International Camper Exchange Program (ICEP) AUSTRALIA!

Their service work included: Camp Yarrmundi (13 hours), Aruman Lodge Nursing Home (6 hours), Morgan Street PS (6 hours), Broken Hill YMCA (5 hours), Riding for the Disabled (17.5 hours), Salvation Army (4.5 hours) and Elanora After School Program (5 hours) for a total of 57 hours. The work they did included: building a garden, entertaining nursing home residents, helping out at a school, weeding, mulching and planting dozens of trees, cleaning up, and painting classrooms.

In addition to their service work, they did a 5-day homestay where they attended the local high school with their homestay high school kid and also did sightseeing and travel throughout Australia. For these programs are like, please read the updates from my daughter’s camp counselors below.

Update #1:
Dear ICEP Australia Families and Friends,

Everything has been great the first few days! After we landed we met up with our host Rohan who took us straight to Bondi Beach. There we met up with the senior leadership group of Yarramundi, which was a group of similarly aged Australian teenagers. Together we went on a beautiful walk along the beach and surrounding cliffs. Afterwards, we headed back to Camp Yarramundi and for the past two days, we have been working on our service project here. This has included building a garden, spreading mulch around camp, and taking down an old fence. At Yarramundi the group has had a great time bonding with the Australian teenagers and integrating into the Yarramundi camp life. Tomorrow we are looking forward to exploring and hanging out at camp a bit more before heading into Sydney on Sunday for some exploration.

Best Regards from Down Under!

Update #2:

Dear Families and Friends,

The group has had an incredible time the past few days in Australia! We had our Sydney day, in which the participants got a chance to walk around Sydney and explore what it has to offer. After grabbing lunch we all made it to the wonderful Sydney Opera House, which everyone was so excited to finally see. After some shopping and a ferry ride on Sydney Harbor, we headed back to Yarramundi.

Wake up was early the next morning as the group packed up their luggage to catch the train into the Outback to the town of Broken Hill. After a long and weary, but fun 13-hour ride we finally arrived. For the next couple of days, we spent each morning at the local nursing home where the group got to talk with the residents as well as play games and run our planned American trivia activity. Lots of music and singing was involved including a group rendition of “American Pie” for one resident’s birthday request.

Last night the group also got a chance to immerse themselves in the local sporting culture with some Australian Football or “Footy.” We all got a lesson on the rules as well as a chance to practice and play a bit before watching two of the local teams play a game. Today the group was excited to travel to a primary school in Broken Hill where all of the participants were assigned to spend the day in different classrooms. They all prepared small presentations to give and the Australian kids were so excited to have us there. We were all lucky enough to have a barbecue put on for us at lunch and spent some time just playing and hanging out with the students. More singing was involved as well when the participants had the opportunity to teach the students camp songs and games.

Next up we are planning on enjoying the small mining town of Silverton tomorrow, as well as spending the weekend watching an Australian football game and seeing some of the famous Broken Hill sculptures.

Until next time,

ICEP Australia

Update #3:

Dear Families and Friends,

Since our last update, the group got to do some incredible service and sightseeing in Broken Hill! We got to first explore the small mining town of Silverton where parts of the Mad Max movies were filmed. The next couple of days we were all able to attend an Australian rules football game, explore and get a tour of the old Daydream mine which went a few hundred meters underground, and explore the town of Broken Hill some more. The rest of our time there we did a lot of fun activities such as painting a part of the local YMCA, seeing a beautiful sunset at the famous Broken Hill sculptures, and celebrating one participant’s birthday! Everyone also got to see plenty of kangaroos and even some emus!

Eventually, it came time to leave Broken Hill and it was a sad goodbye as it also meant saying goodbye to one of our new Australian friends, a teenage girl who had spent the week in Broken Hill with us and who the group had grown close to.

After a long train ride, we arrived back at Camp Yarramundi to a warm welcome. The next few days were spent doing some great service work in the surrounding area. We spent one day at an organization called Riding for the Disabled which does therapeutic work for physically and mentally disabled individuals through work with horses. The group helped out by planting trees and doing some other gardening work on the grounds. Another day was spent at the Salvation Army where we helped clean the church and organize the goods and clothing for the store. The group showed lots of hard work and enthusiasm for both projects!

On our last day at Yarramundi before homestays the group did some fun teamwork initiative activities and for our last night, we celebrated another participant’s birthday! Yesterday everyone said a sad but excited goodbye as they headed off with their homestay families for the next 5 days. Each participant will also attend the same high school with their homestay student over the course of the homestay, which they are looking forward to.

Until next time,

ICEP Australia