All at once, now!

Now, i realize that in the past, i've spent many days, and many posts, on stress camp, and this year will be no different. except that by no different, i mean shorter, and more interesting. first, the general info, then the stories.

In spite of the fact that the forcast called for pouring rain the whole time, it only rained at night, leaving us hiking in overcast, or sometimes fog. the rain would typically start just after we had finished cooking the food over our real, actually-made-from-collected-wood fire. so we would eat fast and go to bed. it only rained the very last day on our way into camp, and it was really pouring. the kids were very greatful that it hadn't rained like that while we were out. the first day we hiked about 3.7km in about 4:30, the next day we hiked for 13.7km in 13 hours, the 3rd day we went 7.6km in about 8:00, and the last day we did 12.7km in 6 hours (6km were on a level road). for the first time in my experience ever, we had a fire every night and hot food for supper! this year was my first time ever to eat one of the meals (hobo dinner) in spite of the fact that this was my fourth time on stress camp. i had 9 kids in my group; 4 girls: Milda, Emiko, Courtney, and Meg K., and 5 guys: Tyler C., Mark H., Eiji, Donnie S., and Yohan K. somewhat unfortunately for him, tyler decided on the 2nd day that the knee that he had surgury on last year was not doing well enough to take him all the way to camp, so i called in and had him picked up. we all tried our best to convince ourselves that it was his loss...but i think most of the kids were jealous. everyone was really great- very service oriented, helping eachother with difficult tasks, encouraging eachother on difficult sections of trail, giving up food and water for other people, etc. it's really wonderful to be able to see that side of kids, to know there really is more to them than the "cool" people they try and pass themselves of as in school.

For the first time in my stress camp career my group was not the first one in! usually i get worried that the last hike will take a long time, so i always end up getting the kids up and going too early. this year would have been no different, but they decided to walk the last 6km to camp on the road rather than take the train, which is what i had been expecting and (not so) secretly hoping they would want to do.

So, now for stories. the first day was pretty normal, and we found a great spot to camp about an hour before dark. we only got lost once, and the leaders figured it out within a half-hour, so no harm done there. we were being shadowed by another group- they hiked up to our lunch spot just as we were leaving it. the plan was for them to give us a 30 minute head-start, but we never saw them again. the next night we heard from another group that they had met up with them earlier, and they were about 3 hours in front of us... turns out they took the same wrong turn that we did, but they didn't figure it out! so, they ended up on a road, and took it for hours, ending up in front of us. bizare.

The next day we had to have tyler picked up, and the guy that met us ("uncle" bob) told us of a great spot to camp, and a little shortcut to get there, so we decided to head for it. we ended up hiking for about 5 hours past dark, with empty stomachs and increasingly bad moods--the last kilometer of the hike is all stairs. as we were about at the top, i thought i heard something, so i told everyone to stand still and shut up. nothing....then we all heard it--a very loud gaijin laugh coming through the woods from the general direction of our planned camp spot. sure enough, another group had gotten there first--hours ago, in fact. not only that, but the only other good spot had been nabbed by the group that was initially behind us, leaving me with 8 disgruntled, frustrated, and hungry kids. they handled it well, though. we ended up all cramming in a little rest-hut, which we wrapped with our flysheets to keep the rain and wind out. very cozy.

The next day, in spite of the fact that i had promised the kids a shorter hike on day 3 in exchange for a 13-hour hike on day 2, and because i knew that there was only 2 good campspots between where we were and our goal and the other 2 groups would probably get them (i was right, i found out later), we hiked well out away from the other groups- 6 hours due west, when our goal was about 5 hours due south (don't tell the kids! they don't know we were that close!). that night we stayed in a hut that i stayed at last year with the stress camp group. last year, when it was pouring rain, the kids were dancing with joy when we found the hut. this year the kids were highly doubtful when i told them we'd be staying in the hut. it's not much to look at- the corrugated metal roof has rusted through in a few parts, the wood is all old and rotten, etc.- but it's still "inside".

The last day we are supposed to get in between 9 and noon. the last hike down from the hut the takes about 4 and a half hours, and it takes an hour to break camp...so i ended up getting the kids up at 3:15am. they, of course, don't know what time it is, but they did know that it was dark, and cold, and they certainly didn't want to get up. that whole trail is downhill, which can be pretty treacherous in the rain, especially if you're sleep deprived. we got to the train station at about 9, and the kids, assuming, it turns out, that when i said we were 3 stations away i meant we were like 30 minutes away, in spite of the fact that they had maps, and also in spite of my attempts to convince them of the distance, the kids, as i was saying, chose to walk to camp on their own 2 feet. i understand the mentality, but it turns out that a 10 minute train ride translates into a 2-hour walk in the pouring rain, which nobody enjoyed. but we got back to camp and had curry rice and a blazingly hot ofuro, and all was good.

We also had good conversation. the name "stress camp" implies that the purpose of the experience is to stress the kids out, which imlies that stress is implicitly good, which i don't really think that it is. there's no point to have stress just to have stress! it's a chance for the kids to try out their leadership abilities, their teamwork, and to see how much they can serve eachother and encourage eachother when they no longer feel like doing it. so we talked about goals and expectations, frustrations and dissapointments, leadership and followership, and stuff like that. the goal is that they will be able to take broad, general, principles and apply them to real life back at school and home, rather than only thinking of that stuff when they are in the exact context that they learned it in. in other words, it's my job to see that they learn stuff, and teach them how to transfer it to "normal" life. this was the first year i tried really hard to do that, and i feel good about it. i've got different ideas for next year, but for a first try, i'm pretty happy about it.