#NCS YES! Week 1 and 2

I am currently in the process of completing week three of the NCS programme. In case you didn't know what NCS is, NCS stands for the National Citizen Service which is a governmented scheme which intends to get young people aged 15-17 out there within their community. Face fears, learn new skills and help the community.
Now I am the last age able to complete the programme so I had to act on it as soon as possible or else I would have missed out on an opportunity of a life-time.
Week one was the fear facing week where as a team we pushed our limits and participated in activities we hadn't done before or something which made us poo ourselves. The week consisted of mainly water-based activities such as sliding and climbing pipes in a river which was scary as you pretty much drank most of the water or felt like the water was taking you away. Then we had Gorge Scrabling which was by far the best activity as we had to fight the flow of the water, slide done rocks, swim under holes in rocks, this was intense and many had scratches and bruise on completion. Then we jumped of rocks slightly above water level, perhaps a meter or two and jumped in several times. Last of the water activities is canoeing which was pretty tiring if your partner half arses the job and leaves you doing the whole job on your own, I may as well of had a kayak! Now to the dry activities, we did a range of activities using the Dartmoor Moors for wide games which completely wore me out. Then there was archery which I think I shot pretty well for a first timer. We did the typical adventure activities such as rock climbing, tree climbing and abseiling which you expect from residental type courses.
Now for the food, the food was fancy which you would expect from a boarding school. We stayed at  Tavistock's Mount Kelly and everything was so beautiful and old. I would never afford to be educated there. Nevertheless the food was fantastic!
Week two was all about self suffiency and providing for yourself and the team. This involved a visit to Asda and do a weekly shop for the whole group of 17 and each subteam cooked and cleaned each day. The room we stayed at was much glamourous than our dormatory at Kelly College we had a double bed as well as a set of bunkbeds although our room was over occupied meaning we had two extra matteress. We had a vast range of meals, some I've never had before. Each day was exciting food wise. Monday one subteam cooked cheesy pasta bake which was gorgeous and I had seconds, Tuesday my group cooked chicken nuggets, rice, peas and sweetcorn with an assortment of sauces such as lemon sauce, sweet and sour sauce, curry sauce and ketchup especially for me. Wednesday we had a treat and had McDonalds, I had a large chicken nugget meal with a flake mcflurry, no surprise really. Thurday brought Mexican foods which I have never chosen to eat, we had tortilla wraps with chicken and salad of our own choice, nachos and french fries which were kind of spicy or in your terms 'flavoured'. Week two we learnt about how important charity is so we spent most of the week in college having talks from charities trying to sell themselves to us to raise money and awareness for their charity as part of our social action project. Charities which spoke to us were very inspiring, they had people who had been helped by the charity share their story with us this was evident with the British Heart Foundation. Other charities were the Play Rangers (Play Gloucestershire) who help children from our local area get out there and have fun instead of vegetating in front of technology especially providing a bit of fun especially for children living in deprived areas of the county. We also had a huge organisation such as the Pied Piper Appeal which is a charity aiding Gloucester Royal Hospital's children's ward where money donated goes towards equipment and facilities to improve the health and wellbeing for ill and disabled children. We also visited an care home for the elderly and heard many intriguing stories especially the one who used to work for the queen!