Day One!

Our first day at Camp Heartland was a relaxing one. We were allowed to sleep in, and then had a fantastic brunch. After that, Jill (the camp director), gave us an overview of the history of Camp Heartland. This was after a tour of the camp - it's a little like being at summer camp when we stay here, what with bunk beds and wooden nametags and such. Except, y'know, it's -2 degrees outside. After the tour we watched two films as a group - one which was a short documentary (produced by the founder of Camp Heartland) about a woman and her two sons and how a family lives with HIV/AIDS. The woman, a close friend to Camp Heartland founder Neil, was infected with the virus by her ex-husband, and passed the virus on to her youngest son. The film consisted of interviews with both sons and the mother, interspersed with scenes from their life; arguments over medications, the two boys playing together, and the mother discussing how she hoped to live the rest of her life.

The little boy with AIDS, Nile, was the first camper at Camp Heartland in 1993. Just this pass year, Jill informed us, he was married, with Neil being in his wedding. It was a nice reminder of how difficult HIV/AIDS is to manage on a daily basis, and also a reminder of how much medical treatment of the disease has progressed in 17 years. The second video was a slideshow of pictures and video from the camp sessions in the summer - a completely different experience from the first video. Jill also spoke to us about how One Heartland (the organization that manages the camp) has expanded to a family based camp in New York. and a two week session in Malibu, California. In addition, since their campers have grown so old (because fewer children are being born with HIV), they have expanded their focus to more groups of children with special needs, including camps for runaways from the Twin Cities, homeless children, children who have Crohn's disease, and children with severe allergies.

We spent the rest of the afteroon working on organizational projects around the camp:
- organizing the sheets, blankets, and towels for the main lodge
- organizing all the clothes that the camp has to give to campers who don't have enough clothes for camp
- organizing the closet of board games

After dinner, we had a little bit of group reflection, talking about our reactions to the films we watched and learning about the camp as well as talking about our experience on the trip so far. We then played Scategories as a group, and are now watching movies or working on some arts and crafts for the camp.

It's been great!