've been at Camp Kamaji for just over a week now, and I am infinitely impressed by it. I am boring my fellow counselors with accounts of how "my camp" did things differently. It's not that I thought the Language Villages were better but actually that they were not quite as good! Don't get me wrong; I loved my El Lago del Bosque and Al Waha days (I should mention, too, that the two serve different purposed and aim to achieve different things), but I already think Kamaji is so much better...and campers aren't even here yet!

The many ways in which Kamaji has impressed me so far:

1. I will be a counselor in a cabin of seven 12-year olds and I have two - yes two! - co-counselors. I still can't get over that ratio. The cabin group right next to us also has three counselors with only six campers! Over as a camper at the language villages, I was perfectly pleased with the 8 to 1 camper: counselor ratio; I can only imagine how great it must be for campers here.

2. I was hired as a tennis instructor and cabin counselor, not as a we'll-put-you-in-whatever-activity-we-feel-like-whether-or-not-you're-qualified-to-teach-it instructor and cabin counselor. The counselors for each activity know enough about it and love it enough to have been comfortable applying for a job that has teaching that activity. This severely reduces the chances that a camper will know more about an activity than the counselor teaching it. It also almost eliminates the possibility that a camper would be more enthused about an activity than the counselor teaching it. Oh and did I mention that there are four tennis instructors? Yeah - you should be impressed. I doubt most of Kamaji's girls know just how valuable the activity program here is.

3. Windsurfing, canoeing, kayaking, climbing wall, low ropes course, sailing, water skiing, horseback riding, archery. All things I had never done before arriving here last week. All things campers get the chance to do while here at Kamaji. The activities here aren't your run-of-the-mill activities that most girls already take part in gym class. These are activities that you can't go to your local rec center and sign up for. Kamaji really does give girls the chance to experience something they couldn't experience at home.

4. The support system. Not only is the camper to counselor ratio great, there is an amazing support system in place. Counselors aren't expected to fix every problem that might cross their path. There are people here whose job is to help counselors problem solve, brain storm and be better at their jobs in general.

5. The days off system. Counselors have a full day and a full night off every week! Okay. I guess I don't really know if that's unusual, but it seems pretty darn great to me. That's 36/168 hours in a week; 21.4 percent of the summer; 3/14 of the contracted period. You get the point; it's a lot of time off. You get the sense that the directors of Kamaji really understand that, in order for campers to be happy, counselors have to be happy, and I'm definitely happy.

If you haven't picked up on it yet, the point of this post is that I'm already loving Kamaji. I feel like this is a place that is set up in a way that it can really influence young girls' lives. One more thing I haven't mentioned is that the camp is privately owned, meaning that the owners are the directors, meaning that the "head honchos" at camp have a vested interest in making it a good place. I would have loved to come here myself as a kid, but I'm equally - if not more - excited to be a part of what makes this place so special for girls.