Saturday 11 July 2015

English Martyrs Hartlepool 15-19th June



This week we had a secondary school youth group who travelled all the way up from Hartlepool - which was an adventure in itself before even making it to Camas. The group’s ages ranged between 12-16 years old, which was quite a variation to the two adult groups that had been staying at Camas previously. First impressions of the group were that they had a large amount of belongings – I think they brought more luggage for 5 days than some of the Camas staff had brought for the whole summer, however it is good to be prepared!

At first I think Hartlepool found the life of Camas very diverse to their usual lives; with no electricity, meat-lacking meals and being in a faraway land that is very different from typical civilisation. At the beginning of the week I think the group found it challenging to be able to see the depths of their sparkling potential at Camas, however once the group started settling in and discovering more about Camas, you could really feel their enjoyment radiating when partaking in the different activities we offer, with climbing and kayaking and a competitive raft race bringing lots of laughter, fun and happiness to the group.

The Camas challenge was the most beautiful night of the week with the most amazing feast consisting of 5 different types of pizza - I think some of the group were relieved to feed their cravings of meat with a mega meat feast pizza. The decorations embraced an underwater theme, with lots of shells collected from the beach, water coloured hangings all around the room and many different painted sea animals hanging from the ceiling. Walking into the room was like swimming into a different underwater dimension. Once the feast had finished, we moved onto a stone painting gallery for reflection and then onto a game of sniper for the entertainment. We trekked through the depths of the garden and into the wilderness where we played an epic game of sniper (hiding in bushes, long grass, behind rocks and within the heather and charging back to base before the sniper could see us).
Thinking about the week it was a real learning curve, with some slightly more challenging memories and some wonderful ones too. I think highlights of the week consists of lots of fishing where the group really embraced and enjoyed fishing in our beautiful bay. I think a personal highlight for the Camas staff would be when the group taught us the cup song, a definite new experience for many of the Camas team. I think Hartlepool would probably agree that another memorable moment would be finding the lock in the upstairs rooms and using it to hide themselves away when the word ‘chores’ was mentioned.

Thank you for coming to stay with us Hartlepool, you were a very colourful group bringing a very colourful week! J