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Updates and News
Volume 3
1/26/2009

Update January 26, 2009

Hello dearest friends!

What a week we have had! A trademark Kroka week, it was full to the brim with exciting, stressful and fun things, and lots of learning experiences.

Monday night started our week out with a bang. The Nelson dance hall was graced with our boisterous presence. Those of us who had danced in the past taught those who hadn’t. Everyone learned fast and had a lot of fun.

On Tuesday we were joined by Peter Marques, a co-founder of Tentsmith, a company that specializes in cotton tents. He helped us to make a huge canvas wall tent for the April layover at Northwoods. It will also be used for extra space on the parent weekend in March. On the trail we will use the tent that was made by the 2006 Semester Program. He also gave us a bunch of Egyptian cotton to patch the trail tent. We would like to thank him very much for sharing his time, knowledge and materials with us.

Hytham racing down the Kroka Hill

Also visiting our base camp this week was Richard Berkfield, a community organizer from the Food Security Project of Windham County. The goal of the project is to provide more locally grown produce to community hunger organizations by encouraging local farms and gardeners to either contribute left over vegetables after the harvest or to create extra “donation plots” from which all vegetables go to the organization. In Vermont 20.8% of children live below the poverty line, and the number of working households using food shelf services was increased by 23% over the course of two years.


Our regular drum circles outside the yurt

On Friday Richard Boisvert came to share his passion for New Hampshire archeology and geology. He told us about the glaciers in New England 12,000 years ago, and how the climate effected early paleoindian civilization. Traces of early settlements are found mainly around the remains of kettle ponds. These ponds were formed because chunks of ice broke off from glaciers and were buried under the ground where they melted; leaving huge holes below water level. These sights were preferable to the migratory tribes that passed through the area because of their rich soil and ready access to resources. On our spring trail we will look for campsites with the same traits.

Saturday and Sunday we had our first parent weekend. At 9 o’clock on Saturday morning we welcomed our parents into the community that we have built over the last 3 weeks. It was great to see our own families and meet our friends’ families, and to show them how we live and what we have made. On Saturday night the students gave a presentation of songs and thoughts about our
time at base camp.
On Sunday morning we got to spend a little more time with our parents before they had to attend a parent meeting. Meanwhile we got some much needed free time which most of us spent on the village hill playing some epic game of battle sleds! The object of the game is to get to the bottom of the hill first, not by way of speed, but by way of brute strength. As the two sleds whiz down the hill, each tries to capsize or otherwise disable the other using any number of different guerilla tactics, and at the same time stay right side up and going the right direction. Needless to say it is a very intense game. Sunday afternoon we said our goodbyes and headed to Orchard hill for another visit to the sauna.

Our epic game of battle sleds

And now a few words from our students!
Lauren would like me to point out that the postal service is a very useful and fun way to communicate both important and unimportant information to the loved ones in your life, especially those residing at 767 Forest Road, Marlow NH 03456…Mail will be delivered to all of us at layovers.

Jacob wants everybody to know that Friday was his birthday and he has reached the respectable age of 16 years. We are all very proud.
Lauren would also like to remind you of the enormous importance of chocolate in the human diet for both nutritional and emotional needs, especially those humans residing at above mentioned address.

Finally, the trail is coming up! We hope to leave at the end of this week or early next week. Expect one more update before we head out!

For the Kroka Vermont Semester 2009, this is Nelly Detra.

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