Wednesday, February 26, 2014

First to Aid


 


    Boy Scouts of America has always been one of the biggest repositories of learning. BSA has not only taught me wilderness and survival skills, but also some politics, fingerprinting, and countless different hobbies and sports. Although all the skills taught had some things that were valuable, one that stands out is First Aid, the second merit badge I earned in my time as a Boy Scout.
    In the First Aid Merit Badge, we were taught a variety of initial ways to treat an injury while in the wilderness. The counselors started with the basics of simple scratches and cuts. Then, we learned the ways to deal with a puncture wound and how to take a fish hook out of someone’s flesh. I had no trouble in getting the right way of treating insect stings, burns, hypothermia, poisonous snake bites, and heat exhaustion. But when the counselors starting instructing us on treating sprained ankles, wrists, and broken arms, I became totally helpless. I had to use a specific knot to tie a straight piece of wood onto Darren’s “broken” arm, for he was also taking the merit badge with me. My knot was super weak, and the moment Darren lifted his arm, the knot came loose. As Darren laughed uncontrollably at me, I attempted it again. This time, the knot was slightly more secure.
Almost all of these skills have come in handy sometime during my time as a Boy Scout. But, for some unknown reason, first aid skills were particularly important to have during one specific week-long summer camp, which took place on Catalina Island.
Since this camp was Wesley’s first one, Darren was his buddy. I was paired with Naam, another scout who was also our patrol leader, and who always seemed to have an injury somewhere on his body, from simple cuts to broken bones. Surprisingly, Naam came to camp with only a slight scar. But barely an hour into camp, when we were heading down for lunch, Naam tripped on a tree root, skinning his knee. As he washed the shallow wound, I sighed and pulled out a bandage, which I handed to him.
The next day passed without accidents, and I knew this was too good to last. On the third day, Naam carelessly grabbed the flap to our tent, in which a bee was hiding. At the time, I didn’t know what was happening, so I jumped at the sound of Naam’s yell of pain. It wasn’t until I saw the little stinger protruding from his hand did I understand what had happened. I immediately flipped open my pocketknife and used the dull side of the knife to scrape out the stinger. When it finally came out, Naam gave a sigh of relief. I felt lucky that I had taken the First Aid merit badge, for I was about to pinch the end of the stinger to pull it out, which would have released all the bee venom. I remembered the first aid lesson about stings and applied the right instructions to it. If I hadn’t, then Naam would have had a very painful and slow recovery.
Finally, the last day of camp arrived, without further injuries happening to Naam, and I was pleasantly surprised. But, when Naam and I were packing up our tent, he was using his heavy shovel to lever up the tent pegs, which wasn't a good thing. Sadly, I was working next to him, packing up the poles. He lost control of the shovel and sent it flying. The tip of the shovel landed perfectly in the center of my palm, leaving a big gash. I immediately jumped up from my crouch and bit my lip to stop a scream. Naam was paralyzed there, and I had to ask Darren for help on cleaning the wound with a high pressure stream of water.  After the wound was clean, I saw that it wasn’t as deep as I had originally thought, which was very lucky.
Of all the skills that I have learned in Boy Scouts, I think that First Aid would count as something very important. It benefits not only me, but my fellow scouts as well. Learning the right way to aid someone is not complicated at all, and it can be lifesaving!
 

 

Monday, February 17, 2014

Creative is Easy

 
    One of the best 3D projects I have made for school was a very creative Great Wall of China at the end of sixth grade, for a China project. It was made with totally normal things you would find in almost every house. Together my mom and I used our creativity and the material available at hand to put together a model of the Great Wall.  
    It was a warm late Saturday afternoon when we decided to  start making the model. The project was due the next week and I didn’t have more time to work on it. For a whole ten minutes, we just sat in the living room, brainstorming. Many ideas popped up, each worse than the one before. I had thought about getting supplies from Michael’s, but it would take up too much time. Finally, the obvious idea of using cardboard to build the Great Wall model reached my slow brain. I had almost fallen asleep when I thought of it. When I mentioned it to my mom, who had also fallen asleep, she agreed readily and went to work immediately.
    My mom cut cardboard pieces into the rough shape of the battlements, while I painted a rectangular piece of cardboard green to act as the bottom. Then we faced another problem that later was solved by creativity. The outside of the Great Wall was done, but the inside structure was basically like a card house. My mom continued working on the details, while I tried to solve this roadblock. My mind started to wander off topic and I thought about the shipment of a fountain that had come in. I wondered why the styrofoam protecting the package was so squeaky. Then I suddenly had the solution and yelled, “Aha!” so abruptly, my mom jumped and accidently dropped her paintbrush from one hand to the other, leaving a big blotch of green paint. But I hardly noticed that as I strode out to our yard and grabbed all of the big pieces of the styrofoam in the now empty fountain box. Back inside, I cut the styrofoam into rough rectangles and fit them beneath the outside of the Great Wall.
    Yet another problem posed itself in front of us. When my mom and I cut the useful styrofoam into the shape of a mountain to set below the actual Wall, we couldn’t paint on it or get the texture of the mountain right. In the end, it was my mom who figured out a solution.  She used a bunch of tinfoil to get the rugged shape of the mountain and glued in to the green cardboard. The effect was splendid!
    An easier block that stood in our way was how to keep the Great Wall on the mountain. We both knew glue itself wouldn’t enough. In the end, I got a whole bunch of toothpicks and stuck them through the cardboard and into the styrofoam, keeping the wall firmly in place.
    The last, and probably the hardest, was how to decorate the hill with “trees.” I didn’t have any fake trees to use, so my mom and I just sat there and thought. I got hungry at one point, and went to the fridge. It was there that I got my idea. There was a bundle of broccoli at the bottom, and I immediately grabbed it, forgetting all about my need for food. I chopped them into smaller pieces, while my mom glued it to the surface of the mountain. Soon the project was finished, standing on the kitchen table.
    Had it not have been for the improvising and creating done by my mom and me, we would have never finished the project, fretting about the lack of material. It makes everything much more simple and easy. No matter what your strict parents (cough cough, mom) might think, creativity can be a very useful thing.