This week was girls camp for Ellis and Lillian, and they invited the moms to join in. I'm gonna copy pretty generously from a letter I wrote to my family about it, but add in some extra commentary. :)
Hello! The highlight of this week was probably girls camp. It was fabulous. Since we had a mother-daughter camp this year, you even get to hear about it! We went up to Patapsco Valley State park, a little north of us. Lovely area, though the cicadas were less gone there than they are at home. But it's ok, they were certainly not abundant or noxious. Though present enough to inspire a musical masterpiece by Ellis, Lillian and Lizzie. More about that later....
We were thrilled to be able to camp in-person, without masks. Everyone had to sleep in tents with only family members, but that didn't cramp our style much. Thursday, we played disc golf, then did the most relaxing service project ever pulling wavy leaf basketgrass (https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/pages/plants_wildlife/invasives/inv_wavyleafbasketgrass.aspx) around a hole at the disc golf course. It's really easy to pull up, so we just sat and pulled and chatted. Did I mention the weather was amazing, too?
(Pulling weeds really hit at the toughest part of sign language, for me. It seems intuitive to me that when you're hanging out with deaf people, you don't talk. It's just not polite. But what about when you're doing something with your hands, like pulling weeds? Do you just work in silence? Do you give up and talk to anyone else that's hearing? Do you half work and half sign? It's always been SUPER awkward for me, to the point that I sorta want to avoid going to craft activities. I don't, but I have to fight myself to go. So, as we worked, I just did a little bit of both. Sometimes I'd talk, if there were just hearing people around. Sometimes, I'd work in silence. Sometimes I'd interrupt the work to make a comment. I noticed the deaf people were very content to just work and not socialize a lot. It was a good example for me. On the way back to camp, one of the moms asked us to remind our kids that they need to sign. So I just asked what the rule is for when you're working with your hands. She said she was fine with talking if you can't use your hands, but turn your hands back on when you're done. She's also fine with talking and signing at the same time, if you want to do that. I was grateful for her thoughts, it helped me a lot throughout the week. For example in the morning when there were just two hearing people up, and talking seemed easier than signing. But I remembered to go ahead and use my hands as well. Then when a deaf person popped out of her tent, she could join us very naturally, and I didn't feel embarrassed or rude.)
In the evening, we had a fireside with two sisters in the branch who have helped translate the scriptures. Minnie-Mae, who signed the entire Book of Mormon by herself in the 80's and 90's, and Heather, who just did the D&C and PofGP. I thought they were going to tell about spiritual experiences they'd had while translating, but no, they actually taught the girls about how to translate. It was cool. We talked about the difference between interpretation, in which you can do things like simplify symbols and analogies, and translation, in which you need to retain each concept strictly. We practiced on some verses from Isaiah. It was tough - the verse used the word "them" - who exactly is "them"? My partner and I read the scripture very differently - a lot of discussion was necessary to understand the verse enough to even start translating it. Then you have to make specific word choices - for moth, should we use the generic sign for butterfly/moth, or should we spell it out? Ah, so hard! But so fun. I admit, I hold the performance of a good translator up with the work of a master painist or a star soccer player. Just amazing and beautiful to watch. I was impressed to see the girls just eating the activity up, too. You could tell - they WANT to learn ASL better. They want to understand church and be able to communicate with their parents. I felt a little vision for the incredible goodness of these girls open up as I watched them.
Friday, we did the coolest activity ever, which I will share here, so that all the rest of you working with the YW can put it in your idea bucket. :) For our hike, they brought an extra large water bottle, which represented a burden. (Our theme was "bear one another's burdens".) One person started with the burden, and when they got tired of carrying it, we stopped and they shared a real burden they had. Then someone else (or sometimes everyone else) would share a way they could help bear that burden, they'd take the water bottle, and we'd walk some more. It ended up being an absolutely lovely experience. We learned so much about each other, and felt so much connection - for example, the girl whose brother tells her she's faking it when she has anxiety was very encouraged when the YW president told about an anxiety attack she'd had once that kept her from going to camp - but also led to a friend getting baptized! After it went around the girls (there are only 4 of them...) the moms and leaders took turns. At one point, one of the girls said, "You moms should start a support group together." We all said, "That's what the church is. That's why we're here.' I think it was an eye opening moment.
In the afternoon, we had an optional activity to visit an elderly branch member who lived close by (40 minute drive...us and our strange ideas of "close"...) My girls had promised to go visit when they set up the activity, and Lizzie's mom made her go, so off we went. The visit was pretty dull for the girls, as they didn't do much talking, just sat around awkwardly. Ruth Ann, our elderly friend, wanted to talk to the adults, not the kids. I felt a little bad for them. I wondered for a bit if the trip was worth it for them. But on the way home, things got interesting. The moms sat in the front and chatted as much as possible without crashing - maybe I should have made Heather drive. The girls, meanwhile, sat in the back and, not needing to sign any more, started singing camp songs. Then they started composing camp songs, and then interpreting them so they could perform them at the camp talent show that night. I will share the lyrics, which go to the tune of "Sippin' Cider."
Cicadas are the ugliest thing
The world has ever ever seen (repeat)
They're in your hair, they're in your ear
I do not like them over here! (repeat)
The moral of this story is
If you see them, then squash them flat!
After that, we had a great evening with talent show and testimony meeting, then did a zip line and giant swing the next day (I mean giant - I still feel queasy from it 2 days later!) We didn't make it home in time for the NHD awards ceremony, so we grabbed some celebratory tacos and pulled into a library parking lot to watch the show from Laurel. Alas, the girls didn't win, but it was still a great experience. How many people can say they've attended a national awards ceremony in their smelly post-camp attire, sitting in a parking lot eating tacos? It was as 2021 as it gets :)
One more observation: on Thursday, some of the stake Young Women presidency came to visit. One of them happens to be an ASL interpreter, yay. The other doesn't know any ASL. We were doing the service project, then some crafts, so not a formal activity where you'd have someone interpret. I wasn't sure how she was going to chat with us appropriately. But it just worked out. At one point, we had me, a deaf mom, our branch YW president and the stake YW president all in a group chatting. The 3 of us who knew sign language were voicing as we signed. When the stake YW president talked, the deaf mom used her mad lip reading skills. I'm not very good at sim-comming (signing and talking at the same time) but I felt like the spirit helped us all understand one another, and everyone overlooked grammar, and it worked. Huge credit to the deaf person for being willing to let the conversation be a little loosy-goosy language wise, and to the hearing person for overcoming any fear of joining a conversation in a language she didn't speak. I'm always so grateful for the stake leaders who don't avoid us because they don't know how to talk to us.
Well, nap time is over, so writing time is done. Write some more later!
