Each week, an evaluation is carried out where the pupils can give feedback on their best memory from the week. Often it is the view from Grønssennnknippa, or surviving a week without a mobile phone, that is left behind in what the students take home as a memory for life.
Throughout the week at Vaset, the camp schoolteachers place great emphasis on telling legends and stories. Many students have stood on top of Grønssennnknippa, looked towards Gråkampen and Hulabakkhula and had a desire to seek out the treasure. Around the campfire it quickly becomes quiet when Huldre stories and stories about the Haugfolk are told. How did all the paths and trails in the mountains come to be? Have grazing animals trampled them or have farmers made them to collect timber? Did you know that a small cart road behind the shops on Vaset was built so that wealthy English tourists could get a wide view of the mountains to the west? Camp school children who have been on a trip to Ålfjell know this.
This year, Brennabu camp school has started a teaching program where dissemination of the støls (farming) culture is taken care of. It is told about farming before and now and about the importance of utilizing grazing resources in the mountains. The students get to take part in the processing of milk as it was done by the "endangered breed" the Budei. The student cranks the separator and sees that cow's milk becomes both skimmed milk and cream. They take part in setting cream for souring and get to taste real stølsrømme (sour cream). From the sour cream, they get to see the magic that happens when it turns into butter. In addition, they get to help feed calves.
A camp school stay is the experience of trying skiing for the first time, drinking water from a mountain stream, it is the experience of overcoming the fear of something you have never tried, getting your first kiss and greasing your own packed lunch. And that is the experience of bringing home cultural history from a small piece of Norway.
Text taken from the latest edition of Valdresmagasinet.