The course involved the kids spending 5 days out in the wilds of Sai Kung country park, walking from camp to camp with all the food they would need for the week, and the tents. And as the week progressed they became responsible for all the navigation and team decisions as well. So at the start of the week the instructor takes a leading role in the group, but by the time we got there we were just checking they didn't kill themselves.
The trails throughout the park are sometimes quite rough and overgrown and usually very steep! So for kids who have never walked on anything but concrete, never walked up a hill or stairs, and never had to walk more than from the door of their chauffeur driven Merc to the lobby of their luxury apartment block this was like climbing Everest. Every time they saw even the smallest hill to climb, or any sort of animal on the road they would scream "OH MY GAAAAWWWWDDD". They all have ridiculous American accents, and well with the large numbers of hills and animals you tend to find in the wild my ears were bleeding after a few hours. Most of the kids are pretty fit, many play a lot of sports when their not studying Shakespeare or practicing the violin or brushing their pony. So it's not a lack of fitness that makes them so slow, it's just that most of them have never left the city. Some of them don't even realise a place like this exists just a couple more stops along the subway from the city.
To them, we are almost gods. Just because we can walk up what to us seems just a gravelly hill (it took them half an hour to get down this one). I think they also found it a bit odd being instructed by a Scotsman and Englishman and a Finnish woman. I reckon they now think all Scottish, English and Finnish people are crazy lunatics who live in the hills and hunt animals.
All in all the kids may be very academically smart, but they are thick as mince at everything else. They struggle to walk up hills, and actually physically can't walk down them (instead they just sit on their bums and slide), they just seem to have no independence and no idea how to do anything for themselves. I thought I was bad not being able to iron or cook without some catastrophe, but at least I can open a tin and walk downhill!
The final challenge for the kids involved sleeping under a makeshift shelter on a desert island thats about 5m wide in the middle of Port Shelter and then making a raft and paddling it back at 6 in the morning. Another instructor took over from Sean and I at this point as supposedly we're not qualified enough to go anywhere near water.... Maybe just as well though, I've got a feeling there may have been a few more "OH MY GAAAWWWWWDDDD"S when they saw the island!
I think the kids do get a lot out of the course, and hopefully learn some life skills. Even though I think many of them don't really enjoy it, and see it more like torture than education, they might look back upon it in later life and be glad they did it. Most of them will never have to open a tin or walk up a hill or do anything for themselves ever again. But maybe they can at least know the hard work their servants have to go through just to bring them a meal or wash their clothes. If these kids knew just how lucky they are they might not have moaned so much about having to put up a tent or open a tin. Many will never have to work, they're parents are rich enough to fund them for life, and for those who do work there will be no job interview and no grumpy boss to keep them in line, they will inherit their parents empire and be the boss from day one. Obviously I can't talk about specific kids or mention anything personal about them, but trust me, YOU will have bought products from some of their parents companies and some are from billionaire families.They're not embarrassed about their wealth. I think in the UK they would be a little more modest and certainly wouldn't be boasting about how many billions "daddy" made last year. But they are the next leaders of the commercial world, and many of us mere mortals will be employed by them. It feels good, even if it's just for a week to be the one they look up to, the one they consider superior.
Next week is the same sort of idea, but with younger kids. It should be a little less intense, and we certainly wont be marooning them on an island.
All in all the kids may be very academically smart, but they are thick as mince at everything else. They struggle to walk up hills, and actually physically can't walk down them (instead they just sit on their bums and slide), they just seem to have no independence and no idea how to do anything for themselves. I thought I was bad not being able to iron or cook without some catastrophe, but at least I can open a tin and walk downhill!
The final challenge for the kids involved sleeping under a makeshift shelter on a desert island thats about 5m wide in the middle of Port Shelter and then making a raft and paddling it back at 6 in the morning. Another instructor took over from Sean and I at this point as supposedly we're not qualified enough to go anywhere near water.... Maybe just as well though, I've got a feeling there may have been a few more "OH MY GAAAWWWWWDDDD"S when they saw the island!
I think the kids do get a lot out of the course, and hopefully learn some life skills. Even though I think many of them don't really enjoy it, and see it more like torture than education, they might look back upon it in later life and be glad they did it. Most of them will never have to open a tin or walk up a hill or do anything for themselves ever again. But maybe they can at least know the hard work their servants have to go through just to bring them a meal or wash their clothes. If these kids knew just how lucky they are they might not have moaned so much about having to put up a tent or open a tin. Many will never have to work, they're parents are rich enough to fund them for life, and for those who do work there will be no job interview and no grumpy boss to keep them in line, they will inherit their parents empire and be the boss from day one. Obviously I can't talk about specific kids or mention anything personal about them, but trust me, YOU will have bought products from some of their parents companies and some are from billionaire families.They're not embarrassed about their wealth. I think in the UK they would be a little more modest and certainly wouldn't be boasting about how many billions "daddy" made last year. But they are the next leaders of the commercial world, and many of us mere mortals will be employed by them. It feels good, even if it's just for a week to be the one they look up to, the one they consider superior.
Next week is the same sort of idea, but with younger kids. It should be a little less intense, and we certainly wont be marooning them on an island.
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