"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera." - Dorothea Lange

Thursday, January 04, 2007

who we are






The “camp” has swelled in size to close to 150 people now. Four groups joined ours yesterday afternoon: folks from a church, a Christian sports camp, volunteers from Americorps and a huge group of students from Rutgers. It’s impressive that so many college kids are willing to give up part of their break to help others.

The group from Nechama consists of about 45 people from all across the country. We range in age from late teens to mid seventies. Everyone is a mensch, in the true sense of the word. We are Jews and non-Jews. We are students and retirees, medical professionals, social service workers, business people. The team with whom I worked yesterday was made up of all women, with the exception of one (very sweet) guy and our foreman. It was very cool to do such heavy, hard, manual labor as a group of women. It felt really good and really empowering.

I was among those selected to stay back at the camp today to do the cleaning detail. I am taking a break from mopping so I can post this. I’ll probably have the afternoon to myself, so I plan on wandering around on my own making pictures.

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