Tom: I don't know what to do for my next holiday. Have you ever tried rafting?
Joel: Yeah, actually. I was a camp counselor one time for this high school program and we did a week long rafting trip in Utah. I can't remember the name of the river, but there was about 20 kids, and we carried all of our food and camping equipment on the raft, so we would pack, all the students would help pack up everything onto the rafts. We would go down the river for about three or four hours a day then we would stop at a camp stop. We would have to take all of the food, all of the camping equipment off and then the students would have different roles, so some students that day were in charge of cooking food for example, and they had prepared a menu, all the ingredients for that day. Other students were in charge of setting up all of the campground, you know, the tents. Other students were in charge of like building the fire.
Tom: Sounds like the students were doing a lot of work. What did you do?
Joel: We were organizing; making sure they were all on their roles.
Tom: Organizing!
Joel: Cracking the whip.
Tom: So you stayed in a different place each night.
Joel: Yeah, so we were, you know, camping. We had to carry every supply that we needed for an entire week and carry it all on the rafts.
Tom: Did anything go wrong?
Joel: Yeah, it got very cold for a few days, and a couple of students, actually, we went through rapids, so I don't know, do you call it the same (yeah) in British English? It's exciting but it was a very cold day and it's very rough so a few students fell in.
Tom: What happened?
Joel: It's very dangerous. You know, everyone wears a life vest, so I think they were all able to swim anyway, but you have to wear a life vest, and they teach you to try to face your feet down stream because there are many rocks and things like that.
Tom: Oh, so you don't hit your..
Joel: That's right. If you're going head first, then you could, the water's moving quickly so you could hit a rock or something, so you try to go feet first, and then, everyone has a paddle, so we try to paddle the raft over to them as quickly as we can, pull them back in, but you know, we're still maybe an hour and a half from where we are camping so being completely wet like that, you know, you're so cold until we get back.
Tom: It sounds like an incredible holiday. Did anyone take a camera?
Joel: Oh, of course. There's tons of pictures on it, but what I find most about trips like that, like sometimes when you're so cold and everything like that. You feel terrible. You feel miserable, but it's such a group experience, like you really get close to everyone, and you feel like, you feel so much closer to everyone after you've gone through a challenging experience like that.
Tom: To have to pull your friend out of the water.
Joel: That's right.