So we survived. Four nights out in the wilderness of Ndubaluba. thirty young Amano scholars--all our Grade 10, 11, and 12 students, plus three Amano teachers. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the adults survived???
Anyhow, we were so privileged to get to share this experience for the past week and I think we all can agree that it was truly a great time of adventure, teamwork, and bonding through the difficulties.
This camp is a Christian Center focused on teaching group cooperation skills plus practical life skills to teens. So we spent the days doing fun activities like a climbing wall, canoeing, challenge courses, and races. We also got to have a "survival day," learning how to build fires, cook out in the bush, eat "unusual" foods [live worms, anyone?], dig a working well for our water, and set up camp for a night out under the stars.
One thing I was particularly happy about was being able to help introduce these experiences to so many youth who had never known of, never mind been able to participate in, such experiences. At the closing campfire we asked each one to make something that represented the meaning of the week to them. They whittled branches, wove leaves, and tied vines to make their objects. One young man came to me once he was done, asking for help. He had made a stunning sculpture—a replica of the climbing wall, but he was stuck when if came to putting words to his work. I spoke with him for a few moments and he seemed happier. Later that night, as we went round to share, I think he did just fine. “This is what I made,” he said, holding it up for us all to see. “And I think it gives me confidence. When I know I can try something new and can do it, that helps me in my life . . .”
It was also a real privilege to get to see sides of the students that did not come out so much in daily school and dorm life. One came in the midst of a miserable afternoon. The rains had come as soon as we started to set up camp, so our belongings, and selves, were getting drenched as we tried to put up our shelters. I noticed one girl wearing a very large, dress of a raincoat, after initially being unprepared, as some of the students were. Then I saw a very tall young man who had been showing impressive selflessness [the word I wrote on his final completion certificate], and I realized what had happened. He was dripping, sopping wet, and was engrossed in his work of hammering a homemade stake into the ground to hold up a tarp. He had given away his raincoat when he saw that she did not have one of her own. That was just one of a great many examples of the ways our students displayed their growth and character building over the week.
Yes, we survived; I think, in fact, we thrived!
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