Being a kitchen staff at Camp Seneca Lake

the dishes area

the sink - usual scenery -

the place where you sleep 

 the water you drink

Being a Kitchen Staff at the Camp Seneca Lake Pen Yann NY

Hi everyone,  for those who are going to work at Camp Seneca Lake (Pen Yann NY) as a kitchen staff I have some bad news. If you are placed to CSL by CCUSA, I strongly advise you to read this blog, because there is nothing valuable than experience. First of all, you have to fully understand that you are going to work very hard. Unlike Work and Travel positions you can not travel and work simultaneously, rather you WORK and THEN travel if you have any money left . The over working problem is due to the fact that Camp Seneca Lake hires minimum kitchen staff and give them unfair responsibilities to compensate it. So be ready for being exploited from the very beginning to the last hours. At Seneca Lake there is no laundry staff or cleaning staff,  but only the kitchen staff. Which means you are responsible for everything and you will work relentlessly just like a medieval serf. Once you enter that camp, you have to work untill you buy your freedom in the States. I deliberately say “buy your freedom” because if you do not fulfill your contract (working till the end of the camp) your visa is immediately cancelled. Therefore whenever you complain they threaten you with canceling your contract (means you have to leave U.S.A immediately) and make you pay compensation fee up to 900 dollars. During working days ( six day/a week) you are going to both cook and clean as well as take care of the laundry. Seriously, if you  are planning to have some free time during a day, I had to tell you that you are not going to have ANY free time. Since your position is “kitchen staff” and your task is ambiguous, they expect you to devote your life to that kitchen. For instance, when you have done with the dishes, the kitchen manager will direct you  to clean the freezing refrigerator after that another task will be waiting for you . Do NOT think that in return of your over effort, your kitchen chief will be satisfied and give you a break time. It never happens, please understand that the more you give them the more they want from you. Also, if you  think that you are going to practice your English, it is another dream. Because no one will condescend to speak with you there. What you are going to hear is just command sentences like ” clean there, come over here, look that corner is dirty, sanitize youselves” etc… I am really sorry to tell you the hard truth but knowing them beforehand is better than having the worst summer of your life. Moreover you are going to be given total 6 off-days but beware of the fact that if you arrive kitchen 3 minutes late in the morning, the manager usually have your day off back and get you to work on your off day. As I said the few number of the kitchen staff is obviously not enough to run such a big restaurant but the kitchen management find the solution by forcing everyone to work on their off days by finding trivial excuses. Moreover if you naively imagine that you will have the opportunity to visit places on your off day I again have to tell you that most probably you will not. No one will take you out and there is also no public transportation. If you are lucky the friendly maintenance guys can take you out. The places where you are going to stay and live are nothing special than stables. They are just wooden cottages in a derelict condition. All kitchen staff live in the same cottage 8 people together, imagine how nightmare it is. The situation of the girls is slightly better they live in two cottages 4 people for each just next to the kitchen. Another problem is the boys cottage is very far away from the kitchen approximately it takes 10 minutes to walk and in the very early morning at 5 A.M. you will have to run that path. At night there is no light inside the camp literally you have to look at the stars to find your way to your cottage. By the way the bigger campers and the most of the camp counselors can use the golf car but as I said the kitchen staff is considered as a second type of human, you are not allowed to drive it unless you drive it secretly. In order to survive at CSL you need many personal items like shampoo, toothpaste, raincoat, lighter etc. But do not think that you will be brought to WallMart Geneva ( supermarket) whenever you need. Your kitchen manager is going to tell you that she drives you there if you work hard. Shortly nothing is done as a favour, you have to pay everything back with your labour. The worst part of the camp was the working hours, not exaggerating you are going to work approximately 10 hours in a day. Maybe just reading here 10 hours does not mean anything to you right now but let me tell you…. In CSL kitchen there is no time slots like many other camps have, which means everybody works every single day and every single hour. As your job is not specific you are going to be abused as much as they can. There were seemingly 3 positions in the kitchen which are rotating everyday. Counter, dishes, dining hall but as I said everyone is responsible for everything for example if you are dish person on monday and you have done with dishes after hours of hell when your job is done your manager will tell you to go and replace the garbage bins and then chop mushrooms for pizza and then go and rearrange fridge and then go and clean coffee bar ….. in CSL kitchen whatever you do you will be never allowed to go and rest unless it has been 10 hours of working. There is no air conditioning in the kitchen and the washing machine is dated back to World War 2 which makes washing the dishes quickly impossible because it breaks down frequently. Many forks, spoons and plates emerged dirty out of it but no one cares because no one wants to buy a new machine. Don`t be surprised the water of the Camp Seneca Lake runs brown because of the mud in it. When you serve brown water to campers they take it back to kitchen and ask what it is. Your kitchen chief will tell you that you should add more ice to make water look less brown, a tricky way to fool campers. Another issue is if you get ill, nobody will believe you , even they will state that you pretend ill to evade the job. You will be left alone and do not expect the nurse to take care of you. For them you are not valuable enough, you can be easily sent back to your country and replaced by one phone call. As you know, to be eligable to attend the CampUsa program you have to be an university student. However, at the camp nobody respects you and your education level, most of the counselors treat you as if your whole life was confined to that kitchen. Unfortunately, you are most likely to face different kinds of aversive racism there.              
Believe me there is no any SENSIBLE point in going CSL kitchen for working 10 hours in a day just like SLAVES. At the end you are going to be given approximately 1700 dollars which is NOTHING compared to your labour. There are manifold disadvantages of Camp Seneca lake which I do not mention. I feel obliged to tell you that these are NOT exaggerated, sensitive or subjective ideas. Before writing these points, I listen too many Camp Kitchen experiences to be able to compare objectively. Those things I have mentioned are specific to Camp Seneca Lake Kitchen. Many other camps throughout the States have much better conditions. I strongly advise you to read these thing to your parents before leaving Russia, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Turkey, Slovenia, Bosnia, Kazakhistan, Korea, Bulgaria, Mexico etc for  your Work and Travel dream. Rethink before experiencing the worst summer of your life.


For another experience of CSL kitchen staff please check this link and listen to the song.
http://soundcloud.com/azatminsafin/csls-kitchen-staff-dish-and-pots