Otaki Gorge

On the 26th of september I went to the Otaki Gorge with half my class. It was really fun, we built shelters, made a fire to roast marshmallows on and made some rafts to race on. When we built the shelter we found two trees to tie a tarpolin on. on the other end we tied it to rocks. For the fire we found some dry sticks and put rubber in it and lit the rubber. It wasn't really working so after lots of trys we gave up and used a fire starter and a match. For the rafts Olivia and I paired up and made a raft which we called the sea monster. When we raced them we dropped them off a big swinging bridge and the race started. The boys that were at the finishing line at the end said Olivia and I won, which we were really happy about. At the end we played four rounds of capture the flag, it was year elevens and adults vs year 7/8's. We won three out of four and the year 11's and adults won one out of four.  It was an awesome day and I really enjoyed it!

Adventures at El Rancho.

On the tenth of September we went to El Rancho.  I had an amazing time there. The three activities I did was soft archery, go carting, and Rifles. They were all so much fun. For soft archery we had to where these masks on our face in case we got hit in the face. The aim of the game was to try and get the other team out. If you got out you could come back in by one of your team members catching an arrow mid air, or by hitting one of the metal plates on your opponents side. For go carts there was a track that you could go around made out of tires. You had to wear a hair net thing on your head so the helmets didn't need to get cleaned between each person. When we did rifles there was a metal tunnel that you had to shoot through and there were targets at the other end of the tunnel, which you could hit.What I found challenging was loading the rifle because I thought I was going to brake it if I pushed to hard, but when I did push it really hard I struggled to get it to open. Although I did open it so I could put the bullet in. Some of my highlights was when I shot the targets and it was really fun shooting the gun at the targets.

Salva's cool character traits.

This is my essay, we have been writing an essay about the novel a long walk to water. I wrote it about Salva, he was my favourite character in it and there was lots of information about him. I hope you like my essay and enjoy reading it.

In the novel"A long walk to water" by Linda Sue park, the character I found interesting and courageous was a boy named Salva. He was eleven years old. Salva showed throughout the novel that he was brave, independent, and a bit shy.

In the novel I found that Salva was an amazing leader. I thought he was a leader because when he was seventeen years old he led a group of young boys, the ages of the boys was from 4 to his age. He took the boys from Ethiopia all the way to Kenya, to safety. There were about 1500 boys at the start and by the time they got to Kenya there were only 1000 boys. On the way he got them to do jobs. They all had certain jobs asset for them. For example some had to collect sticks for fires, some had to find food and water, and some had to build shelter. I think Salva was a nice, hard-working boy. Especially for his age.

Another thing about Salva was he was independent. He new how to care for himself while he was alone. He is independent because when his Uncle Jewiir died, who cared for him and always made sure he had food. He didn't have any food because the leaders of the tribe thought it would just be a waste of food feeding him, that is when he had to care for himself and always try to get there scraps. He is also independent because he got to move to America. But he moved there all by himself, and he had no warm clothes or anything, he had not even really heard that America was a country until he had a chance to go to America. When he got there he had to find his new family by himself. That is why I think Salva is an independent boy. Imagine you having to walk for ages while struggling to survive getting barely any water or food.

Salva is also a bit apprehensive. He is apprehensive because he walked at the back of the group and didn't speak up much, unless he was asked or had to. He was also apprehensive because he was always a bit tense and afraid, or worried encase of a attack. He was probably like that because it has happened to him before and if it happens to him again he could die and everyone else around him also could die. He was also all by himself and nobody was on his side if he made a comment or if he made a mistake. Everyone would most likely be on the leaders side. When he gets to the first camp he gets put with a bunch of other boys that have not got there family with them. Although when he was a leader of a group he did speak up more.

In summary Salva was a amazing leader, an independent young boy and a bit apprehensive. Through out the novel he really stood out to me and was one of my favourite charterers in it.