These were the words that struck fear in my heart every time I heard them. This past weekend, Michelle, Kayla and I all volunteered at HeartStone (Which is a camp near Ukiah) during the Father Son Fishing Trip. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun. The only downside was dishes. And when you are cooking food for 50+ people, then there are going to be...a lot...of dishes. Us girls weren't the only people volunteering, we just happened to get stuck with dishes the most.
First day: We arrived at camp at around 4 o'clock, and went to work right away in the kitchen. I helped set up tables and make pizza, and Kayla and Michelle offered to start with dishes. Little did they know how often their hands would be submerged in greasy water. After dinner was basically taken care of, I helped them with the drying and putting away.
Next day: Us three girls were scheduled for lunch and dinner, meaning we didn't have to wake up super early to make breakfast. At around 8 we got up and went to go get breakfast and start on lunch prep. When we showed up, everything was basically taken care of...except dishes. So we donned the aprons and spent the next half hour or so scrubbing, rinsing, and drying while the other three girls finished cooking and cleaning up other stuff. They finished about 15 minutes before we did, and spent the rest of the time chatting.
That night: We did the dinner (which was delicious I must say) and at first, I looked like we weren't going to have to do any dishes, for Mr. Walker and Mr. Regalia were doing them. After they were about halfway done however, they asked if we could take over so they could have dinner. Of course we didn't refuse. Except for frequent bathroom trips on the part of Kayla and Michelle, we remained at the sink and the towel till all was clean. Guess who gets to get up at 6 the next morning??
Third day: We arrived at the kitchen.....almost right on time due to a silent alarm clock, and prepared breakfast. As the time neared for the other girls to show up and help, us three made sure to find occupying jobs so as to not get stuck with another round of dishes...and it worked. When at 8:30 the other three came in, Mrs. Walker set two of them to dishes, and the other girl to helping us with lunch. Ahhh how sweet it was to slice oranges and package cupcakes rather than to scrape off food from mounds of dirty plates. Since this was the last day of the camp, we had to clean up EVERYTHING and pack up for winter.
I and another girl cleaned up the snack shack...Michelle and another girl cleaned out the cabins...And poor Kayla had to help clean up the kitchen, which meant finishing the dishes. It was so cold, I almost envied her with the warm water as I dug can after can of soda out of a refrigerator.
All in all, I had a wonderful time, and if anyone is interested, there will be a workday up at HeartStone this Saturday. I will probably be going, and I would love to see some of you there!
Cheers!