Greetings from
South Africa,
I want to share
a conversation with you that I had with a student the other day.
“Russell, my mom
still doesn’t believe that we are going to camp! She couldn’t come to that
parents meeting you had, are you sure we are going? And will we stay in tents
or cabins?”
Three weeks ago
we told the group of fifty Leadership Council students that we were going to
spend a weekend at a camp at the beginning of June. The group got on their feet
and screamed. They hugged each other and jumped up and down, unable to control
their excitement. They didn’t believe us that they would have this kind of
opportunity and at no cost to their families.
To provide some
perspective for you, most of these kids have never had a weekend away. There is
the odd school trip for a few hours but vigorous fundraising has to be done,
putting pressure on the students and a financial burden on the families. But a
weekend away with rope swings, a challenge course, a zip line, a river to swim
in, and lots of friends to share it with is practically unheard of here. I am
someone that believes in the power and magic of camp (are you surprised?),
getting a group of likeminded people together in a wilderness setting to learn,
experience, and share. I cannot wait to see our 50 hardworking leadership
students arrive at Hella Hella Outdoor Centre where the cabins, field, river, and
mountains are all theirs for an entire weekend!
I responded
with, “Yes Bayanda, we are going to camp, we wouldn’t tease you with something
like that. And we will be staying in cabins; there will be three groups of boys
and three groups of girls.”
“So we will get
our own cabins then?”
“Yes, they each
have bunk beds.”
I didn’t receive
a verbal response following my answer. The smile said it all as Bayanda’s eyes
wandered to the other side of the room. I could see him imagining what this
camp could possibly look like. He was happily daydreaming.
At the moment,
the teachers are translating the registration, waiver, and medical form from
English into isi-Zulu. We will spend the June 3-5 weekend at camp. The other
day four of us went to see Hella Hella Outdoor Centre (Click here to visit Hella Hella's website). The setting is nothing
short of spectacular with a river winding through a valley with
Drakensburg-style mountains on every side of the camp. The kids won’t have seen
anything like it before.
The weekend will
consist of further teamwork and leadership training for the students. To our
knowledge, all fifty students are able to make it and we will use a variety of
facilitation techniques to engage the kids. Between the group of adults
attending, we will draw on North American style summer camp ways, leadership techniques from my masters
program, local Zulu traditions, and social work ideas from our intern who
has a social work background. And of course, being in a camp setting, this
learning will be surrounded by fun, laughter, and support.
“I can’t wait to
tell my mom. I think she might believe me now. Are you sure we don’t have to
pay? When do we get the forms? I can’t wait to go to camp!”
For me, this is
what it’s all about. Bayanda is such a shy boy; I could barely get a peep out
of him when I met him. Now he is excited about school; he is brave and asks
questions in class. Recently, he came up with the most popular idea for our
current drought awareness project. He achieved high marks on his midterm tests
and most importantly he is confident in his ability to succeed. And he is excited every Thursday for our Leadership Council meetings.
If you are
interested in learning more about how you can send a kid to camp, please click
on the link below. We have negotiated an incredible rate of $36 CAD per child
for the weekend at Hella Hella. This includes transportation, accommodation,
and food. If everyone receiving my blog email sent one child to camp, our
fundraiser would be complete. Currently, we are half way to our $1800 goal to
send our fifty leadership kids to camp. So we need your help to get the rest of
the group there! Thanks so much and I look forward to updating you after our
weekend in the woods!
Slangspruit Leadership Council goes to camp! Click here to learn more and donate now
Meet the kids below!
Several of the leadership council students posing for a photo
Some of the boys from the leadership council
Voting for the order of the projects that the kids want to take on.
The first project was a litter clean up and awareness project. The leadership council arranged a class vs class challenge to clean up the school. It was hugely successful!
