Stress Camp '08
Day 1
(At last...)

One of the things we started doing a year or two ago is releasing the group information to the kids about a week in advance, so the kids know who they're going with, and there's time to have a meeting or 2 before we're actually out in the woods. It works really well--I get a chance to tell the kids what's important and what's not, how to build a fire in the rain, how to poop in the woods, do the maps/compass thing, etc. One of the things Nelle and I talk about, that we learned from someone who went through the same Masters program Nelle's in now (in Leadership, if you were curious), is that you have to be careful where you place the stressors when you're doing leadership training, or any sort of "learning game". If it's an easy initiative, make the groups stressful; put them with people they don't know or wouldn't usually hang out with. If it's a pretty stressful environment, you have to ease up in other ways. Which is why we don't wait until the day of to announce the groups anymore. And now we can pack ahead of time, so we actually leave CAJ at a decent time of the morning!

Because we were going somewhere that nobody had gone before, I actually had to go out and buy my own set of maps, which was fun--the kids are used to there being some safety net, some adult that will swoop in and save the day if they mess up, but I only had one set, and they got it! So, I said, I would have no idea where we were going. Of course, that's not strictly true--I had another map, just way more general and zoomed out. In addition to the maps, the kids that were leading got "the only" watch, so they had to get people up, choose where/when to eat and camp. More actual leadership!

As I said, I went somewhere nobody's gone before, as far as I know. I just didn't want to deal with bumping into other groups, competing for camping spots by cutting time off the group initiatives, etc. One of the other leaders were getting really possessive of their route, at one point actually telling Nelle that she wasn't allowed to hike on the route that she had marked on the maps, as he had apparently claimed it. I wasn't there when this happened, which is good, as i probably would have told him his butt smells like cheese, as a rebuttal to his elementary-school, "No fair, I saw it first" statement.

So I decided that rather than go out on the Seibu-Chichibu train line, and hike south to the Ome line, which is where the Okutama Bible Chalet (hitherforth referred to as OBC) and the end of our hiking is, we would actually take the Ome line out all the way to the end of the line, and hike a big arching route back. We were most of the way out there on the train--almost two hours of train travel--when I ran into my first major issue: we forgot the medkit.

Well, let's be honest here: it was totally my fault. When the team first assembled (that's just fun to say), i set it aside until we knew which set of students would be the first leaders--it's the responsibility of whichever team of kids is leading to carry and dispense the medicine (within reason, of course). this is one of the ways not only to give the kids more responsibility, but also means one less thing for me to cram into my pack. double bonus.

So, I admit, as I sat in the train, just a few stops from our destination, the idea did cross my mind (breifly, Brent) that we could do the trip without it. What a horrible idea! Ha! but still, I admit, i thought we would just be wasting our time waiting around for hours and hours for something that, in 4 trips, I had never needed, or really even opened, once. Instead, I did the "responsible" thing, and called some of the emergency numbers, to ask if we could get one delivered to us at all. no answer. i called some more of the emergency contact numbers. still nothing. silly people, i thought, they underestimate my ability to have an emergency before really even starting the trip!

I only ever ended up getting through to a teacher at CAJ, who really couldn't do anything for me. I sent the team ahead by bus, planning to catch up by taxi if i could, and wandered through the sleepy town at 10 in the morning, looking for a drug store. I ended up finding one, and even managed to get a pretty good little kit together, using my limited medical knowledge and some good old trusty hand-motions: medicine for pains, stomach stuff, poopy-stuff, etc. I then took the next bus up to the trailhead where the kids were waiting for me. all told, we lost about an hour. not really that bad.

The team was waiting for me at a pretty cool floating bridge. We filled up with water there, and hit the road. The route I had picked had us getting most of our elevation that first day, to make our way to a major ridge. There was (on the maps, at least) a shelter of some sort up on the ridge, and the plan was to hike well into the dark, but make the hut, so we wouldn't have to worry about setting up camp. it worked really well, actually. we were letting the kids lead, and we were going really, really slowly--interestingly, the 2 slowest people were guys. one of the slow guys had mentioned casually as we filled up water at the dam that he hadn't drank water since he could remember. thinking he was kidding, i played along, only to find out that he has drank only carbonated beverages since he can remember. mind-blowing.

Anyways, it would be drudgery to write about the actual hiking, other than that it was pretty steep and the weather was pretty much perfect. eventually, we made it to the hut, and the first thing we saw when we went in was a medkit with a note and a snack. evidently, someone had gotten the message, and, since we had all logged our route beforehand, the staff at the camp had hiked out and left us a present! even though we didn't have to set up camp, we still had to get a fire going and cook, and we didn't settle in until about midnight, so I decided to let them sleep in a little the next day. After all, this was more exercise in a day than some of them got in a month!

Pre-script:
This started out as the same entry as the re-telling of the events from Stress Camp 2008, but grew into something different, so i'll post it first, mostly just to get it out of the way. It's sort of long, and maybe a little boring, but explains the rationale and change that has happened within stress camp. It's at least worth a skim!

The mentality of stress camp in the past seems to have had more to do with teaching survival skills, showing students that they are capable of more than they think, and being a lesson for overcoming obstacles. Also it was good for them to have an actual adventure, where unexpected things happen and there are no easy outs when they get too tired to go on. And, to be honest, i agree with a lot of those reasons. it really makes me mad when kids give up on hard stuff. it boggles my mind that these kids have never, as far as they can remember, gone one single day without some kind of gadget. and they've re-defined "adventure" to be something you do on the internet! and so, for the last 1,000 years, stress camp has been going on as a time for kids to get out of their comfy little lives, and go experience a real adventure, do something really hard, and accomplish something they could be proud of. And i do think that these are good, true things.

The problem is, that's not really defensible. CAJ can't really sell that one to the parents. Kids have been trying to get out of it for years, and more and more, parents have started trying to get their kids out of it. And I can't really imagine the reasons that CAJ gives: "One day, we'll all be chased into the woods by the invading armies, and if your kids don't know how to build a fire, they'll never survive the first week!". Well, to be fair, it was probably something more down the lines of character building. So, in the past, the idea was to have kids have a "good experience" (in the sense that it was good for them, not that they enjoyed it), that they would remember for the rest of their lives, and be proud of. And what if the kids aren't proud of it? What if they're overweight and have a horrible time? The overwhelming response from students, when asked "would you ever do something like this again?", was "I would rather suffer death by fire-ants". Seriously. The single greatest effect Stress Camp had was to convince kids that adventuring outside is horrible, and we have earned the right to stay inside with our machines, so that's where we'll be. Maybe 1 kid in each class would go again, and they probably had that mentality before they went out into the woods anyways. Most of the kids (and they've started handing out a survey after stress camp every year, so this is actually based on fact) would never, ever do anything like stress camp ever again if they had the chance to.

So, something had to change. It all came to a head a few years ago, in the now-infamous "typhoon year" of stress camp (my first year as a leader, incidentally). parents were furious that the administration was forcing their child to sleep outside in the woods during a typhoon. and the administration realized that stress camp could no longer continue as it had been for eons, but would either have to be stopped entirely, as the values of stress camp no longer matched up with the schools goals for the students, or the school would have to figure out just what it's goals for the students were, and re-work stress camp to fit with those goals. which is what they did.

In some ways, nothing has really changed--we still go out and hike in the woods and sleep outside and build fires to cook over and things (the western, "leave-no-trace" fad has yet to catch on...), but now the leaders carry curriculum with them, too. The idea is that they learn some stuff from the experience, stuff that translates to other contexts besides being in the woods (although knowing how to poop in the woods is a valuable life skill, I've found). Each day there is a theme, and there are verses and quotes that go along with these themes, as well as questions and opportunity for discussion. The themes all have to do with leadership, and help the kids (in theory) to become better leaders. Additionally, for each theme there is an activity of some sort (blindfold walk, solo, etc.) that helps the kids to experience or think more deeply about the theme.

I was suspicious, I admit. I was skeptical. These are good things, in theory, but to do them well requires a fair amount of time, which means that much less time hiking, and actually going somewhere. Last year, i didn't really build in the time to use the curriculum, cuz I'd never used it before and had no idea how long it would take or what it would mean to use it. So, the activities were all rushed, the discussions ended up being more like lectures by me, and the whole thing really felt like it was forced, added on. Which, to be fair, it was. This year, though, things were different. Which was hard for me to do, cuz (ironically) it meant that things weren't as hard for the kids!

For starters, we hiked around in a circle....

And we're off to Wilderness Camp! (aka Stress Camp) Nelle and I are both leaders of our own groups, which is scary and exciting. it's also pouring rain, and it's supposed to keep doing so for at least 3 of the 4 days we're out there. so....that's...something. actually, i'm going on a new route that nobody's done before, and i think there's huts for me to sleep in at night, if we really need to. nelle, though, is going on a more central route, so she has to duke it out with 2 other leaders to see who gets the dry sleeping places. one of the other leaders has been sick for a while, and just last night they finally made the call that she wouldn't be going, so they're having to split up the 5th group among the other 4, so each leader is getting 10 kids, or thereabouts. my co-leader this year is a young-ish australian gal, and i'm pretty excited to have her going with. i have a 0-for-4 record of my co-leaders ever coming back to lead again, so i'm hoping she'll break that trend.

more from the other side!