Sunday, August 8, 2010

W.A.L.L.

I recently got back from my WALL (Wilderness Adventures in Leadership and Learning) experience in Unicamp. Ever since I joined Unicamp, being a WALL advisor has always been something I've wanted to do, and this year I was lucky enough to have had the opportunity to do so. Was it everything I expected/hoped it would be? Well.. yes and no. It was definitely a good overall experience, just different from what I had anticipated.

We did our best to contact all of our kids beforehand to make sure they were prepared for the hike, and lo and behold, the 2 kids we weren't able to get a hold of apparently they had no idea they were going on a 26 mile hike... -__- And so the problems started there and continued throughout the week, with the bad attitudes and complaining being constant. Unfortunately, we didn't get to do any of our night programming on the hike, because we usually arrived at the campsite so late that all we had time to do was cook dinner and set up the tents and bear hang. This was one of the parts I was most disappointed about... I feel like it would have been a different experience had we been able to do some of the more serious night programming.. But alas, it was what it was.

Somehow, we all made it to the summit of Mt. San Gorgonio on Summit Day, with time to spare! Granted, my Co and I did wake up at 4 in the morning to ensure we had ample time to reach said summit.. But it was definitely worth it. I just wish our water filter hadn't broken earlier in the hike, because I had to hike farther back to get more water when we ran out. >_<

Anyways, I just hope our group of campers took something away from this hike. We tried to emphasize how they were role models for the rest of camp.. hopefully this message got through to some of them and they were able to take some of the things they learned on the hike back down with them to the city. If anything, they were able to spend a week in nature (whether they liked it or not), away from the city and everything else. I think that in itself makes it a good week, regardless of anything else. It was nice to just be in nature for that big hike and enjoy the stars at night.

When I returned to the campsite from the hike, everyone was telling me how tan I got, and when I finally looked in a mirror a day later.. they were right. But then when I took a shower when I got back home, turns out my "tan" was just a lot of dirt accumulating over the past week. o_O My skin is also starting to peel from some of the sunburns I apparently got. Physical ailments aside, it was a very interesting week, and I hope to stay in contact with some of my campers to see how they're doing back at home.

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