We were vegetarians for years and years and it took a major philisophical shift for me to become an omnivore.  I am now a passionate omnivore following many of the philosophies of Weston A. Price. Except we don't eat Pork or shellfish etc.  And that's as far as I intend to go on this meat eating journey. 

Well, I sent my kids off to a Christian summer camp for the first time ever and my 12 year old had the misfortune of encountering his first and hopefully last cannibal!  And I thought we've had some strange eating preferences!

Here's how it happened...

My dear son (ds) had the bottom bunk.  His bunkmate on top was another young 12 year old boy.  Well, my son has a VERY strong personality and this was his first experience away from home.  He did NOT want to be there at first and was very homesick.  His counselor was 15 and it was his first experience as a counselor.  As I told son he had to stay and this was going to be a great experience for him, and he would regret it if I let him back out of it now, I nervously looked for a "responsible" "adult" that would be overseeing this cabin.  It turns out that each cabin had 2 counselors and the Sr. conselor in the room, Tim, was at least 17 or 18!  I felt "much" better. 

Well there comes a time, even an attachement sometimes over protective mother, must let go and trust her children to the God who made them and loves them even more than she does (if that is possible).  So, I smiled, waved, and left my two oldest children at this delightful, rustic, Christian, horse camp.  It was a long week for me and the youngest child! (We went back to stay at my parents home so I wasn't TOOOO far away from the camp.)  It was a long week for hubby also, alone at home 8 hours away starting his new job. 

Early the following Saturday morning we packed up and headed to camp to see the Rodeo prepared by all the new horsemen and women.  The rodeo was nice but paled in comparison to the joyous reunion we had with our newly independent children after the rodeo.  I didn't cry all week until we got there and I saw them across the rodeo field.  I was so glad and relieved to see them.  They were really still there, and it appeared that they had not been seriously injured or maimed or anything.  (I'm sure they both cried with happiness to see us too --although one of them will never ever admit it!)

Well, almost the first thing our 12 year old did was show his father the impressive bite mark on his right forearm.  "Oh my Lord, Who tried to eat you?"  There were bruises from each of the teeth and scabs where the holes from the incisor teeth were beginning to heal over. 

Okay, who sends their child to summer camp and would even imagine that another camper would try to eat them?  This was not even on my list of things to worry and pray about --I guess that's why it happened.  I didn't pray, "And God, while you're helping him to fall alseep tonight with the peace of your angels all around, please help him grow closer to you through this experience.  Oh and please don't let any of his fellow campers try to eat him in the night."

So, anyway here's how he explains the whole thing.

DS "I was lying on my bunk, and this kid, the one on the bunk above me, threatened to put toothpaste on my pillow." 

I'm thinking, toothpaste?  It this instead of ketchup?

DS "So, I grabbed his arm so he couldn't squirt the toothpaste all over my pillow and I held on really tight.  He starts hitting me and kicking me and yelling at me to let go of his arm.  I kept holding his arm because I didn't see any reason to let it go immediately.  When I didn't let go of his arm, he kept kicking me and then bit my arm."

Me "So then did you let go?" 

DS "No, becasue I was backed into the wall at this point." 

Me "Don't you think you should have let go, then maybe he would have stopped biting your arm."

DS "Yeah probably. But I just barehanded him on the side of the head with my other hand and grabbed his hair and held his head down until the counselor got there.  Then Jordie kept kicking the counselor and screaming while they dragged him out of the cabin.  "

Me "Um, so what did your counselors do?"

DS "Took us both outside and talked to us separetly."

Me, "And how did they treat your bite?"

DS "Oh I took care of it.  I just spit on it, rubbed the spit in.  and then put some of my First Aid cream on it.  Oh and I asked the conselor if he thought Jordie (the cannibal) had rabies,  Don't worry, Tim (the counselor) said he didn't have rabies.  I said, 'okay, I'm fine then.'"

Me doubled over with laughter at this point. "You really asked that?"

DS "Yes, it was the only thing I could think of that might be bad from a bite."

Anyway, we had a discussion about the whole thing and found out that our DS had probably instigated the toothpaste threat in the first place by kicking the bottom of Jordie's bed, in response to Jordie dropping things on him.  No big surprise there. 

The only really distressing part to me was that the counselor was satisfied with our son's own medical treatment of the bite and chose not to report it or even take him to the camp nurse.  Upon calling the healthline the next day, they said any adult human bite should be taken to an emergency room for evaluation due to the possibility of:  "Herpes Simples, CMV, Syphylis, Hepatitis, Tuburculosis, or HIV."    I followed up with the camp and asked them to verify the absense of any of these diseases or contact with someone with any of these diseases by this camper.  They got back to me and said that according to the parent of the child he does not have any of these diseases, has not had them and has not been in contact awith anyone with them as far as they are aware.  We were offered the option of requesting blood tests but opted to accept the mother's word, trust God and move on. 

I must say, all told, I am glad to not be the mother that had to receive that call.  I would have prefered that the incident not happen at all, but given the choice of recipient mothers to be I am thankful to be the mother of the bitee and not the biter.