Boot Camp Week 2

Wednesday September 24, 2008

I realized this week during training that I am working with a lot of guys that are around Ellen’s age. I learned that they can actually stop going to school after year ten! I think most go through year 12 but at least one of the guys I am doing training with, from teen ranch, stopped after year 10 – huh. So he was out of school at the age of 16 which is how he is now 17 and working. A lot of times the guys seem or act older but then sometimes they do something and I’m just like wow. And then I remind myself that they are 17 or 18 and yeah. Not just the age factor, but being exposed to boys has been interesting as I come from an all-girl family – 1 sister and 6 girl cousins – I haven’t had too much exposure to boys over a prolonged period of time. Well, I guess maybe I have but at training I am the ONLY girl with five guys plus a male trainer most of the time. So I am certainly learning the ways of boys and it is quite interesting to see how they interact with each other and with me! It is interesting to see the difference amongst them – such a case study. I really do enjoy watching how people interact with one another and group dynamics.

Today our module was about facilitating a group. Michelle from Port Hacking came up to lead us for the day. We talked about the difference between being a leader and being a facilitator. A leader is giving information and is concerned with a group doing something the “right way.” So when we give our safety talk before the activity we are being a leader because they need to pt their harness on correctly or they could get injuries. But during say a team building activity or during a debrief after an activity we re being a facilitator because we want the kids to learn for themselves and figure things out for themselves as opposed to looking to us for the answers.
Today’s module was possibly the best, or at most enjoyable, or the one I have gotten the most out of so far. We read the theory but also applied it as we each had a turn to facilitate and ice breaker, trust, communication, or problem solving activity with the group.

Here are some other points from the day:
*A facilitator aims to have the least amount of impact required for the group to have a high level of achievement.

*strategies for briefing ( pre-activity) and debriefing (following the activity)
*What? – what happened?
*So what? – sum up lessons learned
*Now what? – how can we apply this to our lives

*”Educate don’t indoctrinate – meaning don’t give the participants a lecture of how their activity can be applied and how archery is a metaphor for their relationship with God but see what they got from the activity and the connections they made; can they come up with a metaphor of how archery relates to life?? . . .

*Lot’s of great ideas for debriefing and debriefing tools

*The importance of stopping to process and evaluate an experience whether it be as a group or individually

Yeah, so it was a good day; one of those days where you hardly put down your pen b/c you are getting so much valuable information that you want to write it all down.

So, sorry for another long one but as I always say: you are not forced to read this, and probably a lot of you don’t! But, perhaps writing is my way of stopping to reflect and process the events that have recently happened in my life! I encourage each of you to remember to stop, reflect, evaluate, and process events in your life more often! It is sooo easy to get caught up in our busy world and our busy lives; as my manual states, “Society as a whole does not teach children to value reflection. Education had found its way to maximize institutionalize curriculum and has left behind the idea that humans need time and space to process.” So that’s my challenge – take the necessary and valuable “time and space to process!” I think I’m gonna like working in outdoor education!! :) :) Teaching kids things you just can’t and don’t get in a classroom! :)

Boot Camp Week 1

Saturday September 20, 2008

So I’m not exactly sure why they call it boot camp because the majority of the time we are sitting in a classroom reading out of a book and doing written “assessments.”

Get ready for a looooooong one folks!

Dan and I took off for Port Hacking at 6:15am Monday morning in Lil’ Bro, the smaller of Shoalhaven’s utes (pick-up trucks). We ended up going with Mel, who was heading up to help with a writing camp. Stopped at a Maccas (McDonald’s) on the way up to grab some breakky. The McDonalds down here all have these McCafe’s in them, which have all sorts of coffees and muffins and breads and stuff. I think I may have seen a couple back in the states but they are way more common here; Aussies are quite serious about their coffees and teas!

So we got up to Port Hacking and had a bit of time to get settled in to McConnells, a house with four rooms of bunk beds where the weekend staff live on the weekend and anyone up for a short amount of time can stay. We met some of the other guys who would be doing training with us: two from Teen Ranch, another Christian camp located some-what close by, and two from Trinity, a school who has their own outdoor education site where they send all of their ninth graders to spend three weeks by sending a group of kids at a time.

All the guys were really nice but, as it seems to be the way in outdoor education in Oz, they were all guys – lol. A girl from teen ranch did come up for Tuesday and spent Tuesday night and I was sharing a room with Mel the whole week but for the most part I was the minority – a girl and an American :-P One of the guys from teen ranch just couldn’t let it go that I was American and brought it up quite a bit. I enjoy conversations comparing cultures and words and stuff but it can get old when everything constantly goes back to – it’s because your American . . . :-P w/e.

Exploring Port Hacking after a day in the classroom.

One of our modules (mini courses) was on conflict resolution. We took a test to determine our style of dealing with conflict. Each style was associated with an animal: shark/bull (forcing), owl (collaborating), fox (compromise), teddy bear (accommodating), or turtle (avoiding). I score highest for Teddy bear but then had a close tie for second scoring two points lower on each turtle and fox.

So that was pretty interesting. We also did modules on weather, planning outdoor recreation activities, plan for minimal environmental impact, and effective workplace environments. Most of the stuff was common sense but it was good to be reading and learning in an academicish setting again.

All of these modules are working up to a certificate III in outdoor education. To my understanding they have certificate I, II, III, and IIII; each being a bit more intense but all being less then a bachelor’s degree.

So as part of earning this certificate III we have to complete all the modules (mini courses) as well as sessions on “hard skills,” which we will later be assessed on.

Port Hacking has lots of nice trails and trees and rocks to sit on!

Monday through Wednesday was all in the classroom doing different readings and assessments and activities. Then Thursday we had a session on abseiling (repelling). I would have to say this has been my favorite day of training so far. It was hands-on learning for something I will actually eventually be teaching. All of the modules were interesting but this was way more fun! Bronze medallion (like lifeguard) training and certification would have been fun had the water not been freezing!

Thursday’s abseil training was with Michelle, who also worked with us on our bronze. The morning was spent going over equipment and learning the knots that would be used. After morning tea (a piece of fruit and a biscuit (cookie)) we went and set up our abseil on the top of a 4m cliff. Not sure exactly how many feet 4m is but I’m guessing like 20 b/c this was a pretty small “cliff”! It was perfect for learning though.

The other three had all abseiled before but setting up the abseil was a bit new for all of us. We attached the abseil line to a pole and the belay line to a large tree at the top of the cliff using the knots we had just leaned. After lunch we took turns abseiling and belaying each other down the two lines we had set up. It was pretty cool! I’m really glad I had the chance to abseil myself before I spend 7 months belaying kids down cliffs!! That was just basic abseil training so before I actually do it myself we will have another training day plus a few sessions with a more experienced instructor watching and helping them set up and belay the group.

After abseil training we headed back down to Shoalhaven with Mel and Jeff; one of our bosses from Shoalhaven who had come up to be a part of an interview. Jeff is the programs director down at Shoalhaven but will be moving up to Port Hacking at the beginning of the year to begin the position of programs director in charge of all three sites: Shoalhaven, Port Hacking, and Blue Gum, which is located in the Blue Mountains.
Pretty awesome moon at Port Hacking, although the pic prob doesn't do it justice.

Friday was caving training with Pete (fondly called PG). I was a bit bummed because while at Port Hacking we went to an outdoor store called Paddy Pallin, where we get a 25% discount b/c we are youthworks staff. This sounds amazing but their prices are soooo high that 25% off brings most of their stuff into a reasonable range. I bought a can of water guard that you spray onto your shoes to make them waterproof (originally $10.95 but reduced to $8ish). Dan bought a nalgene water bottle, a head torch (head light / lamp), and a waterproof jacket (luckily I had just bought one at home before I left from REI for like $50 from the kid’s section!). I really debated about getting a head torch because I knew we were going caving the next day and that it would be very convenient but the cheapest one was $40 and the good ones were like $90. I looked at the labels and sure enough “made in the USA.” I was kicking myself for not getting more outdoor gear before I came over b/c I know it would be cheaper at home. So I’m in the market for a head torch and possibly some good outdoor hiking shoes. They make ones that are like sneakers but have thicker soles and good tread and are waterproof! I hate having wet feet, which is why I got the water-guard but I’m thinking my retired running shoes with very little tread on them might not cut it for 8 months of hiking and caving and abseiling . . . Michelle had a nice pair that she got on clearance for $80 so I might try to go to that outdoor store cause that is probably pretty comparable to what I could find a t home. Most of the nice shoes here run from $140 - $400 – crazy. For now the waterproofing will have to do!

Anyway! Caving . . . Luckily Mel let me borrow her head torch, which was awesome because it just slipped onto the helmet and I had both of my hands free – def. a necessity. We hiked up a trail with Pete leading. It took about 20min-30min to get up there. It was weird hiking up to go down into a cave :-P He showed us the abseil cliff and the trailer with all the gear – new harnesses! There is a 4m, 8m, and 20m drop if I remember correctly. It was good to see that to get an idea for where it was and what our sites abseil looks like since we had been trained at Port Hacking.

We reached the mouth of the cave and went through how we would introduce the activity to the kids. Luckily we have little key ring things that have an acronym for every activity to help us remember the things we need to cover in our introduction – just another way youthworks is way organized and on top of things! The acronym for caving is WHAT’S UNDER? With the W standing for weather check, the H – how caves are formed, and the R – rules for safety.

The cave was only about 15m long (maybe about 60 feet???) but it was definatley more involved than walking through Lurray caverns with a guide or even Mammoth cave in Kentucky where we had to squeeze around some tight spots and carry a flash light. This was some serious “don’t let your foot slip down that hole,” “you’ll have to slide through here on your stomach,” “check out the bat above your head” caving!!! Pretty awesome. It’s kind of a huge responsibility to take a group of kids through though. Luckily we will be breaking our usual 15ish kid group in half to take them through, leaving a teacher outside with the other half. But still, I’ll have to be very careful in my instruction and make sure I am at certain places to spot. And the kids will all most-likely be having handheld torches (flashlights) which will be an added challenge! Should be cool though.

After that cave we walked a short ways to another one that looks deep from the outside but once you go in a few meters you see the sun streaming in the other end and realize it is quite short. Wish I had had my camera for the abseil and the cave but will have plenty of opportunity for that once I get going. Although every group that comes gets to choose what they do so I won’t necessarily be doing caving or abseil every week.

Starting the hands-on activities training has made me really excited to be here and get started with groups! The stuff I’m going to be doing is definitely a bit more “intense” than the stuff we do at the Marsh but it is going to be great and lots of fun!

Had Thursday night dinner on Friday so that was a nice way to end the week – 15 people showed up last night so it was a pretty full house! Luckily Naomi was making spaghetti so she was able to throw some more on really quick! They are such a nice couple to have us all over. We were just told yesterday that they will actually be moving up to Port Hacking as well as Tim has been appointed as Jeff’s assistant. They won’t be moving for another year though so I’ll be gone by then but it is kind of sad because he is a really great boss!

Alright I’m pretty sure I’ve written enough to cover the week! Congratulations if you are still reading! Home alone for most of the day as Mel had a Drs. Appointment in Sydney and Julie is home for her brother’s birthday. But that is okay: did some vacuuming, some laundry, went for a run, and now I’m headed up to the office to post this for you all to read :)

Hope all is well with everyone. It is quite warm here now – hurray but I bet the weather is really nice at home with fall almost in full swing!
I’ll try to throw some pics in here to make it more exciting!
3 pages- phewww – but it is a weeks worth!

Man, so a few things I forgot to mention:

*ALLISON is coming!!!! She bought an Aussie air pass which allows her several stops in

Aus – one is going to be Sydney from October 3 -11th!! I will be in training and my first week of work but I do have a three day weekend October 4th – 6th so I am def. gonna go visit her than and maybe for my birthday as well!

*I am now the owner of a Leatherman pocket knife! I meant to mention this way sooner but yeah as a welcome gift youthworks got Dan and I each a Leatherman Surge knife engraved with our initials, YW SH program (standing for Youthworks Shoalhaven), and the year – pretty awesome!

*I opened a bank account here and should have received my first paycheck but haven’t checked yet! Did get my "handy card" in the mail though so I can use the ATM. They had me set up a savings account, which has good interest, and another account to use with the ATM and where my pay checks will go.

*I am studying to take the test for my boat license on Friday – that should be cool! Wonder if that is good at home too? Probably not :-P

*I received my first letter in the mail the other day! Left the US postmarked Sep 8th and got postmarked again in AU on Sep 15. Yay for mail and thanks Mom!! :)
Which reminds me, here is my mailing address:

Laura Messerly
PO Box 3149
North Nowra, NSW 2541
Australia

A Saturday

Saturday September 13, 2008

It was so warm today!! Really felt like summer and just two days ago I was freezing. My room travel clock says 83*F right now and it has been in the 60s, which has felt freezing!
Didn’t really do too much today. Walked around a bit in the morning and took a few pictures of the staff housing. It’s about a 5min drive from the main road down a bumpy, windy road deep in the bush to get to Waterslea and Koloona, which are collectively known as the Shoalhaven Centre. Waterslea is the larger site and located on the water; it sleeps about 150 people, where as Koloona is back in the bush (woods) a bit more and only sleeps about 50 people. Both are nice and have their own meeting rooms and dining room area, although the kitchen is located at Waterslea. Waterslea also has a game room, an outdoor pool, a boat shed with many canoes, the offices, and our programs staff room, which has Tim and Julie’s office, a bathroom, some of our equipment, the two staff computers and where we each have a locker.

Waterlsea is located at the top of a rather large hill overlooking a cow pasture, which is rented to a farmer. Just beyond the cow pasture is the Shoalhaven river, making for a really great view! The water is cold now but I hear in summer it’s great for a swim! While I was wandering this morning I saw a boat go by pulling a water skier! Also while wandering I found a new climbing tree!! It is massive and overlooks the water.

When driving in to Waterslea you pass the staff houses on the left, go down a pretty large hill, along the cow pasture a bit, then back up another large hill. The tree is located on the way down the hill from the staff houses but not too far down the hill, it will be nice to have a tree here!
So anyway, after my morning wander I just kind of hung around with my house mates Julie and Mel until the afternoon when we went “into town” to the store. I think I am going to end up spending a bit of money on groceries but then I will also be learning to cook too, which is good. Meals are included when we are working and we can go back over for dinner but Mel likes to cook and knows lots of recipes so we cook dinner a lot. We worked it out that we will each pitch in $20 a week and that should cover our food.

Back at the house we hung around a bit before fixing dinner: sausages, mashed potatoes and vegetables – broccoli and carrots! Now we are watching a bit of footy (rugby) before bed.
A pretty good Saturday although a bit boring. Tomorrow I have to do some laundry and pack for Kangaroo valley, where I will be for training for the week.

Man, I took a video of the house and a video of my room and lots of photos but they are taking FOREVER to load so I guess they will have to wait until I get a better internet connection - bummer

Photos Take FOREVER to Load

Oh yeah! I got one to load!!
Here is the outside of our house

To the left is our kitchen, straight ahead is the living room area, with the laundry room off the right of it, and kind of to my right is our table.

Here is my room! It's pretty big! To the right is the door into my room. Straight ahead is my wadrobe - three 10 packs of hangers worth of clothes plus those four tiny drawers at the bottom and two plastic containers for socks and underwear and pjs! To the left is my very own bathroom. And then along the wall is my milk-crate shelf! - cheap furniture :)

Nice window! To the left is my $10 op-shop (thrift store) bed-side table! Lined up along the right are my shoes, to take up some space in my big room!! And then the milk-crate shelf again. Oh, and on the floor next to the bed-side table is a heater I borrowed from one of my house mates because it was a bit chilly the first few nights!!

Hope this helps give you an idea of where I am!! There are many more to come if I can get a faster internet connection!

Two Weeks

Wow - so it has been two weeks since I landed here. It feels like so much longer!!
Finally seem to have almost regained my health!! No more fever!! Just a lingering cough remains. Not sure if the fluid is gone from behind my eardrum but I'm not in any pain so it's good.

Spent yesterday and today shadowing some of the other instructors so that was really neat to see some of the activities and stuff I will be running eventually. We still have three more weeks of training before we actually start but this week gave us a pretty good feel for what we will be doing.

For training we will be at some other sites Mon-Wed doing mostly theology training then back here for activities training on Thursdays and Fridays. Should be fun and educational.

I have lots of pics and even a video of my house ready to post I just have to bring them up to the staff computers.

Hope all is well with everyone :) :)

Oh - it was warm today!!! Summer is on it's way!
Kind of sad that I've only been here fo two weeks of cold weather, and it wasn't even that cold, and I'm already ready for summer again!

Training

Monday September 8, 2008

On Mondays we start at 8 with breakfast and a devotion. From there Dan and I spent the entire day getting orientation talks from different staff members and different departments – lots of information. Luckily, they don’t expect us to remember it all!

Also got to do some archery so that was fun as I had been teaching it all summer but had spent little time actually shooting myself! Would have enjoyed the whole experience a bit though had I not still been sick; coughing, nose blowing, having a headache and probably a fever – ugg. Hopefully the antibiotic starts working soon and does the job!
Got out T-shirts and keys and everything so I feel very official now!


Tuesday September 9, 2008

Didn't feel quite as sick today and actually had a temp of 97.1*F instead of a fever - huh.
Spent the day doing food hygenie training and child protection stuff. they train you in everything here. Humm guess that's really it - not much exciting here today!

Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired

Sunday September 7, 2008

So this is day four of being sick and it’s getting kind of old. I’ve been waking up in the morning with a fever ranging from 101 – 102 and then it will fluctuate throughout the day but not go below 99. Paid $40 to go to a doctor on Friday; he said there is fluid behind the ear drum – yup, figured that, and he gave me a prescription for amoxicillin, which I filled yesterday.

Despite the fever I went with Dan up to Sydney to do some shopping. We went to a mall, where I filled the prescription at the Chemist (pharmacy). We also went to an outdoor store as well as an op shop (thrift store). Here we both found bed-side tables (night stands). I got one for $10. It is old and dirty and falling apart but it has potential and the price was right :-P Figure I’ll clean it off and give it a nice coat of purple paint.

I’ve managed to get all of my clothes into the wardrobe, after buying three 10 packs of hangers. But my floor is still covered with all my miscellaneous items which will go into the bed-side table when it is done.

Saturday was totally rainy and really gross for shopping, especially since I was sick. Carried my Gatorade and water around with me all day – I’ve been drinking TONS of liquids, especially Gatorade, so as to avoid getting dehydrated as I tend to get when I have a fever.

Today is Father’s Day here. Again, woke up with 102*F fever. Took it easy this morning; finished unpacking my clothes, folding my laundry, and cleaned the huge pile of dishes covering our counter. I am really going to appreciate a dish washer after these nine months. I guess I did have to do dishes senior year but we weren’t usually cooking full meals there so we weren’t generating quite as much dishes.

A little after lunch Dan came over and I ended up going on a run with him and Phil; probably not the best idea. Luckily it was a short run but I was still feeling pretty tired. Ran down to the jetty / dock thing on the river – pretty neat.

Went to church with Phil, Dan, and Mel, one of my housemates. We went to All Saints Anglican church so that was interesting. They had good music but the sermon was a bit random I guess you could say. Although it’s really not fair to judge a church by one sermon :-P Last week I went with Julie to Nowra Baptist Church. Their music was okay, sermon was pretty good and everyone was very friendly. The service was in kind of a big room though – didn’t feel too much like church – not that the room should really matter. Yup. So still trying them all out!