Oh, the drama.

Happenings in the past couple of days: 

1) A staff member working in the kitchen asking me if he had pink eye. I used my trusty reference I brought with me, Telephone Triage Protocols for Nurses, and questioned him on his symptoms. His answers were so useless that if it weren't for the fact that it were only one eye that was red, I'd have been sure he was stoned. Based on the answers he gave me, and the fact that his eye had been like that when I met him two weeks ago (at which point he said it was due to allergies), I said it probably wasn't pink eye. Fast forward to that afternoon: he'd been to the doctor, who had confirmed a case of pink eye. Everything at camp is ten times more dramatic than it needs to be, and if I hadn't heard the screams myself, I wouldn't have believed the chaos that ensued: "We're all going to get pink eye! I can't believe the nurse told him he could work in the kitchen!" Yeah, that was in front of me. No one listened to my rebuttal, my explanation of why I'd said he probably didn't (his idiotic answers), nor the fact that it is spread by direct contact and as a kitchen staff member, shouldn't be touching anything but the food when he's in the kitchen. And yes, in hindsight, I should have told him to err on the side of caution and take the day off, but still. In any case, it's been over two days and no one has another case of pink eye. So there. 

2) Bloody noses, bumped heads, scraped knees, tears over lost hiking sticks, and more. I haven't had a good rest in days, because every time I try for that, someone needs the nurse. And yet, the comments continue to come in that the nurse doesn't do anything. Still no one listens to my rebuttal, that they could have gone to nursing school and had my job if they wanted, or that I earn my day-time book reading by having to be available 24/7. 

3) Finally getting over the lice cases I sent home at check-in. Both kids made it back to camp with clean hair less than 48 hours later. In the meantime, I was subjected to complaints of itchy heads and claims that lice can jump 7 feet - does the nurse have lice now? Does the entire camp need to be disinfected? Again, no one listens to the nurse's assurances that lice is harder to get than most people think, and that they in fact cannot jump 7 feet. Trust me people, I've done more research on this than I care to admit. 

4) I found an adorable baby snake, above, that I might have kept a little longer had I not been so hungry for dinner. And, speaking of camp food, the menu here is apparently one week long. I'm on week three, and over all of it. Thank goodness for bringing my hot sauce, which has at least livened it up a bit, and for a roommate that's part chef and sent me here this week with a few extra dinners.