I do not wish that my blog becomes a sort of diary. My aim was always to narrate my experiences and reflections throughout my life and I wish to do this not in a chronological order. But it is inevitable that what I am passing through at the moment of my life, will affect my mood and constrain me to certain changes of my usual day to day routine. In fact these last few weeks my life and my wife’s life really changed due to the present circumstances which I often referred to and which I do not wish to repeat not to bore you with repetitions and with our problems. In fact this week I was going to skip writing my weekly story because I did not find some time to sit at my computer. So today Saturday 23rd February at 7.30pm local time, I have some free time and I will try to write my week’s story to publish in a few hours time. Besides, to be positive I decided to narrate something light which happened many years ago when I was still in my late twenties. This story is one of those in the category, ‘My teaching days’ which I miss so much.
In those far away days, at the end of the scholastic year, the Education Department used to organize what we used to call, ‘Summer Camps.’ I love summer very much and at that time of my life I almost used to spend all my time in the sea, so I never volunteered to go to these summer camps. But one summer, I had this very exceptional set of students who were more than my students, they became my friends and although they were eleven year olds, I can assure you that they were worth all my respect because their behavior was that of good, mature friends. Some are still close to me to this day. So when I told them about that year’s summer camp they all wanted to go on one condition……..that I go along with them. How could I say no? We talked and discussed our plans to have an experience of a lifetime and the best part was that I could also take my wife and children with me…….we had three children at that time. In the last few days of that scholastic year, the exams were already over, so we just spent the time in class discussing and talking together like old friends. We used to narrate some jokes, I used to tell them stories which they adored and often we would talk of our forthcoming adventure with great enthusiasm.
Our waiting was soon over and the day came when we meet at school. It was in the last week of August and the holidays were at their peak. This could be seen at the moment we met because everyone looked so different dressed, not in the school uniform but casual, with colored T-shirts, shorts and sandals or flip-flops. Some, including my family and I were nicely suntanned. A bus was waiting for us and when everyone was present we boarded the bus and set off to Ghadira which is a very popular sandy bay to the north of our island. There were some British barracks which were used during the war and we were heading there. These barracks are further inland from the bay. Some years ago this place was transformed to a holiday resort called ‘The Danish Village’. In an hour’s time we were there hoping to start a very enjoyable week together…….and what a week it turned out to be!
Our group consisted of about twenty boys, my family and another teacher with his wife and baby girl. One remark about this teacher; he was the wise guy type and from the first day he tried to take the group under his control. This he did with a lot of shouting and scolding and a lot of nagging. But without any arguments he soon learn a great lesson because all the children were so friendly with me and I treated them as friends without ever shouting at them or ordering them around to show them that I was the boss. After two or three days my colleague had learned the lesson and changed his attitude towards the boys otherwise he was going to be ignored for the rest of the week.
There were other groups from other schools. Every group had a large hall where the boys slept. Beside each bed there was a locker to keep their things in. There were also two small rooms at the end of the hall which were for my family and the other teacher and his family. The time-table of the day was interesting and enjoyable to all of us. Between the breakfast, lunch and supper there were excursions to the sea, even boat trips in the morning and afternoon. When the sun was setting there was time to go for long walks. There was also time to play football and other outdoor games. And when it got dark, gatherings were to be held around bonfires where all enjoyed singing and dancing. On the last night a competition was to be held among all the different groups who wanted to hold some sort of entertainment on stage. The winning group was to be presented with a nice, big trophy.
Now I am not going to narrate the obvious but I wish to mention two or three episode which I will always remember.
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On the third day something rather unpleasant happened. One of the boys had a harpoon; one of those harpoons which was just a long iron rod with a three pointed tips screwed on and with an elastic band. I was not aware of this because such dangerous things were never recommended. We were swimming, diving and enjoying ourselves. Suddenly I heard a boy shouting and waving his hand above the water. “Sir, Sir, please help me, come quickly, I am badly hurt!” In a minute I realized what had happened. He tried to use the harpoon to catch a fish. The water was shallow and he was just standing with his face in the water. But when he let go the stretched rubber loop the harpoon tip stuck in his calf. I took him ashore and unscrewed the rod from the three pointed harpoon tips. Luckily he was not bleeding at all. The boy was behaving bravely and told me that he was OK. I told the other teacher to go just up the road and get a taxi. I lifted the box and carried him to the waiting taxi and we were off to hospital. There they injected some local anesthetic and took off the harpoon. Some stitches were needed but he did not bleed much. The doctor told me that it was wise on my part not to try to pull off the harpoon because this would have caused a lot of bleeding. I wanted to take him home but he begged me to take him back to the camp. The doctor gave him some pills and told me that he should be ok but warned the boy not to get the wound dirty. When we returned to the camp all were relieved to see their friend back. In fact by the end of the week the wound was almost completely healed.
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The second episode happened on the last day of our camping days. It was rather cloudy and windy that day, so in the morning we went for a long walk. We went to a place called ‘L-Ahrax tal-Mellieha’. There are cliffs not very high from the sea. The boys were enjoying themselves climbing on trees, taking photos and practising abseiling with a strong rope which they brought with them. In fact one of the boys was experienced in abseiling. It happened that this boy was going down the cliff……I was watching to make sure that everything was done properly and safely. There where big bushes growing from the side of the cliff. James, the boy who was climbing down the cliff shouted that he saw a big colorful bird in one of the bushes. He tried to approach the bird and soon he told us that the bird was wounded probably it was shot at. He tried to take hold of the bird but at the same time he seemed afraid of it. I shouted down to let go the bird because it might hurt him. But James wanted to try once more and he succeeded to take hold of one of its wings. But the bird was rather strong and it freed itself and flew away. But being wounded it soon dived down into the sea and we saw it floating on the surface, flapping its wings as if crying for help. We helped James to climb up and we were really worried about the bird. I told the other teacher to take care of the boys. Then I tied the rope securely to a strong tree and I started my way down holding to the rope. It was quite a short way down and I did it easily. Once down there I swam towards the bird. When I was near it, I hesitated and was somewhat afraid to take hold of it as it was rather big. But I had an idea. I was still wearing my shirt. I took it off and spread it open over the bird. Then I succeeded to wrap the bird in the shirt so that it could not move. Once on land I tied the shirt with the bird in it as if it was in a sack and they heaved it up, untied it and threw the rope back at me. I climbed up the cliff and all were around one boy who was an expert hunter because as he said, he used to go hunting with his father. We could see that it was a big owl. It was yellow and brown in color. Blood was oozing from three different wounds. Simon, the boy-hunter was not the least afraid of the bird and he handled it with ease. We returned back to camp and he told us that he would take care of the bird. I warned Simon that by no means I wanted to see the bird killed and stuffed. He promised me that he will only take good care of it and try to cure it.
In fact Simon kept his word and in the days that followed he took the owl to a vet who took off three small lead balls from its body. Then he medicated the wounds and the bird recovered completely after several weeks. On the first day of the new scholastic year, Simon took the bird to school. During the assembly, the head made a nice speech about the story of the owl and then we set the bird free.
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As I said a competition was to be held on the last evening at the camp. Some days before this event, the group gathered to discuss what we could do. After several suggestions we decided to hold a beauty contest as this was easy to organize and it did not need much preparing and rehearsing. About ten of the boys volunteered to take part. Each boy had to use his imagination to dress up as a girl. Then someone suggested giving funny names to each participant. We came up with names such as Miss Take, Miss Fortune, Miss Ty…..and other funny words in our language which begin with the letters ‘mis’. There was to be a presenter to present each ‘Beauty Queen” and each one had to walk in a funny way as if walking on a catwalk. The boys taking part had to dress up and behave in a way related to their name. We left them to work on their own and each evening they would meet in the hall while the others where around the bonfire. They would rehearse and improve on their act day after day. When the night of the show came there was a very nice and entertaining atmosphere. The parents of the boys were invited too.
The other groups did their show too but believe me when |I say that ours was by far the very best and everyone laughed his heart out. The big, nice trophy was ours.
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When the week passed, we were really sad that it was all over. It was a great week and a great experience which each and every one of the group will never forget.
Qoute of the day:
To be happy in life, you must learn the difference between what you want and what you need