Hammock Swing

I really like these hammock swings my son brought back from Nicaragua several years ago. He went there on mission trips with his junior and senior high school class from Chop Point. Chop Point is a kids camp in the summer and they run a school the rest of the year with about 100 students from kindergarten through twelth grade. There were six students in Jared's graduating class. No room to disappear between the cracks, something Jared liked to do. They have a sister camp in a small village in Nicaragua that serves the kids who live at the local dump. Great eye opener for the kids, on both sides I guess, and a chance to make a meaningful contribution.

We discovered Chop Point by accident during a very special trip down the Kennebec River. My late husband and I always loved boating on the river. We spent a lot of time kayaking it, and spent time on my brother's 30 ft cabin cruiser, sometimes sleeping on deck, waking up to the stillness of the morning, with just the other early risers like heron, eagles, fish, sometimes seals.

After Dan died, the boys and I decided we should scatter some of his ashes in the river. So Bill brought his boat to Gardiner and we headed downriver. We stopped to scatter them at Merrymeeting Bay - where the Kennebec and Androscoggin Rivers converge to run to the sea. Afterwards as we were talking, we noticed the school/camp onshore. Jared had been having difficulty at the public school (when your father's dieing it's difficult to concentrate on school work but the school just didn't get it) and we'd been considering other options. So it seemed kind of serrendipitious that we saw the school at that time, and sure enough when we looked into it, it was exactly what Jared needed. It was a Christian school and that kind of turned us off at first, but it wasn't rabid Christian and the people there were very intelligent and caring. Christianity had been important to Dan so maybe he sent us there to find it.

So anyway, Jared brought these hammock swings - made by the locals I believe - back from his first trip to Nicaragua. They're much better than a full hammock because they hold your head up, making it easy to read, write, drink, or just veg. And you give it a little kick once in a while to keep yourself swinging. Nice place to spend a sunny afternoon.