Almost two years into our time in Ecuador, we are still learning and exploring.  This week, we went into the mountains near Baños to investigate an idea for an addition to some Gapper programmes.

Baños is much loved of our Gappers – it arrives in the programme after some hard project work in the Amazon, and offers a break and some serious adrenaline pursuing.  Slowly, the time there has stretched as each group of Gappers tells us they love the place and want more time there.  Our latest idea is make it a good bit longer but include a completely different idea alongside the chill out time in town.

Baños sits in the shadow of Tungurahua, a very active volcano which periodically spits lava and smoke from its caldera.  Our plan is to work with a foundation who are trying to conserve the natural habitat on its slopes.  These forests are home to bears, tapirs, rare frogs, orchids, rare hardwood trees and some incredible views; all of which are under threat.  (Don’t worry, between their land and the scary bit of the volcano are deep valleys so there is no danger of lava flows arriving in the night.)

Part of the 2.5 hour climb up tio the lodge.

The forests are dense with vegetation; among which are rare trees that we are planning to work to preserve, creating nurseries using saplings and reforesting with mixed forest to replicate the natural, virgin forest that dominates these hills.  There are waterfalls and springs that are the very beginnings of the Amazon river – the water in them is going all the way to the Atlantic through the Amazon jungle.  Through the climb up we ate strange fruits, some of which were actually quite nice.  We saw a footprint of a tapir, and his bed; not him though.  We saw orchids clinging to the sides of trees and a spider that had died because he ate a mushroom and it took over his body from the inside (that’s the reddy/yellow looking thing in one of the photos below).

The lodge is simple, but “cool” for want of a better word.  You are up in the hills, cooking is on an open fire and the views are incredible.  This is a unique place and being there is extraordinary – the loss of a few creature comforts is a small price to pay.  There is mobile reception, which is frankly just depressing.

Above the lodge you reach the paramo – from there you can see Tungurahua and the glaciers of Cotopaxi and Chimborazo (the peak of which is the closest point on earth to the sun).  This is Ecuador at its best – a bewildering array of environments, beauty, friendly people, a few splashes of the weird and wonderful and then the chance to chill out in a great little town and have some man made adventures.

We recently ran a school trip for the British School of Nanjing, China, to our camps in Borneo.  The lead teacher, Richard, worked hard with our team to pull the trip together and then accompanied his students on their Borneo experience.  Here are a few words and some incredible pictures which Richard has pulled together after his trip which i think give a really good summary of some of the sights, sounds and experiences his team of students had.  Thanks Richard, and thanks to the team for their hard work on the projects and look forward to seeing a team from BSN next year.

Camp Maqui has played host to Camp Ecuador’s first “local’ school: local in this context meaning Latin American, they still had a full day’s travel from Venezuela.

The group from Monagas School, from the plains of northern Venezuela, spent five days at Camp Maqui, and a few days with the Otavaleños.  The environment in Santa Marianita is totally different from that around Monagas, which means, although we had the unique experience of all our clients speaking Spanish, they had an experience totally different from there normal lives.

In the middle of the week we had a sports day with Santa Marianita school, at which we provided lunch and the group devised some competitive games and prizes.

The group also helped out with the on-going project of the Guarderia at Camp Maqui, working hard on the loo block and the open area around the playground.  The building is so nearly finished now and we are excited that soon we will be able to open it and use it after all these months.

Their time in Ecuador also included a few days in the Otavalo area, exploring the culture and the making of artisanal products. The idea behind the programme with the school was to give an educational, fun and productive experience and the lead teacher Kristen Ahlers, who travel with Camp Borneo when at her old school in Taiwan, said “the students were provided with a good balance of service/learning/science/vacation, and that this trip has created many lasting memories.”

It wad great to have them here and we look forward to next year’s Peru trip with the school.

One of my first ever blogs for Camps was all about poop and how “human waste is where its at”.  It was a discussion about how we were looking at experimenting with bio gas digester’s and the intricacies of human waste.  Well our interest in poop continues, and whilst the digester’s weren’t a resounding success, valuable lessons were learnt and i am still keen to design, build and use digesters somewhere in our camps or locations.  

My passion for getting back on the jobbie trail was re-ignited recently when i was lucky enough to meet the head of the World Toilet Organisation, Dr Jack Sim.  Yes there is such an organisation and there is also a World Toilet Day which is in the process of being recognised by the UN (for your diary its 19th November every year).  Dr Jack is an inspirational character and whilst many may think its a bit of a joke, actually Dr Jack’s and the World Toilet Organisation message is a very serious one.  Did you know 2.6 billion people on this planet of ours do not have access to a toilet – in other words they poop (or as Dr Jack would say in his technical terms – shit) in the outdoors, meaning flies land on their business which then end up on their food, passing on all sorts of nasties, not only on to them but all their neighbours as well.  If you look at the Millennium Development Goals set in 2000 you can see actually sanitation, and therefore toilet ownership, affects most of them.  

The 8 Millennium Development Goals

Dr Jack’s mission is simple – to help the 2.6 billion without loos gain access to one.  And i think you should consider this mission every time you visit your little boy’s room, something we take for granted, day in, day out (assuming you are regular!).  I am interested to explore opportunities with Dr Jack and, in particular, he has a toilet production and distribution set up in Cambodia.  I am considering starting a toilet programme in Beng Mealea – we don’t want to just hand them out and so i need to think about how we “reward” families with toilets – perhaps assistance with technical construction work at the school project – the toilet and tanks cost $45 – what we want to encourage is what Dr Jack calls the “Keeping up with the Jones’s” factor, where families see others in fancy looking loos and want one of their own.  This combined with an educational programme and a “shame” factor of pooping in the open, will hopefully spread the desire for a toilet quickly and effectively throughout the community.

So watch this space for more toilet endeavours.  And of course, Dr Jack is also an expert on biogas digesters and composting toilets so he has been primed to have his brain well and truely picked in order to further improve and explore opportunities in the world of poop, especially in our camps trying to reduce our impact.  I thoroughly recommend you go and bookmark the World Toilet Org’s website now and get 19th November blocked off in your diary now!

And if you’re into Matt Damon then go watch this press conference…… 

I wanted to post a few pictures from the recent IB Conference in Kuala Lumpur.  We normally have a stand at these sorts of conferences, once or twice a year, and gives us a chance to speak with a wide range of International Schools from across the world.  Ann our International Sales guru was running the stand this time around and did a fantastic job of making it appealing and snazzy.  The star of the show were the amazing bracelets made by the women of Mantanani out of plastic washed up on the beach – they are now the must have item in all IB schools around the globe! 

We have been leading school teams to Mt Kenya for adventure expeditions since we started Camps 10 years ago. This time round we had our very first school from West Africa and they had a great time during their short trip. Peter is our in country Expedition/Team leader who joined them. This is his story………

Emerald School from Nigeria started their journey from the International School of Kenya (ISK) at 7am. The team, comprising of 11 students and a female teacher, had just attended a three day Global Issues Service Summit which was based at the ISK. Upon arriving at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, the group were tired but ready and excited for their adventure which started that very day by staying in Pelican House.

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We drove deep into the interior parts of the Ol Pejeta Conservancy searching for Pelican House which was located in the middle of the sanctuary. It was a great chance for the team to experience the beauty of nature and a nice view of Mt Kenya. We spotted Zebras, Giraffes, Gazelles and Buffaloes  roaming peacefully on the savannah plains. We arrived at Pelican House in time for tea and afterwards went out for a game drive within the conservancy.The drive was awesome, it gave us an opportunity to spot Lions “King of the Jungle” and other critically endangered species such us the Northern White Rhino.

My sleep was disturbed that night by some strange noises adjacent to our house.Very early in the morning I decided to investigate, I had a thought of a Lion in my mind but I was completely wrong. A HUGE Black Rhino was standing around a water hole just few meters from the Pelican House. It was making unnecessary horrific noises continuously. The team were so lucky to see a Rhino for the first time  in their life right there in the wilderness.

The next morning we drove safely to Nanyuki where we spent the next two days full on…

Late that morning we left for a Bicycle game ride.This is  an activity where a bicycle is ridden while viewing wildlife and it only happens in Ol Pejeta. Initially, comments like “what if a Lion jumps over and eats one of us, what will we do?” were exclaimed. I knew that they had never done this before and so I assured them that everything will be fine. The instructors are very experienced and are familiar with the environment. We all blasted with amazement as we rode along the marrum (dirt track) road to the inner part of the sanctuary whilst admiring all the amazing wildlife.

The day ended with a visit to a poor Blind Rhino who was named Baraka (blessing) after his tragedy which led to the loss of his eyes.We also visited Sweet Waters Chimpanzee Sanctuary that evening. It was fun to watch the Apes misbehaving with their own poo, one of the Old Chimpanzee became furious and started throwing its own droppings, unfortunately our guides’ face became the target! As we didn’t want to aggravate the chimpanzees, we left and drove back to camp.

Bush skills and team challenges were our last day’s activities, everyone among the team was excited to know what would happen in the field. Bernard, a bush survival skills instructor led the activities.

The first section was team challenges where the team split into two groups. Each group was to create problems by tying difficult knots with rope onto a post for the other team to solve. Then the groups swap to try to untie them. Group A’s knots were very technically and complex that group B couldn’t solve. Definitely they won against group B by tackling all their knots within the appropriate time given by the instructor.

The bush skills were fabulous,Participants had a chance to meet a real Maasai Moran (warrior) in the fire making and archery activity. He made the fire within three minutes by using two wooden sticks, unlike the team members who took ages, but in vain! It certainly is harder than he made it look!

The final task was rock climbing on a wall, a very interesting activity but tough, we had to wear special equipment for our safety before action, everyone tried up to their  maximum. Only 4 made their way to the top, as well as me, the rest were afraid of heights.Wow! That was a fantastic climax of our adventure at Ol Pejeta!

It was a blazing trip with lots of unique and unforgettable experiences  for the group…Many Thanks for choosing Camp International.

Blog compiled by Peter Kalenga Kai

I was the lucky one to escape from all the  hype of the Kenyan elections with a bunch of  Vonluteers just over the border to Tanga-Tanzani. See their story….

Jambo Jambo from Camp Tanga in Tanzania. What a crazy couple of weeks it’s been. We’ve invaded here to avoid the Kenyan  presidential elections, so Camp Tanga has gone from three to forty two people. It was quite a remarkable change for Joe, Maria and Alice but they welcomed us with open arms and we are like one big family.

The plastering in the Tanga trust house has temporarily been stopped and we have been involved in various projects.

On the first three days we helped the Mama’s in the village seaweed farm. We were unsure what to expect.However, I was pleasantly surprised. We had to walk out to sea in the morning and tie seaweed to string. Team A beat the record of completing 40 lines in total in two hours. In the afternoon we went to the Mama’s houses and bagged up the dried out seaweed and prepared the lines ready for the next day. When the seaweed is dried it weighed considerably less. The Mama’s only get paid approximately 7p per Kg.In England this is the equivalent to one text message! On average one lady can do 6 lines in a morning, with our help we managed 119 between 4 groups in one morning, this was a massive help to the community and as you can imagine over three days we accumulated  over a month’s income for the Mama’s.

The village livestock has a serious problem with worms which causes the animals to become malnourished and weak. They should be De-wormed quarterly but medicine is too expensive for this to happen. We pioneered a new initiative in Tanga where Camps De-worm the entire village’s livestock every 3 months. We started with cows, some of them didn’t want to co-operate and made it difficult for us to give them medicine! The men showed them who was boss and would not back down, we were victorious.

Next were goats! Unlike the cows the goats were roaming around the village. We had to run around the village catching them bringing them back to give them their medicine. David ‘the goat whisperer’ was on fire, carrying the goats back one by one.Then there was Luke, I’m sure I saw him on his back more than I saw him on his feet.

In the afternoon it was the chicken’s turn to be treated. They were pretty much the same as the goats, just flappier! There were a couple of casualties mainly caused by goats. David took a hoof to the shin and Will got bitten. Whereas Shauni was silly and got blistered from the sun but still managed to work as she has incredible self motivation!

We went back to the Trust house but this time we weren’t plastering but leveled and created a playground for the children. This involved the boys setting out on excavating an epic tree root which was great to release all your anger. Meanwhile, whilst the boys were dripping with sweat and working hard, the girls taught the locals, helping them with reading and writing English.

Once all the roots were dug up, the next step was starting to build a fence surrounding the Trust house in order to keep the animals out of the playground. We started to dig holes 6ft apart and 2ft deep, this was very muddy work. We spent 3 days building the fence, even though we had depleted numbers as some were having a great time in Zanzibar and 15 people had travelled back home. Not to worry too much, there are new recruits in camp, in the form of 7 new English gappers.

However it hasn’t been all work and no play! On the first weekend we arrived in Tanzania we went to the local night club. It’s safe to say a few too many tequilas were consumed! Ali P woke up on Sammy’s bus as she fell asleep on the way home and nobody thought to wake her up! We have visited the Tanga International Conference Center (TICC) and enjoyed a swim in the sea, We went to a local hotel for a cool down in the pool and jumped off the pontoon at The Yacht Club. This was all very lovely and then BAM the storm hit!! I got up at half 2 in the morning on Saturday night to check out what the commotion was outside, it turns out the small dome tents were flooding and people were rescuing their stuff. The Dutchees were sat in two inches of water with their little light not knowing what to do. We went around all of the tents and tried to put everyone’s stuff into a dry place. By three o’clock the rescue was finished and we were all laughing hysterically about the whole situation. Sunday was operation clean up we re-waterproofed the tents and dried out our stuff. Everyone pulled together to help each other and by Sunday evening everybody had somewhere dry to sleep.

We are heading back to Kenya tomorrow. We are going to miss the incredible view, the projects and all of the people we are leaving behind. However, we will be celebrating two birthdays, Shauni’s and Kate’s!

We hope you enjoyed reading what we’ve been up to.

Harlie, Will, Shauni  ,Abbie, Lauren, Holly, David and Annabella xoxoxo J

Tommie is just back in from Camp Tanzania which has been buzzing with students from Dubai…

I have been away in Tanzania for the past two weeks following up on a group of young enthusiastic students  from United Arab Emirates on their school trips. Gems World Academy came to Tanzania on a Week Without Walls program. 51 students aged between 11 and 14 with their 6 Teachers made the GWA team. I went and met them at the airport and immediately all the group members gathered around me, if only to say..here we are, bring it on!

The next two days the group was split into two, one group was engaged in repairing school furniture, desks, benches and Tables while the other group was painting and drawing murals on the walls of the kindergarten classroom.

On day Four the group left camp very early to go on a full day of game viewing at Tarangire National Park. They saw loads of Elephants as Tarangire is known to be the best habitat for the the world’s largest terrestrial mammal. They also saw lion, giraffe, and antelope only to mention a few.

On their fifth day the group was again split into two where group one went hiking at the Kidia falls. Kidia is on the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro the inhabitants are the Chagga people who are small scale farmers. The hike takes you through, banana and coffee plantations, small maize fields and a few homesteads where you will meet with the villagers who are very friendly and welcoming. It’s a steep descent and very challenging, but once one gets down to the falls it’s just stunning! The water is from the thawed glacier on Mt. Kilimanjaro and it is crystal clear and very cold!  On a good day one could see Mt. Kilimanjaro and the scenery and landscape are breathtaking.

On their way back to camp from Kidia falls the students were taken to an orphanage where they donated lots of clothes and toys. Charlie Cracknell later wrote to us to share his experience…

My experience in Tanzania was so different from my normal everyday life. The first thing that struck me was the beauty of the country and people. Everyone seemed so happy despite having so little which made me appreciate how much I have. We spent the first few days at a local school helping to repair desks and benches and also painting the kindergarten. During these days I felt a sense of achievement and that I was really making a difference to the children’s’ lives. It wasn’t until a couple days later when we visited the local orphanage that I met a little boy named Junior. I remember walking through the gates and being hugged by these little kids. It was really heart-warming. When I sat down, Junior came up to me and said hello. He gave me a smile and I remember feeling quite sad at the time because it felt like he did not know he no parents or that he had so little and yet he was still smiling. I knew at that point that I would always remember him.

By Charlie Cracknell
GEMS World Academy, Dubai

Meanwhile, the other group went out to help a local lady with her daily chores. Some students were fetching water from the stream, others were cutting grass for the lady’s domesticated animals, and some learnt how to cook a typical Chagga meal which they later all had for lunch. A great day to spend out of camp and have a hands on experience in the village and be part of some activities that the locals get involved in their daily lives.

Day seven was pretty much wrapping up and putting in final touches on the activities that the groups got stuck in. Some of the students tried their hand at Teaching. We organized for at least two students to be in a classroom to try and teach English. They were given text books and had very little time to prepare for the lesson but our volunteers did very well and got the local pupils learning and the sessions went on well. Thereafter the volunteers distributed a few donations that they had brought with them including, pencils, erasers, rulers, books and sharpeners.

In the afternoon our friends from Dubai played some games with the school kids and it was great fun to watch both sets of players battling it out.

Later that evening we had a nice barbeque dinner for our volunteers to symbolize the end of their stay with us and to thank them for choosing Tanzania as their destination.

Hat tip to all the students and Teachers of Gems World Academy for a job well done!

Asante sana!

On the 6th of February the three of us arrived in Kilimanjaro in one piece with all our luggage intact! We spent a luxurious day and night sleeping and recovering in Moshi before the six hour drive on to Camp Tanga in Mwambani village. The surroundings are stunning and we don’t think we’ll ever get bored of our beach view – we get the ‘wow’ factor every morning! The only downside is the giant red and black ants who have taken to eating us (and invading our tents!) on occasion…

We’ve been in Tanzania for three weeks now and our main project has been working on the local nursery that has been under construction for the past year. Currently, the 4-5 year old children have to walk six kilometres to the nearest nursery and as a result many of them do not attend. We started with levelling the playground, reinforcing the ground around the toilets before the rainy season floods them. We then concreted the ground outside the school and repaired the cracks in the building and most recently have been plastering the walls – probably getting more plaster on ourselves than the walls (or at least to start with!).

In the afternoons we’ve been teaching an English class in the school building – the students range from about 10-45 years old with varying levels of understanding. We started with “hello” and “how are you” but have progressed to heated class discussions on topics such as corruption, disease and the family. Being a small group has given us the opportunity to integrate with the villagers and their daily lives and we’ve got to know some of them really well! The children are always really excited to see us, and Joe is blossoming in his new role as a human climbing frame, they’re really cute and provide a welcome distraction from work!

On a typical weekend, we take a trip into Tanga on a Saturday morning where we visit the markets do some food shopping and learn about the history of the town. We’ve had trousers tailor made for us after picking out patterns from the material store. It was a shock when we first visited the ATM and discovered we are Tanzanian millionaires! – we’re still getting used to the exchange rate. In the evenings we relax, have a few Kilimanjaro beers and get thrashed in card games by Eliphas and Anderson (our camp leaders/buddies). We introduced Eliphas and Anderson to ‘Ring of Fire’ which turned serious fairly quickly – We drunkenly managed to make it to the local club belting lion king songs along the way. Club Casa was relatively deserted bar a few locals drinking – we enjoyed the Tanzanian hits – and are beginning to sing along with some of them now… We lost Eliphas for the whole night and found him enjoying a nap outside with a new friend (a homeless man). Sundays are usually quiet and relaxing – we’ve been to two of the local resorts – TICC and Tanga Yacht Club which we can only describe as James Bond-esque. Last weekend we treated ourselves to pizza and ice cream on Sunday night as a change from our usual Camps food (which is still delicious!).

Our peace has been disturbed by 40 new volunteers from Camp Kenya and things are different in Camp but still really enjoyable and our work rate has increased massively! We had our first day Seaweed farming today – it was very sunny and we came across many starfish and sea urchins – everyone enjoyed themselves and groups got competitive about how many lines of seaweed they could plant!

We’ve just got back from watching Coastal United (Team Tanga!) play a team from the south at the local football stadium – it was very lively and although the score was 0-0 the atmosphere was fantastic- A heady mix! We’re now going to go and cover ourselves in DEET before settling down to an evening of relaxation and cards!!

Pole pole rafikis, hakuna matata, chakula kitamu!

Alice, Maria and Joe
(sponsored by Simba cement (a coca-cola company))

Peter Kalenga just led the Hillcrest Preparatory School for a 4 day outdoor adventure at Camp Tsavo and came back smiling ear to ear…and of course had to share his trip with us….

After driving for 6hrs along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway, the Hillcrest Preparatory School bus emerged in the middle of the Tsavo wilderness and drove along the semi arid, thorn bush vegetation composed of acacias and camiphora trees. As usual red clouds were formed as the bus disappeared deeper into Rukinga Wildlife Sanctuary. The team looked perpplexed but excited about not knowing what to expect at the next stop after saying goodbye to their usual modern environment. ”That red bumpy road was nice!” One of the kids commented.

The group of 18 students (Age 10&11) and 3 teachers were out for their 4 day school trip to Camp Tsavo. They have hardly had any adventurous trips before and you could tell from their first approach that they were all really excited jumping up and down, screaming and shouting with joy.

That evening the team set off for their bushcraft skills course and a game drive. On our way, I was pleasantly surprised to see how enthusiastic the students were and fascinated by stories about animal behaviour and how the African bush men survived in the bush. It was a real pleasure to watch them fully participate in the footprint and spoor identification with questions flowing like a stream.

We believe Service Learning is crucial for young people to shape principals and create a strong responsible and moral foundation. To the Hillcrest students, it was a really worthy and rewarding trip. The feeling of humanity got in to them after arriving at Sasenyi primary school. They were shocked by the huge number of pupils squeezed in one classroom and the scarcity of learning facilities. They even felt sorrier for the kids who lacked so much compared to themselves and yet they were still happy to be in school. The background of the Sasenyi kids criss-crossed their minds and they started to compare their life back at home which is full of privileges.

This really gave them the moral boost to work tirelessly at classroom plastering and moving rocks ready for a new classroom foundation. That evening they had a great reflection of what they have experienced during the day around the camp fire…

Mt Kasigau hike certainly got everyone’s attention the next day. No one believed these young students would manage to ascend 1640 meters on the daunting paths of Kasigau at that age of 10 and 11. And if you thought they won’t make it then you were wrong. The team left early Friday morning for the hike and by 4pm everyone was back playing football. It took them 3hours up and 2½hrs down!

Congratulations to Hillcrest Prep students for setting a new record of being the first youngest group ever to climb Mt Kasigau! During the hike the team showed determination and accepted the challenge. They held on to one another at their own pace as they slowly maneuvered up the last peak to enjoy great views and celebrate their victory. On their way down the steepest areas turned to a skiing zone “bottoms down”! They all sled using their “bottoms” happily singing songs of motivation. I could not help but feel proud of myself having taken such a young determined group up and down safely.

“The mountain was awesome!” Miss Kartins said.

“Peter, we have now become strong and responsible, we have confidence and proud of ourselves.“said several of the students as they departed across the red soils of Tsavo…

Peter Kalenga