Give Kids a break

At CHICKS i found out about how the other half live. Not to say I'm well off but in comparison to some peoples lives, mine has been perfect. The CHICKs respite breaks give those kids a time to have fun and get away from the problems in their lives. None of them are to blame for the situations they're in, they deserve a break.
So when they arrive the smiles start. As with most things, when you share them with others the joy multiplies. So the Kids arrive and make friends with the other 15 children on camp and they all somehow get on. Everyone comes from different places and few know anyone else before camp. But there's an innocent thing about young people that means that somehow, when it comes to having fun, they make friends instantaneously.
Although it's somehow more then just smiles. As the week goes on they conquer their fears and really learn to trust people once again. For some that means everything. It shows that people do care, and the people at CHICKs really do, whether that's the people in the office, the supervisors or the volunteers who all just want to give kids a childhood to remember rather then forget.
With swimming, games and adventure the weeks are consistently exciting with so much to do.  Not to mention the surroundings to the two centres in Devon and Cornwall.  Deep in the countryside with fields for miles around.  For these children from built up areas across the country it's a vast contrast to life back home.  Some may never have seen the sea.
Overall they go home at the end of the six days with a new lust for life and that new found hope which they've been given by CHICKs and all that goes on within their breaks.
Check them out at:  www.chicks.org.uk

Behind the bully

As a child I was bullied, that's just how it is.  Lots of people get bullied especially if they're short and ginger, a bad mix.  I can't complain that badly, my bullies got to me but were not nearly as bad as the stories I've heard.  Not to say it didn't matter.
So when I see bullying I hate it.  So when one of the kids at camp was loud mouthed about people I did not like him.  He summed up the people from my experiences and made me despise him.
He was placed in my group on the wednesday when we were given free roam of crealy theme park.  Great.
We went round several rides and he was having fun, we shared some jokes and ran round like crazy.  However it came to the swinging ship and they all wanted to go on except him, the bold, loud kid was now the nervous little boy.  I tried to quell his fears but to no avail.  So I stood off with him and we talked about stuff before racing each other to the toilets, jumping a fence!  It seemed like he'd expected me to put him down and when I didn't he realised he could sort of trust me.
Then we all went off to the flumes where he refused to go down on his own, scared, but there was a 2 man donut and he decided he'd be alright if i came down with him.  By the bottom the fear had gone.  I had however seen him for who he really was.  Which became even more prevalent that night.
I settled down to read them a story which so far had been difficult every night, it was still difficult.  But he butted in to talk about his life, his dad was in jail and he lived with his grandma.  What a way to live.
You see he's just like any bully, they're not essentially bad, a lot of the time its just the way they've been treated.  It's to protect themselves, they often have low self-esteem and by putting the Target on someone else people don't focus on their faults.
I'd like to say that he didn't bully anyone for the rest of the week but I'd be lying.  He had gotten better though but it takes more then 6 days to fix some issues, you just have to do what you can.
To be honest you'll never stop bullying, but some people need to be told that its not acceptable and others might just be lacking someone to care.  Most of all no matter how bad someone is I believe that if you give them enough chances they'll show their good side.

Dare to Dream!

I spoke to the Boys' Brigade juniors about dreams the other night.  What they wanted to be.  There were a lot of answers!

• Bus Drivers
• Policemen
• Engineers
• To be strong
• Teacher
• Actor
• Firemen
• Paramedic

The list goes on...  But one kid said astronaut, only one, but what a cool dream.  He's a clever kid and i hope he gets there.  If i can help i will but it got me thinking about my dreams and my ongoing dream of doing something incredible as an engineer.
How much better can you get then engineering something to go into space.  I hadn't really though about it before but what a cool dream!
I stumbled one day after and it found a video on spaceflight.  That was almost feted.  It talked about the steps we're making in commercial space travel.  Although I'd caught it before it just meant more this time.  The main runners are of course Virgin Galactic.  They've already started to build a space port and made it into space several times testing the original Spaceship 1 and now the updated Spaceship 2.  The first to make a commercial space shuttle that made it to space.  Not only that but completely reusable.
Incredible.  A massive jump in technology from the days of Apollo for which we all think when we dream of space flight.  It's become possible.  Not only that but how much easier will it be for our junior to achieve that dream.  At $200,000 it's still out of the price range of most of us but it's there for the taking nonetheless.  Something i would love to be a part of.  A whole new sector that needs engineers. A reason to get up and get going!
We'll see the first commercial flight in the next year or two.  It's no longer a dream, it has become reality!
http://www.virgingalactic.com

Curiosity killed the Cat.

Our BB joined up with another company for a summer camp of fun and frivolity.  All in all about 14 lads between 11-18 years of age and 7 officers.  Which was a massive difference to the BB camps back home where 3 churches youth groups of BB and the Girls Brigades unite to make an 80+ strong camp.   But it was still great fun although there were some who had problems.
There was one Kid who was quite young and got it in the neck a lot.  He wanted loads of answers and would constantly ask questions.  This annoyed the man in charge who would shout for him to put his hand down and consistently criticised the boy.  Then one of our boys decided to criticise him as well, one of those people that gather a following and soon everyone was joining in.  There was no real malice in it but it soon got to this boy.
He had a camp way about him and gay jokes became non-stop by half way through the week.  It ended in tears.
The lad who'd started it came over to everyone one lunch and made a gay joke too far, nobody laughed.  I saw the boy behind a bush crying, i don't think anyone else noticed.  I'd gotten to know him a bit by then and found myself sitting next to him, a situation which i'm getting far too frequently these days.  I'm not fond of speeking to anyone in that state, but he needed someone to give him a leg up.
He told me what had happened.  This innocent kid had let slip that at points his eyes often wandered whilst in the toilets.  Now puberty is a difficult stage for most people, especially if you're as curious as this one is.  But telling people something like that is just foolish especially on the current popularity of gay jokes.  He spoke without thinking.

I told him that not one person had laughed, they'd also seen me with him and i could see the guilt when they saw him crying.  We talked about it and i joked about it with him before he wiped his eyes and we headed over to the others who guiltily tried to cheer him up.
But the jokes continued soon after.
I spoke to them all that night about my experiences with bullies as a kid, when i was once a small lad who got picked on.  It was more about dealing with bullies then anything but also how people can change.  They understood it at least.  But more then that, i gained respect for it, which they'd also gotten from seeing me helping out the crying boy.  A different type of respect to the main officer, not through fear.
I caught up with the ringleader before bed and we had a chat.  Several of the others joined in and i discussed how they'd feel on the other side of the bullying, or what if one of their friends was gay and saw them making jokes.  Rationalising a situation is often better then disciplining.
For the rest of the week the boy received no bullying from the boys.  The camp got along perfectly.  When someone said a gay joke they were told off, not by me though, but by the ringleader.  A u-turn.
People can change!

The Beam Engine

I went for a ride the other day around the island only to find something new.  A beam engine, open and running.  Eastney Beam engine.  A steam Powered Giant!

There were originally several of them to pump the cities increasing sewage away.  A dirty job, but one beautiful engine.  Restored to its condition in 1887, they've done a terrific job.  The building houses 2 engines although only one has been fully restored but it runs near perfectly aside from a squeaky seal.
Very late on in the era of steam it's designed perfectly to make it as efficient as possible.  A condensing engine using a mixture of Newcomen's original vacuum powered pistons by pulling the low pressure piston and James Watt's expansion Pushing behind the high pressure piston giving even more power and efficiency.  The steam is produced in a boiler in the room next door by burning coal and water is superheated through pipes before being sent to the cylinders.  Each engine has 2 cylinders, one high pressure where the steam is first expanded, before the steam is exhausted to the low pressure where air and water is jetted into the cylinder to cool the steam quickly creating the vacuum to pull the piston.  Each piston is also double acting so once the steam pushes the piston one way, the superheated steam is allowed in at the other end pushing it back again.  Using as much of that heat energy as possible and turning it into work to pump the sewage and water below.  The Watts link keeps the piston shaft perpendicular to the cylinder with beautiful movement attached to the massive beam above which is then attached to a flywheel to keep it going and a governor keeping the pace steady.
But the Victorians took pride in what they did and not only was it powerful but built as a showpiece of engineering, a thing of beauty.

Get straight back on the horse

Back on a my first week at CHICKS and I've got yet more to say.  Just so much goes on throughout a week.
This time i want to tell you just how happy the kids get when you get them riding high on the back of a pony.  Chicks has a running contract with a local stables and all the kids get the chance to go horse riding.  Something i sure didn't get to do when i was a kid, in fact even now I've never got riding lessons aside from donkey rides!  It really does give them something special, to talk about forever.
They each mounted a pony and the volunteers, i.e. me, took the reigns to lead them round.  It was one beautiful day.  But i got the rebellious pony and it really wasn't too excited about getting out and about on this day.  I was leading a young girl who was very nice and to my surprise made a complete fool out of me on the football pitch when i first met her.  Not that I'm that good at football, but 8 year olds rarely have great ball control.
Anyway, we took the kids up to a soft floored riding area and begun to get the basics.  We had been pre-warned the night before about the slightly eccentric style of the lady in charge but it didn't stop all the volunteers from giggling the whole way through.  She walks like a cowboy from a western and sings the instructions to the kids in time with the horses.  I'll admit it works perfectly however is rather humorous to the point where we were still laughing when we made it back to the home.  However part way through and i admit i was being tested.  As i said I've never had the chance to ride a horse and the basics i know are from theories I've heard and very primitive.  So when the horse began to play up, i struggled.  It started by stopping for a snack whenever it liked.  Then it would get slightly excited and drag me forward for a bit before i pulled it back in line.  It seemed to be going alright and the girl was doing very well and loving it when we reached a part where i had to let go of the reigns and just walk along side...

It went fine in and out of the cones as she controlled it till it got round the end cone and thought it had lost me, so it bolted and started cantering off to my bewilderment.  I had to chase it down and being in wellies that was no easy feat.  But i grabbed the leading rope and stopped the runaway before it made it too far.  The girl loved it, i however, did not.  That was on the worrying side!
That marked the end of the first set of kids and i was boiling over from the heat.  We walked back to the stables and the Kids dismounted.  They had really had fun.  What's really great is just how much they had actually improved and gained control.  I however had gotten no better, proven by the pony stamping on my foot, wellies aren't made for protection from lumbering oafs.  I swear it did it on purpose as well.
We got some water on and although talk had been made to change my pony we still ended up heading back out with the same annoying pony with another kid mounted upon it laughing as the pony made a fool out of me.  Immediately it was playing up again.

Realising i was at the point of melting and loosing control as the pony rebelled one of the supervisors relieved me of duty and took command, i felt better when she struggled as well though.  However the worst was yet to come.
Toward the end there was a race of sorts, the volunteers all pondered round as fast as they dare but it came down to 2 french stable hands who were leading the larger horses and they were up for a race.  They cracked the whip out and got some speed up.  But when one of them turned, the boy on board didn't follow, he rolled off the horse and fell to the floor...
The supervisor ran over to his aid.  The lady in charge walked on over, looked him up and down and said "right then, back on the horse".  I don't think he even considered what she said when he found himself back up on the horse.  Well that was easy.  He was fine.  But we were pretty shocked!  That's one heck of a life lesson!