Setting up the tent
Many of you haven't used your tent in a long time. Perhaps you bought it especially for this trip. To avoid learning how to use it at the end of the first day, set it up at least once at home: this will allow you to check its condition and make sure you've got all the pieces.
Set up your tent when you arrive at the site after your hike. If there's little or no rain, you'll be lucky if there's a shower later on. Avoid pitching your tent in a heavy downpour - wait for a lull instead.
Once your tent is in place, unroll the insulation on which you'll place your sleeping bag, but don't unroll your sleeping bag or scatter your belongings right away. They'll stay dry in their plastic bags if it rains during the evening. And don't forget to close your tent before you leave for the evening. A shower can happen! If, at bedtime, you find that your tent has still taken on water, we can put you up in the dry inside the host school (but generally speaking, it's better to sleep alone in your tent than with 60 people in a gymnasium). On the other hand, if your sleeping bag or clothes get wet, we won't be able to offer you anything, hence the importance of using plastic bags to protect your belongings.
Tent dismantling
If it's raining when you get up, put your sleeping bag and clothes in the plastic bags right away.
Leave everything on your insulation and head off for lunch. If you're lucky, the rain will stop or lessen during lunch and you'll be able to take down your tent in the dry. If it continues to rain, finish packing your belongings in bags and put them in your luggage. Dismantle the tent at the very end and place it, on its own, in a waterproof bag. Then pack everything back into your luggage. In fact, you'll often dismantle a tent when it's wet with dew. The important thing is to avoid getting everything else wet. At the end of the day, if the weather is warm, your newly pitched tent will dry in about fifteen minutes.