FIRST IMPRESSIONS CAN be misleading, as Cheung Pang-wan found out at a recent summer camp.
The Form Three student from Shau Kei Wan East Government Secondary School has returned from the Smart Teen Challenge Camp, which ended on Saturday.
'At the beginning, we thought that the camp was fun. But after we arrived, I was frightened by the instructors,' recalled Pang-wan.
'The more [the instructors] told us [about the camp], the more scared we became.'
The six-day training camp, jointly organised by the Education and Manpower Bureau and the Fire Services Department, attracted 80 Form Three students from Pang-wan's school and Hong Kong Taoist Association The Yuen Yuen Institute No 2 Secondary School.
It was part of the Smart Teen Challenge Project, which aims to help students to grow into disciplined and sociable youth.
At the Fire Services Training School in Pat Heung where the camp took place, the participants were given a taste of the tough training regimen firefighters have to undergo. Their tasks included a 14.5-kilometre hike, climbing ladders, crawling the 'black box' (a dark, narrow tunnel containing boxes) and using fire-fighting equipment.
