An Interview

“What is it like working for YoYo Camps?”

“What is it like? It’s like: being a turtle, crawling around with all of my possessions on my back, with only two of my five sense in tact: taste and smell, all while being asked to navigate my way through a dirty ashtray seething with melodramatic middle schoolers.

But seriously.

I wake up. I’ve just been dreaming about the children, as I do every night. Somehow they’ve infiltrated my subconscious and I wake up feeling uneasy and worried that I’m not cut out for this job.

But I get up. I blink my eyes and I’m leading the Banana Song in Morning Circle. Three other people are singing: the two other counselors and the one, eager camper none of the other kids like.

Eight hours and four days later it’s the Big Finish. I’ve made it to the end. Smile, speak English, shake the children’s hands.

Clean up. Someone from YoYo Camps comes and all of a sudden I’m in a huge hurry to get on a train somewhere else. ‘Where?’ I don’t know. ‘What time?’ I don’t know. Just hurry. Don’t eat anything. Don’t shower. Don’t forget anything. Get in the car. Get on the train. And don’t miss the stop.

Five hours later and hundreds of miles from the Banana Song and the Big Finish I’m in the east. Always, East to west, friendly to unfriendly, Nudity to swim suits, bad haircuts to bad haircuts.

Twenty-four hours “off” and I’m doing it all over again. ‘Where?’ I don’t know. ‘For how long?’ Not sure. ‘When can I talk to you?’ On the phone? Never. ‘Skype?’ Ha. ‘Where will you be next week?’ Nobody knows, and if anybody does know, I’m at the end of “To Be Informed” list.

I know where I am now. That’s all.

“Well, that’s pretty thorough I suppose. But I still don’t really feel like I understand what it is you’re doing over there.”

Well, that makes two of us.