A wonderful week with school students

Saturday 24 March

We have just had the most amazing week.  The school camp arrived promptly on Monday and everything worked out well.  The kids were fantastic, they came with two wonderful teachers, and the weather stayed dry and warm enough for swimming but not too hot for farm work.

As usual we had a camp meeting to allocate chores and farm main tasks.  Most of the kids would have preferred to work with the goats but they agreed to other tasks and played paper, scissors and stone if two people competed for the same thing. Then they all put up their tents and had lunch. After lunch we did tours of the farm and house and swimming.  The big thrill was meeting a large feral deer on the hill!

The work was done willingly all week and the kids related well to each other offering help when needed.  For afternoon activities they learnt about wilderness first aid and then divided into two groups, one to set up and act an accident scene and the others to decide on roles in the rescue attempt.   A teacher arrived with latex, make up and other stuff so that the kids could create alarmingly realistic wounds on themselves.

The first group acted a tractor accident where people and tools all got tumbled over together.   The tools and a huge tree branch were the hazards that had to be cleared and then the rescue team had to examine the accident victims and try to stabilise them until help arrived.  One teacher amused me by acting as the helicopter.  A young girl made the situation more confusing by acting as some one having hysterics and it all felt very real.

The next afternoon they swapped roles and the second group set up a house fire accident.  Here the victims were spread out and two decided they had been bitten by a snake dislodged by the fire.  It was just great to see everyone learning by play and enjoying it so much.  We did have a real situation when the young buck pulled the casing of his horn off and blood pulsed everywhere. The kids helped treat him and we stopped the bleeding by applying pressure.  The kids were all able to help, use the skills they had learned and keep calm.

For main tasks we got a chook shed painted, the ramps into the goat shed relayed and repaired, a fence put up, the old boats moved and manure fetched for the garden. In fact it was amazing how much work got done considering that many of the students were small girls. Having two teachers who were fit and pitched in helped of course.

The students were sad to leave and so warm towards Edd and I that instead of relief, I actually felt sad when they had gone. We have three more camps to go this autumn and I am not expecting the others to all be quite so outstanding.  The camp next week is only 4 days because of Good Friday so I have had to plan shorter main tasks.

We have had the first good rainfall of the year today.  My poor trees needed it very badly.   It is a good thing it came at the weekend and it has saved me at least two hours of watering work.   I am rather hoping it will clear up by Monday when the next group arrives.