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Today was my third day at camp, and rather more stressful than the first two. I was surprised at how quickly I've readjusted to that kitchen and those people. Coming in at 9 and leaving at 4 feels remarkably short, compared to last summer, although still tiring by the end of the day. This has been worse since we're short a person- he's out currently sitting shiva for his brother (the man is around 80 years old, so it's well, reasonable, not that that helps anything), and he's one of the people who does a great deal of our lunch set-up/preparation. Today, that bit of slack that we're having to pick up got a bit more exciting, as today was grilled cheese day and we first ran out of white bread, and then out of American cheese, and then out of whole wheat bread as well. We were also doing colored melted butter for the top of the sandwiches for part of third lunch, to add to some special program two of the age groups were doing. So this morning through the end of lunch was both hectic and stressful, and then the afternoon was pretty quiet- tomorrow is fish sticks, and they don't take very much work to prepare. However, we're short two boxes. If they come in tomorrow, there will be no problem. But if not- well, that will make for another day like today.
I am finding it interesting how the staff dynamics are both so much the same, and so different from last year. One of our long-term returning staff members finally decided not to come back this year, and instead we have two CIT-age guys, and in place of last year's salad person, who is a lovely person but not really suited for the job between asthma that is troubled by heat, and difficulty dealing with stress and time limits, we have a quite competent young woman, a couple years younger than I. Our mashgiach is a friend of mine, whom I met at camp last summer (and encouraged to take the position this year- and from what I can see, he seems to be doing very well). So it's a rather younger crowd than last year, and that segment of the staff seems to break apart into the two CIT age types and our salad person, and then our mashgiach, our returning guy, age 20, who was his roommate on Nativ, and myself. It has, thus far, been quite nice to be able to bop between being an accepted member of the staff, with some ability to direct folks and know what I'm doing, and also having some folks to have interesting conversations with, who are on similar sorts of pages in regards to Judaism, halakha and the like.
On that topic, apparently one of the rabbis at camp gave a shiur about egalitarianism that has a lot of folks rather up in arms. I'm not around at camp after hours, as it were, but I'm following along what I hear with interest. He made the suggestion that I am personally quite sympathetic to- that female staff at camp should be required to fulfill the same ritual requirements as men. I am also, of course, particularly sympathetic to the needs of pluralism. It's a little odd to remember this debate as it was held in college, about shlichot tzibbur, etc, and to compare to the context of an educational setting, and the question of what it means to be a role model (and a role model in a Conservative camp that has always had a sizable Orthodox minority).
I am finding it interesting how the staff dynamics are both so much the same, and so different from last year. One of our long-term returning staff members finally decided not to come back this year, and instead we have two CIT-age guys, and in place of last year's salad person, who is a lovely person but not really suited for the job between asthma that is troubled by heat, and difficulty dealing with stress and time limits, we have a quite competent young woman, a couple years younger than I. Our mashgiach is a friend of mine, whom I met at camp last summer (and encouraged to take the position this year- and from what I can see, he seems to be doing very well). So it's a rather younger crowd than last year, and that segment of the staff seems to break apart into the two CIT age types and our salad person, and then our mashgiach, our returning guy, age 20, who was his roommate on Nativ, and myself. It has, thus far, been quite nice to be able to bop between being an accepted member of the staff, with some ability to direct folks and know what I'm doing, and also having some folks to have interesting conversations with, who are on similar sorts of pages in regards to Judaism, halakha and the like.
On that topic, apparently one of the rabbis at camp gave a shiur about egalitarianism that has a lot of folks rather up in arms. I'm not around at camp after hours, as it were, but I'm following along what I hear with interest. He made the suggestion that I am personally quite sympathetic to- that female staff at camp should be required to fulfill the same ritual requirements as men. I am also, of course, particularly sympathetic to the needs of pluralism. It's a little odd to remember this debate as it was held in college, about shlichot tzibbur, etc, and to compare to the context of an educational setting, and the question of what it means to be a role model (and a role model in a Conservative camp that has always had a sizable Orthodox minority).