The Ardennen

The Helicopter

After 14 hours of sleep on Friday night and 12 hours last night, I think I have finally recovered from three days of camp in the Ardennen - a hilly area in southern Belgium with lots of nice outdoor activities. Hiking, climbing, rivers and caves make for a nice vacation spot that is only 3 hours away from Rotterdam. It is also fun to see that everything is in French. Good thing Naomi can speak the language.

We were 6 teachers in charge of 44 eighth-graders and they really wore us out. We had a bit of an adventure upon arrival. After splitting into three groups (I was with a teacher much more accustomed to luxury hotels than hiking in the woods) we set off down the road with only a card showing which way we should go at the next intersection - no map.

The kids were horrible. They started out whining about having to walk uphill (as there aren't any hills to speak of in the NL), yelling into people's houses, and eventually getting into a shouting match that would have turned physical had we not broken it up. Not long after the fight, we missed a turn and ended up walking a couple kilometers out of the way. This time was filled with more whining, rock throwing (at each other and trees), and incredible rudeness toward any Belgian we saw. So I had a talk with them about how they were ambassadors for their country...and that calmed them down for about 5 minutes.

Ropes Course

Eventually I decided we needed to turn back and needed to institute the rule that if anyone was walking behind me they would be cleaning toilets when we got back to camp. This worked like a charm as we had more than a few stragglers. Finally we were back on the right trail and were making good progress for about half an hour. Then the trail narrowed until it disappeared up a steep hill, and we were lost again. This time some distance away from any civilization. The students began to cooperate a little bit and made the decision to press on instead of going back down the hill.

After littering the forest with garbage from the break, we stumbled upon a road. Of course the little chart we had was useless at this point because who even knew if we were supposed to be on this road - but the other teacher continued to use it anyway. Eventually we came to a crossroads and the kids were getting tired. I recommended we turn back so that we could find our way home, but the group chose to take the path that lead downhill. So we did. They were beginning to work together - this was the goal.

The path that started out wide enough to drive a small car on eventually crossed a couple streams and narrowed down to nothing. It simply ended. I had absolutely no idea where we were and it would take a couple hours to find our way back - although I hoped to follow the stream down to civilisation. The sun was going down. Everyone was tired and hungry. We were completely lost.

Rock Climbing

A few students were scouting the area when things went from bad to worse. I heard some sliding, a scream, then tears. One of the children had slid down a hill (certainly not the first time that day) and had twisted her ankle badly. I sat with her for awhile and determined it wasn't broken, but she was unable to put any pressure on it. At this point, the students began to realize our predicament and this made them cooperate. I figured we would be lucky to make it out of the woods before dark.

Some people continued to explore, and they found a path nearby. In fact, you could even call it a road. It was just 10 meters away up a steep bluff. Now the challenge was getting our injured explorer up the slope. After a lot of sobbing and help from me and some of the boys (the other teacher kept his distance) we somehow made it to the top without slipping again. Serendipitously, there happened to be a man walking toward us. The language barrier was breached just enough to gander the information that the main road was a mere 500 meters away.

So we set off as one quiet, cooperative group (this was the goal, right?!) and slowly made our way for about 250 meters until we heard more voices. I heard yelling and shouts of joy from up ahead as word trickled back that we had met another group! We had somehow regained the original trail! It was incredible.

Now the students returned to their terrible states as the end was in sight. We were unable to speak to the group as they refused to listen. I asked my parter to call for a car that could come pick up our injured young lady so that the rest of us could walk back at a normal pace. We were only a couple kilometers away - but it was already half an hour past the time we were meant to arrive.

When we eventually made it down to the parking lot, there was a bus waiting for us. All the students joyfully ran towards it with my parter pushing them along. The three teachers that remained (me, Naomi, and Ans) were furious. The walk was not finished, our students behaved miserably, and they most certainly did not deserve a free ride back to camp. But at this point there was nothing we could do as the driver was in a massive hurry.

Raft Building Activity - good thing it was sunny.

Later that night we had an extensive talk with the group and they seemed to be willing to cooperate. The next day they did. We went on quite the adventure. The bus unloaded and everyone donned climbing gear, including helmets. We made our way through 500m of pitch black tunnel. When the light grew on the other side, it blossomed into a hidden grotto that my sister would be quite envious of. An old helicopter was suspended from the cliffs and was the centerpiece of a massive ropes course. Their were trails through the steep hills that lead to caves. The most impressive sight was the 80m tall zip-line. It was a bit terrifying and many girls took about 10 minutes of tears before taking the plunge.

The rest of the camp was mostly enjoyable with some difficult disciplinary moments. We even worked in some American football which the kids took to pretty well - although at one point they were kicking it around like a soccer ball, and then pitching it like you would a rugby ball - but I was sure to fix those problems. Anyway, we made it back in (mostly) one piece, and tomorrow seems way to soon to start school again.

Speaking of school, if you would like an impression of what it looks like and who I work with, check out the video: http://www.leraar24.nl/video/2953. We are competing for a 50k prize for the most innovative school in the NL, and we are finalists.