Information for participants
Dates:
Camps for children are available during nearly all the school holidays: - October half-term, February half-term, Easter and the summer holidays – as well as the long weekends in December and May.
(see Programme for a list of all the dates)
For the week-long camps in the summer, departures are on Sunday at 17:10:
The meeting point is in front of the barriers to platforms 9 and 10 at Sants station in Barcelona (on the ground floor, opposite the “media distancia” ticket counters). The train leaves at 17:33.
We take care of purchasing the train tickets for all the children.
The children return the following Friday at the same place at 20:30 (if the train is on time).
What’s needed for the week:
Organisation:
- Age: 5 to 14 years old .
- Groups of up to 20 children with one instructor per 5 children. This helps us create a family atmosphere, and give each child plenty of attention.
During the activities the children are often in smaller groups of 5 or 7, with an instructor, which allows for a high level of personalised contact.
- Accommodation: individual mattresses in a yurt reserved for children, with an adult who sleeps with the smaller children to keep an eye on them.
If the number of boys and girls is more or less the same, the girls sleep in one yurt and the boys in the other.
- Meals are home-made, fresh and generous, prepared with local products and mostly organic.
Our experience:
8 years of running activities and camps for children.
More than 50 camps.
More than 300 children who have marvelled at the world that surrounds us and left - happy, and grateful.
As the younger children grow up, they still come to La Mandorla. They continue contributing to our project - and La Mandorla grows with them. We also organise camps specifically for teenagers.
Details for the summer camps:
- Mosquitos :
We don’t have many mosquitos but another insect instead, a cousin of the mosquito (similar to the midges you find in Scotland) who is active in the evening and at night: the Culicoides midge. (see photo).
The midges are really small and sometimes find their way through the mosquito nets (especially if the children move a lot and come out of the nets).
They don’t usually leave any marks or spots and are completely inoffensive for humans, but around 1 in 10 children react to the bites and develop a rash.
We’ve tried everything and no classic mosquito net works perfectly. An organic anti-tick product based on 5 essential oils has been used in the past and works quite well.
Children who are sensitive to the bites therefore sleep with a special balaclava made of light cloth to protect them. Remember to put tea tree essential oil (a good natural insecticide) and a tin of Nivea cream (for an extra protective layer) in their suitcase.
Children therefore need to wear long-sleeved pyjamas – although there’s no reason to worry. The midges have never stopped anyone having a good time!
- Head lice :
Having caught head lice myself several times during the summer camps, we check for them as soon as children arrive and, if necessary, provide a treatment to prevent them from spreading.
- Showers :
We do have a shower at La Mandorla, but to reduce water consumption the children take:
- A shower at the river on Tuesday evening (with organic shampoo)
- A shower at La Mandorla Thursday evening
- A wash with baby wipes in the yurt on the other evenings.
- Drinking water :
Our spring no longer runs at the end of July, so every day we fetch containers of water (drinkable and lightly chlorinated) at the fountain in the village.
If your children have sensitive systems, please let us know and we’ll give them bottled mineral water.
- Medical treatment:
We have basic first aid supplies, and there’s a doctor’s surgery in the village, just 2 km away.
