Dear Boundless families:
We had a pathetic excuse for a rain shower two nights ago, but other than that, it’s a kiln up here. There is no rain forecast for the foreseeable forever. Light the wrong match, and the forest will get nasty.
So, your kids won’t be enjoying banter around a fire this session. The staff will bring out lanterns and point them to the heavens. Maybe some exotic marshmallow concoctions. Anything to feng shui that critical communal time at the end of each day.
Chatting with River – a student who happens to be flesh and blood instead of the Madawaska drainage basin- i inquire how often her english class gets to swim and chill out in her namesake.
“Once, maybe twice a day”.
I get ornery like an old grandpa, quick to think there is some conspiracy among our teachers to torture your beloved offspring. They should be living in the Madawaska. We are a 600 acre hot tub right now. I let River know my feelings.
She’s gentle with me, and defends her tribe,
“We just have too much work to do”. Molly, who’s sitting a few inches next to River, nods in emphatic agreement.
For a moment, I feel like I’m in a TWILIGHT ZONE episode. BOUNDLESS TURNS TEENS INTO ZOMBIES, bent on devouring knowledge instead of sunshine.
I formally offer a full refund to any parent who wants to drive up and rescue their kid from this cult.
To see them attack their curriculum in this heat can be amusing. Stranger had the 4Us songwriting in the lodge basement. I saw a particularly studious one working solo in the shade behind the Tin Hut. One was sprawled under a fan, face down on
a couch, tap tapping away at her trusty Boundless pice of shit laptop.
“How is that laptop working out for you Devon,” I am embarrassed to inquire.
She too is charitable with this old man.
“Oh, it does the job just fine”.
Apparently, the kids are LOVING their novel Annihilation. E. can get antsy from time to time, but we swarm him with patience and charm, and he is put back to task lickety split.
The outdoor crew, as is their wont, are never here. But I have managed to introduce myself to a bunch of them. They are nuts, really. Shockingly, they have bought into the human foghorn Tyler and his ministrations,. They
rally around each other. They are constantly playing. It took about 30 hours for the group to gel. I aint complaining. No one bugs me from that tribe.
Today they did a day-run down the SNAKE rapids of the Madawaska. This was an elaborate training exercise that sets the stage for their 6-day journey ahead on the Dumoine River.
At this water level, the lowest the river pretty much ever gets, there are ample opportunities to experience the little known but brutally effective “rock enema therapy”. This is when your canoe dumps, and you swim in
really shallow water loaded with rocks honed to fine-edged spears by ice 12,000 years ago. The rock enema is known for inducing humility. Really we should bottle the stuff.
Hey parents, crack open your favourite poison. We have reached the critical stage when, because you haven’t heard from me, your kid has reached the having-the-time-of-my-life stage, or something reasonably close to that ideal.
Of course, I probably just jinxed the whole enterprise – you never know with teens.
But this session is lovely. It really is.
Enjoy the mixed blessings of this sunshine.
