Camp always gives the most entertaining tales and reaffirms in head of the teacher that it is never a good idea to work with children, let alone animals. There are a couple of stories from my first camp that I don't think I will ever forget...
Mr Darcy's Gift
At the end of the fist week we said goodbye to some of the kids. Seaside holidays and mountain treks meant that for even the most conscientious of students couldn't stay the full two weeks. Now the Italian hospitality is a funny beast. In the same way that some Italian Mammas will be mortally offended if you offer to help with the washing up, some families believe that helping their child in any way deserves a little thank you.
Gifts can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. I've had hospitality as a gift - staying a few extra days with a family; I've been sent with care packages on long train journeys; I've been given coffee, hair products, books and even a dictionary of Italian etymology. None of these compared with the oddity of the gift that Mr Darcy was given.
The mother handed the package over first thing that morning: it was long and tubular. We pestered him enough that he decided to open it at lunchtime - and just in time too! Mr Darcy had been given extra-long spaghetti. Useful.
Tourist guides I can understand, even coffee and a commemorative notepad - all these things can be used in the moment, and packed neatly into a suitcase. A pack of 1m long spaghetti does not fit into this category. We were all travelling light, but Mr Darcy, on his journey out of Brescia had an extra addition to the sleeping bag holder at the top of his rucksack. Needless to say the other occupants of the train carriage weren't too impressed with the generosity of the child's mother...
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