Five in Fifteen: LEAP Camp

I've been volunteering in a mentoring program at a math & science magnet school called LEAP. On Thursday, I started learning about a camp some of the kids were going to for the weekend. The camp is for students who have been taking extra tutoring in the eight grade in hopes of getting into LEAP. It is run by current 10th and 11th graders, so they can hone their leadership skills. They go to this camp place in Franschoek in the winelands / mountains and spend half the time on leadership and team building games and the other half on science experiments. Only some of the kids who are invited to the camp will get into the school.

I had some adventures trying to get to the bus on time, so instead I went with one of the teachers who was not heading out until after school ends at 5:15pm (the kids are there something like 8am to 5:15pm M-F and there's optional tutoring on Saturdays and lots of students usually show up). I ended up spending a lot of time with the teachers, three who teach at LEAP and three or four who teach at the Learning Centers for the middle schoolers preparing to get into LEAP. This group consisted of a white South African, a black South African from Langa where the students are from as well, two coloured Muslims, a Zimbabwean, two from Democratic Republic of the Congo and one from Mauritania, if I remember correctly. Throw in the two Afrikaaners who run the place and we had a good mix. Between us we spoke English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Swahili, Zulu, and Shona, at a minimum.

When we got there Friday night (though lovely mountain twisty roads at sunset, which was nice) they were working on an experiment and then it was basically time for dinner. The kids were sent down to firepits with chopped wood, a pot and hamburger patties and made their own dinners. I'm not sure I could do that in eighth grade, even with someone older helping me. Brahm, one of the guys running the camp, cooked for us, and something in the seasoning of the burgers was absolutely amazing.

The second day included experiments with bubbles (always fun) and a team building game I've never seen (and I've seen a lot) that involved one team mate in a blind fold, one who can talk but not see the blind folded person, and the rest of the team being able to see but not talk. Then there were hidden balls or something that the blind folded person had to find with the help of the rest of the team.

... and jumping off some rocks into (very very cold) water! Yay! I wasn't going to go swimming, but I can't resist freshwater and streams and all that. The river at this point almost looked like a man-made swimming pool / spa in some rich person's back yard or an overpriced hot springs.

That night the kids had a talent show. (I'm also trying to upload some video, stay posted maybe.) These kids sing, dance, do spoken word, skits, sometimes all at the same time. There's this really cool dance that they do with big rain boots, clapping and stomping that's great to watch. The choirs (boys, girls and mixed) always dance when they're singing. It was way fun.