The English Schools Foundation (ESF), which is the foundation that Richard's school belongs, to has a great concept for giving students and staff time to participate in CAS (Creativity, Action and Service) activities. Each year they have a focus week where all students and staff participate in an activity for the week, that means there is no school and a wide variety of activities are offered to all students in the school. These range from activities in Hong Kong, to trips to New Zealand, Thailand, China, Spain, France etc to complete a range of activities either creative, action or service or a mix of the three. All year 7's have to attend the year 7 camp which was held on Lantau Island. Richard had hoped to go on the Golf trip to China, but it had a full quota of staff, so he was asked instead to go on the year 7 camp. This worked well for us as they asked if I would some along to help as well. So instead of being left for a week on my own, I had to experience the world of work for a while to keep me in touch with all that it entails. It was also a great opportunity to get a feel for what the kids are like.
I must say that I was a little disappointed that we were camping in Hong Kong. I could not see that you could really camp anywhere here, and I had thought of Lantau Island as the island of the airport, so how could this be full of nature and a good place to camp. But boy was I wrong. We had around 220 kids divided into 12 tribes whom we met at Central Pier and loaded them onto the Ferry to Mui Wo. From there we were bused to Pui O Beach where Treasure Island camp is set up. Pui O is a lovely beach surrounded by tree covered mountains. There is a small village nearby, but not a single tower in sight. Wow, there is country in Hong Kong. And boy did we spend time exploring it. Every day and night was chock a block with activities, so many that the kids were so busy that they did not have any time to get up to no good.
The first night however was pretty scary. We were in the tail end of a typhoon, and boy was it windy. I really did think that we were all going to be blown away and was sure I was going to wake to an absolute disaster in the morning. But of course our weight held down the tents, but that did not make it any easier to sleep with all the flapping, and naturally the first night sleeping on the hard ground is never that easy. Within a couple of days we were sleeping the sleep of the dead as we were so exhausted. And believe it or not, the kids were also so exhausted that they were all asleep before 10pm each night!!!
The Creative activities included things like working together to build a raft and then seeing just how long it floated in the ocean and working together to win crazy activities in the beach olympics.
Action included lots of treking, gorging (and unfortunately I do not mean eating a lot... but climbing a gorge) and kayaking and then the Service activity was beach cleaning. We walked around to another beach which is not cleaned daily as the public beaches tend to be, and picked up the litter that has washed on it's shore, most of it coming from passing boats including the regular ferries. The kids had to use a check list to check the different pollutants that could be found on the beach. It was a great way to get them to both clean up and think about what rubbish is being dumped, and despite it being pretty hot, they attacked the task with gusto. They also spent one day where we visited another island for a treasure hunt. The kids were given a map, coordinates and questions, and working in groups they had to find the answers to the questions by visiting the coordinates. They also were given money for the day so had to budget for their lunch and the ferry to return to the island, and they had to fill in an expenditure sheet so could not supplement their money with money of their own. We started the day with a 30 minute walk around a headland to the pier where we caught Sanpans over to the island. The kids were then let loose in groups of 4 to find the clues. Staff were not to accompany them so we just got to wander around the town soaking up the atmosphere and having coffee. I was sure the kids would get lost, or arrive back very late, but as they would loose 100 points for being late, they were certainly on time, and surprisingly they did not get lost either. After leaving the island mid afternoon, we ferried back to Mui Wo on Lantau, and from there had an hours trekking up to a peak where we had an evening BBQ followed by night activities that really required the kids to work together and trust each other.
By the end of the week we certainly got to know the kids well and left feeling rejuvinated as well as pleasantly exhausted... if that is possible. I was so looking forward to a nice soft bed!
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