Portsea Camp Day 1

Loading of the kids and their stuff onto the coaches.

The welcome and outlining of the programs and expectations.

One of the dormitory rooms. One kid said it looked like an orphanage.

The walk along the beach to my groups first activity...

'Canoeing'.

The second activity, the giant swing.

The mess hall.

Wednesday, September 7th.

For camp I was given the assignment of being the teacher in charge of any medicine required for the boys and Libby was given the job for the girls. This required us to set up a desk in the hall and meet and accept any medicines that the students needed for the next three days. We also had to sign out any epipens or inhalers that the students have in the school sick bay and one medical bag for each of the three buses. The bag includes just about everything you could expect to need.

The weather for camp was predicted to be warm and sunny, and much better than the last few weeks. The buses (air conditioned coaches) were loaded quickly and we were on our way by nine. and driving by 9. On board the three coaches we had seven teachers, one education assistant, four student teachers and four volunteer parents with 150 kids. We arrived at Portsea by eleven and immediately mustered in the assembly hall for our welcome, introductions and explanation of the programs we would be participating in. This facility used to be a military installation in the fifties, but was converted to a camp after that. The instructional leaders are not teachers as this is not a curriculum driven camp, but rather an adventure type camp. They are young university aged people.

The site has a number of sleeping dorms around a large parade ground. Don and I are sharing a suite with a bedroom and a living area that also has a bed in it, so we have our own space. All of the activities on either on the surrounding grounds or on the beach below.

After that we had a quick settle in and then it was time for lunch. You can imagine the noise and excitement of 150 students as they ate. Following that they had a bit of free time in their rooms to get settled in.

Then it was time for activity number 1. The kids are divided into eight groups with one teacher assigned to each. I was in charge of a group 7 with 18 kids and one parent volunteer. Our first activity was 'canoeing' or kayaking. We had a quick introduction and a walk to the beach to get the kayaks. We paired them up and sent the kids out two per kayak.

Two girls were too scared to go by themselves so the leaders got a three seater and I tried to go with them but the surf (which wasn't too big but was very pushy) kept banging the boat into our shins while we tried to get in and tossed us around a bit, so much so that the girls decide not to go. So the leaders got me a single kayak and asked me to paddle out and supervise. I started out (with my camera in a waterbag thankfully as I got pretty wet), but then the student who played the captain of our First Fleet play at school, turned out to not be very confident on the sea and bailed. The leaders then asked me to take his seat in the kayak with his partner. We paddled around for about 10 minutes then the time was up and we have to go back to the beach. This was an interesting introduction to camp here in Australia.

Then we headed back up to camp for snack. That was followed by activity number 2: the Giant Swing. One student was strapped into the harness and the other 17 kids pulled the rope to raise her up until she says 'stop'. Then the leader pulls the release rope and the kid swings. Each student got one turn and the early ones got bored after their turn, as it took a while to get one kid out of the harness and the next in it, and they didn't want to pull for everyone else.

Then they had some free time in their rooms or outdoors where there was a footie field, a soccer pitch and a large slide. This was followed by dinner (lasagna and salad).

Next up was the night walk. We were lead by one staff. We started out with all the kids (with their 'torches' or flashlights) and leaders along a path and then onto the road. The moon was bright enough that we didn't need the torches and you can imagine how quiet we were (not!). Somehow half of us got separated and walked further than we needed to.

One of the parent volunteers phoned Don and a camp staff member came out to see where we were. They guided us down a different path than we were supposed to take to get us to the beach. We walked back along the beach until we found the rest.

We sat on the sand and were supposed to look at the sky, stars and the lights around Philip Bay but the kids were more interested in playing with the sand and talking. It was impossible to get the attention of the whole group (or hold it), so we walked back to camp where they had a bonfire lit for us. Again it impossible to get that many kids to cooperate. We tried to sing some songs but Don was actually booed when he suggested something. We gave up and sent them to their rooms.

I administered the required medications and Don and the other male volunteers put them to bed. Surprisingly they seemed to go to sleep quite easily.