Life Lessons at Camp in the Philippines - by Frances Garnett

A week-long camp in an upland village in the Philippines introduces kids to "the wonders of the great outdoors", and teaches them survival lessons such as map reading, rope knot techniques, rappelling, mountaineering, orienteering, first aid, self-defense and basic disaster response. They also have activities encompassing science, art, physical, philosophy and faith, all of them designed to help the campers survive in the wilderness and provide them with skills they can use in their everyday lives, skills like doing laundry and cooking with they were glad to do once they returned home. At the camp, they were also completely "unplugged" from technology and gadgets. The students there found it to be a life changing experience, inspiring them to start changing society in positive ways, especially since their country is still modernizing, and its environment needs protection to ensure that it won't be damaged by advancements.

Personally, this sounds like a great camp, and something we could all use to start appreciating things more and taking steps to improve the world. At this time, though, most kids in the US probably couldn't deal with being "unplugged", including me, and may not really try to face the seriousness and depth that the camp has to offer, which in many respects is really sad that we nowadays rely on short, shallow spurts of Twitter and Instagram posts to brighten our day. I think the world just might be a better place if we could all spend time at camps like these, though unfortunately, most of us would choose to spend time on our phones or at TVs or computers being unproductive. In many very developed parts of the world, we've really lost touch with the environment, which is an important thing to get if we really want to get the benefit of a full life for ourselves and future generations to come. This camp seems to have really inspired kids, as they were happy to take on more responsibility of chores, while most teens would roll their eyes at doing "boring" or "weird" hands-on activities.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/603481/learning-to-act-now-not-tomorrow-at-e-camp