We have a summer kitchen staff member from Poland who has come to camp seven of the last eight summers, Joanna. She makes the homemade ice cream and the salads and salad 
dressings. She likes to stay after camp and work a few weeks rather than travel, although she does tour New York City for a few days each year before she flies out.
Every year she tells us this is her last summer. We have our annual last-summer-ever farewell dinner at Mamacita’s, Joanna’s treat. She orders the chimichanga, because they just don’t do Tex-Mex like that in New York, or in Poland for that matter.
I took Joanna to the airport in San Antonio for her departure. One the way, she talked about all the different kitchen managers she has worked for, and many of the co-workers she has made friends with, and reminisced about swimming in the heavenly waters of the Guadalupe River (also something she doesn’t find in New York or Poland for that matter).
So in her last email before leaving the US, she claims she doesn’t want to return next summer, but she asks, hypothetically speaking, whether she could.
Deen thinks we should hook her up with Bret Favre.
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I love reading this post on Joanna! I’m so glad she kept coming back to The Heart year after year. Her first year was when I was PD and she was hesitant at first, but I knew she’d love it if she stuck it out – and she surely did!