28 September 2011

The first day we all arrived and met everyone as they finished their first walk to Falcon College. It was interesting to meet all the people from different backgrounds that I hadn’t previously been exposed to.  Most were Zimbabweans, one Englishman, a South African and two ladies from Australia and New Zealand respectively.

The second day we all woke up at six and after breakfast we had a writing lesson with Harvey. After the lesson with Harvey we had another lesson with Nigel and he taught us how to capture and edit footage for film. That afternoon we went to Falcon collage for an exercise assessment which was rather hard. We ended the day with a walk to hangover hill where we had a photographic practical with Nigel Kuhn.

Our first run came on the third day with Nigel at six in the morning. The run was rather hard because we also had to stop and wait for the girls to catch up and one of the girls took so long Nigel made us do press ups. After the run we were treated to a swim which we were all given numbers and that was the order we had to jump into the water. I was number 10 and when I jumped in I almost drowned, as I cannot swim but it is something I will be working on. That afternoon we all went with Mr and Mrs Shultz to help with a wildebeest which unfortunately died in the end.

After it was dead I cut off the head and we burnt the body. That night we all went to Falcon collage for a formal dinner and to introduce ourselves to all the Falcon staff.

The following morning was greeted with another run in the morning with Nigel that was longer than the first run, however that morning we also got our bicycles. The first time I got on my bike I fell off and cut my elbow which was very painful. That afternoon we had to pack our hiking bags and cross a river where I tried to swim while all my friends helped me across. After we crossed the river we went on a hike with backpacks for 3 – 4 km.

MARS International came to Quest to teach us basic life saving skills. We spent almost the whole day learning about CPR for adults, children and infants. The following day the paramedics came returned to instruct us further in basic first aid and in the late morning an expert came to talk about scorpions and spiders.  Ollie put a scorpion in his hand and scared Aimee.

Our first aid practical was held in the afternoon and we were all successful.  Following this we went to Falcon collage to see a expert about snakes and we saw a Mozambique Spitting Cobra and we all could touch it.

Mr Schultz took us up into the mine dumps for our morning run followed by Ross the following day.  This time on the way back we split into groups and I had to carry Dylan back to camp on my shoulder.

Following out morning run with Ross we had to set up for toast masters lunch where a few schools came to Quest where it was being held. I was a bartender with Rob and Bryan. The lunch went well and after some the boys had a few games for everyone to take part in. That night we had the most terrible supper cooked by Rob and his chick. After dinner we all had fun at the bar where we all had a few drinks and listened to some music.

Patrick Chifamba