Some people think that riding in a bus with 30 middle schoolers is a bit much. Well it gets better.
We would do one overnight trip with each of the classes. We stayed in youth hostels. There are hostels with very few amenities and other hostels more like a hotel. We stayed in the limited hostel. It would be heated with propane and had a propane stove. There was a kitchen and a few very basic pots and pans.
The overnight stay was to get kids to practise what they learned about food. What we found out is that they had poor teachers, Food was a riot. So pork and beans, ichaban soup, soup, tuna, sandwiches, hot dogs. Now remember there was only one stove so the operation took a lot of time. You'll never believe how many pieces of cutlery could be lost. They would leave their stuff in a place waiting for their turn on the stove and somebody would move it. So you he kids cooking. Others eating and some looking for their food. Bedlam is a good word to describe the scene.
There was always a male female hostel. We did have girls in out door ed.
They got water in a little stream close to the hostel.
Now sleeping accommodations? There were 6 bunks . We had around 20 kids. We had a couple of volunteer supervisors. So the kids got to sleep on the floor. It was some job trying to navigate through the bodies.
And in the morning we went though the same routine again except you add quite a few lost clothing items.
We had fun and the kids certainly did.
I'm not sure how much anybody learned.
