Into the Wild

October is always a month blessed with nice weather.  It also marks the beginning of the hiking season.  Not this year.  A strong easterly monsoon, a broad area of low pressure and a tropical depression over the Western Pacific are working together to bring us a lot of rain and strong wind.

After learning the lives and writings of Voltaire, John Locke and William Wilberforce in their humanity class in the comfort of an air-conditioned classroom, the Grade 8 ISF kids are out in the wild to experience the fears, feelings and life of a refugee.  This year annual camping (called experimental training) is designed to be tough and meant to let the kids have a taste of the life of a refugee.  On day one, after visting Christian Action Workshop, a service development for ethnic minority residents in Hong Kong, the kids are bused to Sai Kung and spend their first night in some makeshift shelters (no tents, just a few plastic sheets).  They have to cook their own food with some very basic stuff.  On day two, the "refugee simulation" continues, they will hike to no.19A campsite and spend the night in the wild.  On day three, they will experience a "shipwreck" - raft building at AYP Water Sports Centre and rafting to BGCA Bradbury Camp, followed by further hike to HK Adventure Corps camp at High Island Reservoir.  On day four the last day, they will have some group sharing and do their "Life Run", mini solo presentation, with a human rights theme.

Rain and wind outside.  Am I worried?  Not really as I know the kids are in the right hands.  True that it is going to be tough in this weather.  Some wet maybe, but the kids will grow wiser and stronger from the experience.