There's nothing like a weekend at 329700 684010!

When I was a kid, I spend a lot of time running around a nearby forest, playing agent with my friends and a walkie-talkie set. Wait, did I write "when I was a kid"? I did of cause mean last weekend, when I was at Nesholmen: The Norwegian Red Cross Hjelpekorps holds regional training camps, and being part of the schools First Aid Team, I have had the chance to train Search&Rescue at a weekend camp a few hours from campus.

This time of the year, with exams, IAs and all kinds of other fun stuff, is... Welll... Stressful! So realizing that I was going to spend a whole weekend in a tent, where I could scarcely get any writing done, was a bit frighting. Luckily those kinds of worries were all forgotten on arrival. Nesholmen is an old scout camp about two hours from campus (This is entirely a guess, since I was sleeping all the way in the buss) and on an early May evening, with 12 of your friends, a freezebee and a perfect weather forecast, it is not the worst place to go if you want to forget about your homework and just enjoy life. In fact, I could not have thought of a better way of celebrating that Jack Frost is finally on the run and spring is upon us!

The Norwegian Hjealpekorps is a part of the Red Cross and compiles more than 13.500 QuickLunch eating members all over the country. It is a volunteer rescue organization that assists police and the army in finding and rescuing people in all forms of trouble. The course that we were offered this weekend was mountain based search and rescue. We spent two days walking between posts, using maps, VHF radios and a piece GPS tracking equipment that I would not recommend anyone to wear at the airport. At each post we practiced different skills like how to improvise a stretcher, search for casualties near a river and guide a helicopter during landing. At the same time we learned how to use maps and communicate with the command central of a rescue operation. We had a little booklet with diagrams and notes, the rest was just learning by doing.

Nesholmen was a great experience in every way! It was one of those chances here on RCN that you just do not get anywhere else. The whole group was absolutely fantastic, and we managed to have a lot of fun and relax, while learning a lot of useful skills. It was also nice to get an introduction to what the Norwegian Hjelpekorps does. I was very surprised by the caliber of the organization and by how much they have to teach people. The idea that you can organize more than 13.000 people to voluntarily help when it is needed, says a lot about what we can actually do about the human resources that we have around us. The training that we got this weekend, we are going to pass on the the rest of the team back on campus. I really think that there are a lot of valuable skills to gain here. Because even if you are not going to guide a helicopter to the ground someday soon, knowing that you can do that and so much more makes you the kind of person that has the courage to act when someday, someone needs to.

In the end, we had a chance to visit the mobile command unit (Q) from which we had received our orders doing the weekend. I think that in every guy, there is a 10-year-old boy who wants to grow up and become James Bond. Stepping into a van with antennas on the roof, computer screens with puzzling maps on the inside and a mobile radio communication center must have been the treat the the Norwegian Hjelpekorps gave that boy this weekend.