Come and volunteer at Camas

NEEDED: Volunteers to work 2015 season at Camas on the Wild West of Scotland!

Our volunteers come from all over and from all backgrounds – Scotland to the US. No qualifications or particular beliefs needed - just enthusiasm, willingness to give things a go, want to work with people and live off grid in the wildness of the west coast.

Rachel a 2014 volunteer said:
“I came to spend my summer in a beautiful location, to live simply and sustainably, meet new friends, grow my own skills and help others to do the same”

SO WHATS CAMAS?- The Outdoor centre with a difference

An outdoor centre housed in 200 year old cottages 1 ¼ miles away from the road on the Isle of Mull. With activities on our doorstep we offer nurturing outdoor and community experiences for young people some of the UK’s most disadvantaged areas. We have flexible programmes to meet our guests needs. Young people grow in confidence through not only outdoor activities but time in our organic garden, helping out in the kitchen or reflecting on their experiences.

WHAT’S THE JOB: work and live in community doing a mix of kayaking, cooking, wild camping, art and craft, gardening and hanging out with young people. We need you to support us in providing hospitality, fun, friendship and community spirit for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in a wild and remote residential centre.

WHEN IS IT: April to September 2015.

WHAT YOU GET: In return for your hard work you get

-          Experience delivering Outdoor Activities in a beautiful location

-          Have fun climbing, coasteering, kayaking, wild camping, walking, fishing

-          Develop Youth work and facilitation skills

-          Chance to live in community and make friends of a life time

-          Look out the window and see the sea everyday

-          Develop skills is cooking, gardening and maintenance

-          1 ½ days off a week and 2 weeks holiday.

-          £30 allowance a week, full board and lodging including own room

For more info or an application form, please contact:
Jon - camascoord@iona.org.uk 01681 700367

Take a look at what we got up to in the 2014 season:

The Camas Diary - http://thecamasdiary.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Flora & fauna around Camas

Around Camas you can find a wide variety of wild flora and fauna. Here a few things I saw this summer:

Goose barnacles

whale vertebraes

bumble bee

hoverfly

weird bugs

Mussels, barnacles, limpets

giant horsefly

sundew

heath spotted orchid

Cre8

It was lovely to have the Cre8 crew back at Camas. All the young people were new but the leaders had all been at Camas before. It was lovely to meet former Camas residents and volunteers and work side by side.  They felt like friends right from the start.

Camas makrel

Like last year, they were keen on the "Iron man challenge". The challenge is to go swimming every morning. It was amazing to see the young people standing by the shore, supporting each other and cheering each other on for getting into the water. There was a great amount of splashing and fun in the water every morning.
Although the weather was rainy and a bit grey, it was a great week. We had many games and songs in the common room at night. Some of the kids who weren't convinced at the start joined in later in the week and seemed to appreciate what Camas had to offer.
Many kids especially liked to go fishing and caught tasty fish.
During one of the art sessions, Tim built a fire lantern. On the last night after Camas Challenge he lit it and we watched it float up between the two cottages, light up and fall onto the wheelbarrows.

amazing group

Community kids

Jenga dragon

During the Community Kids week we had a "Camas Exam" where the kids made up questions in the Camas fashion. Here some highlights:

What is the exact temperature of your back left tooth? - warmer than the back right tooth

Why is a rock called rock? - because it rhymes with sock

What does music taste like? - Raspberry Pavlova

Who would win in a dance battle; a lamp post or a mail box? - Lamp post methinks

What is the exact weight of a feather? - Depends how fat the chicken is.

How many milliseconds are in a kilometre? - every single one of them

who put the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? - the little man who poos gold... he thought it was a loo-with-a-view

We also had an amazing Camas Challenge. The upstairs dining room was amazingly decorated like a jungle (as was some faces). After a scrumptious meal we went for a game of camouflage behind the garden.

Jungle pick nick

Hannah's pride and joy

during camouflage

Reflection at Camas

A Council of Animals came to Camas

And this is what they told us.

 

In places like Lanzarote sharks are hunted for the fins on their backs, which are cut off for things like shark fin soup. The sharks are then released back into the ocean where they will eventually die due to the fact they can’t swim without their fins.

In Australia it is law that if you see a shark near the beach you must destroy the shark which is horrible as that is the sharks natural habitat and they are being killed just for living because people view them as dangerous and violent when in fact they don’t attack unless provoked and the reason so many surfers get attacked is that the shark thinks they are a seal which is their favourite food. Sharks kill less than 10 people a year but they are still viewed as the most violent animals in the sea.

By Jade Reid from The Barn Glasgow.

I am a Giraffe. Humans affect my habitat by chopping down trees. This affects me by depriving me of my food.

By Courtney from The Barn Glasgow.

 

I am a Rhino, I live in Africa. I’m hunted for my horn. It is valued in China for its believed medicinal purposes. I am a peaceful animal. I am a herbivore. I am a mammal and take care of my young. In East Africa I am hunted so much that many of my family have vanished. People who protect us cut off our horns, now we are naturally growing smaller horns.

Now we have guardsmen with guns who protect us all day and night every day, because people come with helicopters to hunt us and steal our horns. People are doing this because they have hungry families.

I don’t know why humans are so destructive and don’t listen to each other.

By Soph from Camas

The Polar Bear, Scottish Salmon, honey bee, Tiger, Scottish Wild Cat, Koala Bear and more each also shared what life is like for them today. All had a sad tale to tell about how humans are influencing their decline.

A baby wren in the hand is worth more than a baby rabbit in the garden.

 Elvis concert on the Island

Since Hartlepool we have been obviously too busy to write any blog posts!

Today it is raining after idealistic weather of sun and more sun, and asking young people to make sure they put sun screen on and yet still get sun burn. Oh well. The garden is singing for the sun and the rain. The chickens were a bit clucky when I cleaned them out for my first time since I’ve been here of nearly a year. I’ve been looking forward to it all this time! Seriously. It is my favourite Saturday job. Probably others to…. I’ve always wanted to keep chickens… but keeping chickens as a committee is a bit weird, but the hens seem cool with it.

I think if you like cleaning you will fit in very well at camas, and if you don’t, you will quietly fit in with those who also don’t…. which is probably everyone. But we endeavour every week to make the centre spick and span for our new guests. Some play music out loud, some on their head phones. Some think a lot, feel sad or angry, some I just don’t know but the jobs get done anyway.

This week we welcome back two volunteers from previous years as Madeline left for a teaching job in Norway last week and Rachel leaves for a holiday in California on Sunday. Replacing them is Kitty and Hannah, who some of you may remember and know.

Last week we had Simy from Townhead in Glasgow.  A regular group who return time and again, we really enjoy this relationship with young folk, leaders and dogs. We can’t seem to get rid of Declan, it was his 5^th visit this year, I wonder if he is serious about volunteering next year… quite possibly. He is on Iona this week volunteering with Ionas young youth festival, along with Ryan who was also here last week. On the noise scale Simy were very quiet. Maybe it had something to do with the week before who were from GK experience who work with youth groups across Glasgow. They were very loud and somewhat overly cheeky shall we say, all loveable in their own special way. That goes without saying of all our guests, visitors and staff, even when we find challenges in these relationships. I was very impressed with the GK staff and young leaders. They were super amazing, so positive, caring and patient. They were put through the mill and I hope survived at the other side. We did, just in case you were worried and thanks for the treats!

                      Blackhill boys team work making their boat

                Ian voted most trusted to carry and launch the boat

The week before GK we had St Pauls from Blackhill in Glasgow, a very close group, you could see the strong bonds between the young people and their leaders. They sang lots of songs about their home, each other and camas staff which made everyone laugh and smile.

           Laike and Ryan and their creation the sea protector

The week before that we had a merge of two groups, one from a youth group in Muirhouse in Edinburgh and the other with a church group in Texas. The groups appeared to be very curious about each other and form bonds of friendship and cultural and language exchange, e.g. “yoll” a Texan way to address more than two folk. 

                       Grandma in the woods

                               Daae the lioness

The week before those guys was an American church group from Connecticut. Who had fundraised and volunteered in their local community to come on a pilgrimage to Camas and Iona. I was lucky to go to Staffa with them and see Fingals cave, puffins and basalt rock. Man I want to go back for a whole day!

                       Telling stories from the masks

So much happens each week, so many bonds are formed, conversations had and activities tried. Every week young people always seem to love getting involved with cooking and baking. Birthdays and anniversaries regularly crop up, with many different variations on chocolate cake.

There’s always a member of camas teams family, friend or partner around to add an extra je ne cest quoi to the place. My mum came up and impressed me by just getting right in, helping make lunch, go kayaking and chatting to the young folk and leaders. I was very proud. Is that daft? 

This evening Barry a bearded voli from last year is bringing his youth group ‘The Barn’ from Glasgow. Very excited and very glad they are arriving on time at 6, so we all had a well needed lie in till 12 when we started these dreaded Saturday jobs. The kitchen appears to be the most scary and avoided, except by a rare couple of brave folk.

There’s always more we want to share with you, but there’s so little time to do that. I hope these words feed your curiosity and hopefully see you again down the track some time not too far away in the future.

Love

Sophie R (Hagrid/Soph)