Lucy (SiEun) Y7

Our camp was very interesting and inspiring. We went to Wanlv Lake located in Heyuan, China. The staff and the activities taught me and other students about climate change & endangered species a lot. First off, the facilities and the hotel were much better than we expected. We had a chance to experience more about the ecosystem around the hotel than usual since it was located near to us. Next, the activities were very interesting and encouraging to us. They taught us about how the environment is damaged and how we have to act to help them. For example, we went for two long hikes and observed the raw information that we could see in the mountains. It was really hard and tiring for us, however, I believe that it was a great experience that we could not get in our everyday life. We saw some bugs, plants, and even animals that we hadn’t been able to see before. The camp was like riding a rollercoaster because of the hiking and bad weather, but it was fun and we made numerous yet precious memories. Lastly, I would like to thank the KERU staff and all the teachers who helped us and my friends who gave me joyful memories.  

Evelyn (Y7) 

Camp had always been a very exciting event of the academic year; every year, it leaves me with lots of remarkable experiences. This year, after fighting Covid-19 and suffering an exhausting period of online learning, camp came just in time to save our souls. We went to Heyuan city this year to investigate the topic “Climate Change and Endangered Species”. At first, I was nervous about it, and so were my classmates and friends. We knew that this camp involved being in the wild, and no one liked insects, so we all named it “The Bugs Camp”. When the Keru staff came to our school campus to give us more details on the camp, we started to step into this fascinating adventure. 

On the day we left campus, the bus was full of chatter, conversations of excitement filled my ears, I quickly got into the spirit of camping and was fully prepared for whatever came next. When we arrived at the Baixi Nature Reserves, we went to a tiny museum, we got to see lots of plant and animal specimens and got to understand the importance of biodiversity and protection methods. When the night fell, we were introduced to an activity where we had to face one of our biggest fears, insects. Most of us were either screaming in fear or clinging on to our friends. When the staff first caught a cricket, we were screaming and dodging away from it. But later, much of us were courageous enough to hold the insects or catch some ourselves.

On the following day, when we went to Kanghe Nature Reserves, we were introduced to how animal and plant species protect themselves from becoming endangered. Later, we did a hike where we took notes about an organism that we found interesting along the way. In the afternoon, we did another natural trail hike, where the slopes were very steep. A valuable lesson that was learned was to read the packing list and bring long pants since mosquitos and all types of bugs might bite you in the wild. By the time we got back to the hotel, all our energy was burned out from hiking. A natural tie dye activity was a fun and calming activity to do after the lots of hiking. We tied up white scarves and dyed them with natural dye made from plants. We untied the tie dye the next day and everyone’s scarves looked unique and we even had a fashion show to display all of them. Even if some of our activities were cancelled from the rainy March weather, we still had lots of fun and all the activities we did were worth the experience.