No Frills Weekend
To add to the disappointment of the safari, the group also found out they would be embarking on a ‘no frills” weekend in the New Forest next Easter. After the ‘excitement’ of the Wong Walk during the residential in November, the response of the group can only be described as ‘Noooooooooooooooooo!”, code for “critical shock”. We were told to pack the bare minimum but anyone who does not pack a deodorant will be subject to the wrath of 15 tired teenagers and Melissa.
Beneath the alarmed faces, and desperate protests however, everyone is really quite excited about the trip, despite our group leaders trying their best to freak us out. What didn’t really help was the slightly hysterical laughter coming from Melissa after each new horror was revealed about the trip. For example:
Us: Will we have to sleep in tents?
Melissa: Don’t think tents, think under a small sheet of plastic....
Us: What??
Melissa: Hahahahahahaha.
I think Michael, Mel and Malcolm’s general consensus after last week’s meeting, is that we are all pathetic town-dwelling teenagers who need to complain less. This admittedly, is true. But in our defence, this is going to be a slightly different experience for us, whereas by their accounts they spend most of their weekends out in the wilderness, living off berries, and fighting bears ect...
By the summer hopefully we will all be as tough and as self sufficient as them. But right now we are just a tiny bit terrified of the thought of 36 hours without sleep, shelter, or, shock horror, straighteners. On the upside, for those of us at college, the idea of getting 4 hours of sleep a night is a definite improvement.
We’ve been promised this will be a “bonding experience” Let’s hope it’s a difficult but rewarding journey that brings us together- think Frodo and Sam in Lord of the Rings - rather than a journey through the wilderness leading to break down of social structures, and eventually madness - think group of youths in Lord of the Flies.
But closer to home, the trust group, who contact charities to ask for sponsorship and funding, will be sacrificing their free time to begin to harass… I mean kindly request funds so that no one gets left behind here or in Ghana for that matter. None of us 16 at least. We promise…