Tuesday October 28, 2008
Experience, so much of this job is experience. The more I do the activities with groups and the more I see other people run them the more I will improve.
So the first activity of the day was the hike/swim at the jetty. It was another double activity so my group along with Pete’s group. Pete was setting up for abseiling so I led both of our groups in getting PFDs and walking the 2k trail to the jetty, where we met up with Pete. I had done the walk several times so that wasn’t a big deal and Pete was there when we got there so that all went well.
Back from the jetty we had morning tea and Christian Discovery (CD). Julie did the mean bit then we broke into our groups to cover some discussion questions . . . We talked about who God is; how we tend to get our own ideas about God and “put him in a box” but really we should look to the bible to learn who God really is. So in our groups we looked at some bible passages and pulled out some characteristics of God. We looked at how half of the words eluded to a loving, caring, forgiving God and the other half focused more on powerful, should be feared, God who likes justice . . . I talked about how it was important to remember God is a balance of these characteristics and not just see him as loving and not just as someone to be feared but a God who seeks justice because he loves us and wants a relationship with us.
Working with year nine kids is a whole totally different experience than working with younger kids. Ohhhhh so different. The conversations and topics are deeper; not just the basic bible stories and God loves you message! I’m definitely going to be challenged working here but it will be good I think. Part of me feels like “who am I to be teaching these youth about God and religion? I’m still learning and growing myself” I guess I’ll just keep in mind that it’s okay if I don’t have all the answers and I can always look it up or ask someone after work and get back to them!
After lunch I ran my first low ropes session. I had seen it done with younger kids but as I said, older kids are so different. My briefing went alright and I’m pretty sure I covered everything. Before getting them on the low ropes elements I had them do a few trust activities. I broke them into groups of three to do a “trust pass/fall” but they weren’t taking it seriously so I did a group trust circle instead; where everyone stands in a circle shoulder to shoulder with one person in the middle who falls and gets passed around. This went better but I still had to stop several times to remind them that we couldn’t do the elements if they could not trust each other and if I could not see that they were taking it seriously and were going to be safe. I actually had to have one kid sit out because we finally got this girl to go in the middle of the trust circle and it was going really well and then he did a fake scream and pretended to drop her . . .
So we finally got through that and moved on to the elements. The first one went okay and involved one person walking across a rope with two spotters. But the next one went really well! I was headed toward a similar element to the first one but Scott had his group there so I went to the ring of fire instead and was so glad that I did. Ring of fire involves the whole group getting from one side to the other through a metal rig which is placed about shoulder/head height off the ground. It was really cool to watch as the group worked together and came together through that activity – really cool! Some of the people that were hesitant in the trust circle were now being lifted off the ground and passed through a mental ring by their classmates.
The debrief went alright as well; discussing how our trust had changed from beginning to end and sort of analyzing what made the second activity smoother . . . I think they got something out of it – I hope! We also discussed attitude and how much of an impact that has. I shared the awesome quote “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it: attitude is everything.” Then I added how our faith / trust in God combined with our attitude can really impact how we go through life . . . It would have been better if they could have somehow arrived at that on there own. That is one thing I really want to work on: asking the right questions and saying the right things to get a group thinking and talking. This I guess will come with experience but I’m sure it also depends on the group. *sigh* so much to learn – but you have to start somewhere.
Next activity, after afternoon tea, was abseiling. I have just spent a weekend getting abseil training but had never seen it run here at Shoalhaven and had never run a session. Julie hiked up with my group, which was good cause I wasn’t 100% positive of the trail, although I’m sure I would have made it fine. We always have someone staffed as “abseil extra” and today it was Alison
So Al and Julz did the briefing as I watched and then helped the students get their harnesses and hardware. We had a 20m, 10m, and 6m cliff set up. I went with Julz to the 6m and watched her belay a few people before she let me take over. First person I made a hugeeee mistake and sat the belay rope on the ground as I attached her onto the abseil line. Really, really bad as the whole point of the belay line is that I am holding on to them in case they fall.
Other than that the belaying was okay. I need to work on coiling the rope as I bring it back up and various other things but I think I have them main idea down. Abseiling is definitely one of the more involved activities I guess – a lot to learn. After this weekend, I think I’m pretty set on how to set up but I need to keep practicing and actually use it or I’ll loose it. I have some spare rope at home so I’m going to practice with that!
I definitely have a lot to learn still but the more experience and the more I see it run the more I will improve.
I feel sometimes like I’m just standing around not being helpful and there is something I should or could be doing. But again I guess more time and experience will help me know what to do and what needs to be done. For now I just keep asking “what can I do?” “Is there something I can do / should be doing . . .” I really like this job and want to do it well. I can’t believe there’s already only about five more months left of me working. I’m afraid that by the time I get fully confident and comfortable it s going to be time to leave. Hummmm . . . Trying to take it all in, retain it, get as much experience as I can, and learn from every opportunity.
Busy week – we all agreed that it already feels like Friday but it is only Tuesday! Tomorrow is going to be crazy as this group is leaving at 1:30 after lunch but the next group is due in at 10:30am. That should be interesting and crazy!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
My First Group
Monday October 27, 2008
The Group: Holy Spirit College (Catholic High School)
The age: Year 9
Numbers: 11 groups of 15 (about 160 campers), 12 teachers
Wow so first group all on my own. Year nine – phew. It didn’t take long to realize they were going to be a whole different ball of wax than the year three and four kids I had spent the last two weeks with.
I had to be firm, I had to be confident, I had to be consistent and not let down. My biggest challenge was just getting them to stop talking and listen to my instructions. After being in the classroom, I have come up with several strategies for getting the attention of younger kids, but all would be inappropriate with this age group. For the most part just starting to talk would work but yeah, there are always “those few.” :-P
So the day began with Monday morning breakfast and devotions before we moved into setting up for the group, which includes many various jobs. The group arrived at 10:30 (half an hour early) but by the time they had their bags set down and were all in the meeting room for their “welcome to camp talk,” we were back on schedule!
Since it is such a large group, the girls are staying up at Koolona, about a five minute walk from Waterslea, where the boys are staying, where all the meals are being held and the activities are being run from. So after the talk, given by Julie, I helped walk the girls up to Koolona to drop off their stuff and get ready for their first activity of the day.
Back to Waterslea for a hectic lunch! 170 is a lot of people!! Apparently the dinning room can by set to seat 200 but I don’t know how that would work as you can barely squeeze behind the chairs now. The first meal is always the craziest, especially with this many people! But it all worked out and activity session 1 started on time at 1:30.
My first activity was orienteering. I think I have already explained this but basically they are given a map and are set out to find different wooden markers around the site and record the name of the bird written on the marker. For the older kids, we also give them a compass; have them take a bearing when the find the marker and then record the man made object at that bearing.
Before introducing orienteering, I sat them in a circle and went through their names and had them tell me something interesting about themselves, which most of them struggled with. I didn’t actually care if they told me something interesting or not I just wanted some time to repeat their name in my head over and over!!!
I also went ahead and told them about my eyes and how they might not think I’m looking at them . . . younger kids don’t seem to have as much of an issue with it but I could tell it could be one with this group so figured I’d get that out there from the start. Kind of funny cause then one of the girl’s interesting things was “I have the same eye problem as you” huh.
So yeah, orienteering went pretty well. It’s a pretty easy activity to run once you explain it. Did a debrief at the end where they choose a word from a pile and used it in a sentence to describe their experience – some where better than others but that is to be expected. Also asked them about their team work within their groups. . .
Afternoon tea then onto activity two – canoeing. Ohhhhh if an activity could crash and burn wow yeah. Just a mess. Lots of factors contributed to this hectic, chaotic canoe session! I would say “unorganized” would sum it up pretty well.
Since there are 11 activity groups this week a lot of the activities are doubled up – meaning two groups are there at the same time. So instead of the usual one instructor out with their 15 kids + someone in the power boat, it was 2 instructors and 30 kids. It was crazy. Could have gone alright had we just split and taken our groups separate ways instead of trying to keep them together. I won’t go into too much detail now but we’ll just say it was a learning experience! Then after we got off the water and the canoes stacked away the kids pretty much headed off, leaving paddles . . . It was 5:00 so the session was technically over but that didn’t give a chance to debrief at all. I’ve decided I’m going to debrief in the morning just cause I think we need some closure on that – or maybe at least I do!! Sometimes things seem a lot worse when you are in charge, I’d like to think that’s the case but I don’t know!
Pretty hot! It was hanging around 90*F and it’s still about 85*F in our lovely, non air-conditioned home!
We have a fourth house member this week: Jess. I’ve heard about Jess every since I got here and I finally got to meet her this weekend! She worked here for nearly three years before heading over to France to work on a camp and then to England to be with her boyfriend. She is home for a month so she can get a work visa to go back to England and while she’s here she is working at Shoalhaven and staying with us! She’s really nice and is an awesome and most welcomed fourth housemate!!!
The Group: Holy Spirit College (Catholic High School)
The age: Year 9
Numbers: 11 groups of 15 (about 160 campers), 12 teachers
Wow so first group all on my own. Year nine – phew. It didn’t take long to realize they were going to be a whole different ball of wax than the year three and four kids I had spent the last two weeks with.
I had to be firm, I had to be confident, I had to be consistent and not let down. My biggest challenge was just getting them to stop talking and listen to my instructions. After being in the classroom, I have come up with several strategies for getting the attention of younger kids, but all would be inappropriate with this age group. For the most part just starting to talk would work but yeah, there are always “those few.” :-P
So the day began with Monday morning breakfast and devotions before we moved into setting up for the group, which includes many various jobs. The group arrived at 10:30 (half an hour early) but by the time they had their bags set down and were all in the meeting room for their “welcome to camp talk,” we were back on schedule!
Since it is such a large group, the girls are staying up at Koolona, about a five minute walk from Waterslea, where the boys are staying, where all the meals are being held and the activities are being run from. So after the talk, given by Julie, I helped walk the girls up to Koolona to drop off their stuff and get ready for their first activity of the day.
Back to Waterslea for a hectic lunch! 170 is a lot of people!! Apparently the dinning room can by set to seat 200 but I don’t know how that would work as you can barely squeeze behind the chairs now. The first meal is always the craziest, especially with this many people! But it all worked out and activity session 1 started on time at 1:30.
My first activity was orienteering. I think I have already explained this but basically they are given a map and are set out to find different wooden markers around the site and record the name of the bird written on the marker. For the older kids, we also give them a compass; have them take a bearing when the find the marker and then record the man made object at that bearing.
Before introducing orienteering, I sat them in a circle and went through their names and had them tell me something interesting about themselves, which most of them struggled with. I didn’t actually care if they told me something interesting or not I just wanted some time to repeat their name in my head over and over!!!
I also went ahead and told them about my eyes and how they might not think I’m looking at them . . . younger kids don’t seem to have as much of an issue with it but I could tell it could be one with this group so figured I’d get that out there from the start. Kind of funny cause then one of the girl’s interesting things was “I have the same eye problem as you” huh.
So yeah, orienteering went pretty well. It’s a pretty easy activity to run once you explain it. Did a debrief at the end where they choose a word from a pile and used it in a sentence to describe their experience – some where better than others but that is to be expected. Also asked them about their team work within their groups. . .
Afternoon tea then onto activity two – canoeing. Ohhhhh if an activity could crash and burn wow yeah. Just a mess. Lots of factors contributed to this hectic, chaotic canoe session! I would say “unorganized” would sum it up pretty well.
Since there are 11 activity groups this week a lot of the activities are doubled up – meaning two groups are there at the same time. So instead of the usual one instructor out with their 15 kids + someone in the power boat, it was 2 instructors and 30 kids. It was crazy. Could have gone alright had we just split and taken our groups separate ways instead of trying to keep them together. I won’t go into too much detail now but we’ll just say it was a learning experience! Then after we got off the water and the canoes stacked away the kids pretty much headed off, leaving paddles . . . It was 5:00 so the session was technically over but that didn’t give a chance to debrief at all. I’ve decided I’m going to debrief in the morning just cause I think we need some closure on that – or maybe at least I do!! Sometimes things seem a lot worse when you are in charge, I’d like to think that’s the case but I don’t know!
Pretty hot! It was hanging around 90*F and it’s still about 85*F in our lovely, non air-conditioned home!
We have a fourth house member this week: Jess. I’ve heard about Jess every since I got here and I finally got to meet her this weekend! She worked here for nearly three years before heading over to France to work on a camp and then to England to be with her boyfriend. She is home for a month so she can get a work visa to go back to England and while she’s here she is working at Shoalhaven and staying with us! She’s really nice and is an awesome and most welcomed fourth housemate!!!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Another American!
Tuesday October 21, 2008
We had initiatives and canoeing today. It was a bit chilly, in the lower 60*s F (15-16*C) but not too cold.
So yesterday I found out there was a student teacher from America here with the group! With the busyness of the first day we didn’t get much of a chance to talk so today we had a nice chat after lunch during free time. She is from Northern New Jersey in her senior year at Boston University and is studying abroad for the semester (Sep-Dec, like I did) but is doing her student teaching over here – wow! As you can imagine I had a ton of questions with her: how her student teaching is structured, if she’s taking classes as well, how her time in a private Christian school is going to transfer to a teaching degree and certificate at home, which I never really got a clear answer on!
So it was really interesting to talk to her. It made me think about how a year ago I was in the classroom; just getting my feet wet 3 days a week. I’m so grateful for the program I went through; the awesome mentors I had and the small-sized courses and seminars that helped me learn and grow.
We also talked about outdoor education and she agreed that it is way more common over here than at home for schools to take their students on camp. She mentioned how they have physical education as a class but then in addition to that they have an hour and a half of sport each week. It seems their education is a bit more holistic, with the student as a whole in mind where as at home there is much more pressure to focus on academics and intellectual growth.
We had initiatives and canoeing today. It was a bit chilly, in the lower 60*s F (15-16*C) but not too cold.
So yesterday I found out there was a student teacher from America here with the group! With the busyness of the first day we didn’t get much of a chance to talk so today we had a nice chat after lunch during free time. She is from Northern New Jersey in her senior year at Boston University and is studying abroad for the semester (Sep-Dec, like I did) but is doing her student teaching over here – wow! As you can imagine I had a ton of questions with her: how her student teaching is structured, if she’s taking classes as well, how her time in a private Christian school is going to transfer to a teaching degree and certificate at home, which I never really got a clear answer on!
So it was really interesting to talk to her. It made me think about how a year ago I was in the classroom; just getting my feet wet 3 days a week. I’m so grateful for the program I went through; the awesome mentors I had and the small-sized courses and seminars that helped me learn and grow.
We also talked about outdoor education and she agreed that it is way more common over here than at home for schools to take their students on camp. She mentioned how they have physical education as a class but then in addition to that they have an hour and a half of sport each week. It seems their education is a bit more holistic, with the student as a whole in mind where as at home there is much more pressure to focus on academics and intellectual growth.
All Boys
Monday October 20, 2008
The Group: Trinity Grammar School
The age: Year 5 boys
Numbers: 3 groups of 15, 5 teachers
I’m following Alison this week. It’s good to work with / follow different leaders to get the feel for things and see how different people run things. We had Billy carting today, which the year five boys got totally into!
Trinity Grammar is a private Christian boy’s school that takes the boys on camp every year starting with year five. So it is this group’s first time at camp. Every day at 4:00 the boys have journaling time to reflect on the days activities. . . Today they were asked to write 3-6 lines and draw a picture highlighting their day. These journals are then kept by youthworks and used by the boys every year up through year 9, when they spend 5 weeks in a camp-like setting! What a neat concept! So at the end of year nine they will have five years worth of journaling from camp!
I’m finding camps are much more common here. At home I went to outdoor ed once during 6th grade for three days. Perhaps that was just my personal experience and other states do outdoor ed differently. But still, here the camp experiences seem to start at an earlier age, run for longer periods of time, and occur more frequently than once in your schooling.
I think there is a lot of value in taking students on camp more than just once in their 12 years of schooling. There is so much learning to be done at camp that could not occur inside a classroom. And when coupled with journaling and reflecting, the benefits are invaluable.
However, I can understand, having nearly been in a teacher’s shoes, the various complications involved in taking a group away on camp.
Complication #1 – personal sacrifice – the teacher must be willing to step away from their personal life for 3-5 days in order to spend non-stop time with their students.
Complication #2 – risk of falling behind – in the days of standardized state testing and yearly progress evaluations, it is difficult to cover all the content in the time provided let alone spend a week out of the classroom with little to no academics.
Complication #3 – the cost factor – most school can’t afford to send students on camp once let alone every year and parents cannot be expected to cover the costs.
These are some of the sad but true facts that stand in the way of many children missing out on the opportunity to grow and learn in a camp setting. Perhaps that is why a lot of our school are private Christian schools. Hummm. . . .
The Group: Trinity Grammar School
The age: Year 5 boys
Numbers: 3 groups of 15, 5 teachers
I’m following Alison this week. It’s good to work with / follow different leaders to get the feel for things and see how different people run things. We had Billy carting today, which the year five boys got totally into!
Trinity Grammar is a private Christian boy’s school that takes the boys on camp every year starting with year five. So it is this group’s first time at camp. Every day at 4:00 the boys have journaling time to reflect on the days activities. . . Today they were asked to write 3-6 lines and draw a picture highlighting their day. These journals are then kept by youthworks and used by the boys every year up through year 9, when they spend 5 weeks in a camp-like setting! What a neat concept! So at the end of year nine they will have five years worth of journaling from camp!
I’m finding camps are much more common here. At home I went to outdoor ed once during 6th grade for three days. Perhaps that was just my personal experience and other states do outdoor ed differently. But still, here the camp experiences seem to start at an earlier age, run for longer periods of time, and occur more frequently than once in your schooling.
I think there is a lot of value in taking students on camp more than just once in their 12 years of schooling. There is so much learning to be done at camp that could not occur inside a classroom. And when coupled with journaling and reflecting, the benefits are invaluable.
However, I can understand, having nearly been in a teacher’s shoes, the various complications involved in taking a group away on camp.
Complication #1 – personal sacrifice – the teacher must be willing to step away from their personal life for 3-5 days in order to spend non-stop time with their students.
Complication #2 – risk of falling behind – in the days of standardized state testing and yearly progress evaluations, it is difficult to cover all the content in the time provided let alone spend a week out of the classroom with little to no academics.
Complication #3 – the cost factor – most school can’t afford to send students on camp once let alone every year and parents cannot be expected to cover the costs.
These are some of the sad but true facts that stand in the way of many children missing out on the opportunity to grow and learn in a camp setting. Perhaps that is why a lot of our school are private Christian schools. Hummm. . . .
Saturday, October 18, 2008
First Camp!
Saturday October 18, 2008
Okay, so I guess it’s not my official first camp since I wasn’t actually leading on it but was my first full camp experience here!
The group: Shoalhaven Anglican School
Age: Years 3 and 4 (3rd and 4th grade)
Numbers: 41 students, 2 teachers, 1 parent
The students were split into three groups. I was with Shaneo leading a group of 11 year 4 students. Since the kids were so young they only stayed Thursday and Friday; two days and one night. The first day’s activities included orienteering, jetty jumping, and initiatives.
Orienteering involves the students working in groups of three to find markers around the site and record the fish names that are on each marker. Each group is given a map of the site which indicates the location of each marker. As the group had 11 students, I got to play the part of a student for this activity, which was quite fun as well as beneficial; giving me the chance to locate all of the markers so I know for future reference.
Lunch followed orienteering and then we were off to the jetty! Upon returning from the jetty we had afternoon tea before I led our initiatives session. Overall, it went pretty well I guess. I had my list of pre-chosen activities written down which was good. We are meant to start with a warm-up activity, then a communication activity, followed by trust, and finally team work.
The group had a lot of energy and was just excited to be at camp. So in instructing this activity I was definitely using a combination of skills I have picked up from my various experiences. I used my enthusiastic camp counselor persona when explaining the activities / challenges and my teacher techniques and tone while conducting the debriefs. It is a bit tricky as you want the kinds to have fun and enjoy the activities but you also want them to take them seriously and be able to get something from them, preferably something that can be applicable to their life outside of camp. I’m finding this is going to require the appropriate mix of seriousness and enthusiasm.
I’m in quite a unique position; somewhere between teacher and camp counselor. Having experience in both of these roles is definitely valuable and now just leaves me to find the most effective balance, which will most-likely differ from group to group.
This was a really awesome group, very well behaved and polite so I may have been a bit more camp counselorish but then during initiatives I definitely put on my teacher hat; using techniques learned in the classroom to get their attention and help them discuss what they learned (often said “learnt” here).
It was really awesome to be able to use both skills from camp and from the classroom to get the kids talking about teamwork, trust, responsibility, and God. I wrapped up with them as I would with a group at the Marsh; having each kid share their most favorite and least favorite part of the day and something they had learned so far. Finally, since this was a private Christian school I was able to end by praying with them.
Yeah, so it’s pretty cool to think about how God has been preparing me over the years and has set a path that has led me here!
*Working at CA Nature camp – sparked my initial interest in working in a camp setting but also helped me understand that I prefer and desire to work in a Christian setting.
*The Marsh – solidified my desire and love for working in the Christian camp setting
*Student teaching – taught me valuable skills for working with kids in a more structured setting, giving me experience in lesson planning with a focus on delivering content. Not to mention the many discipline and teaching techniques and strategies gained.
*WAC and the college experience – well, there’s no way I can sum that all up but yeah, it helped me grow and discover more about who I was, become more independent and form some pretty awesome relationships.
*Crew - physical challenge, love of the outdoors & water
*Studying abroad – again, helped me grow and learn about myself and survive “on my own” for a while. Not to mention introduced me to this awesome country and gave me the “travel bug.”
Bottom line – never doubt that God has a plan! You won’t always be able to see where it is leading but “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight!” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)
P.S. I bought a new bible! A small one I can carry around with me at camp. It is New International Version – good stuff! J $27 but it has a zipping cover, thumb tabs, lots of “stuff” in the back like maps . . . AND – it is maroon and blue like my work shirt- hehe!
Signing off and thanking God for all the people and experiences that have been a part of my life thus far.
Hope all is well back in the states and everyone is enjoying the colors, smells, sounds, and tastes of autumn! I was trying to explain candy corn last night - “Is it sticky?” “Does it actually have corn in it?” “Well, no . . . “
Okay, so I guess it’s not my official first camp since I wasn’t actually leading on it but was my first full camp experience here!
The group: Shoalhaven Anglican School
Age: Years 3 and 4 (3rd and 4th grade)
Numbers: 41 students, 2 teachers, 1 parent
The students were split into three groups. I was with Shaneo leading a group of 11 year 4 students. Since the kids were so young they only stayed Thursday and Friday; two days and one night. The first day’s activities included orienteering, jetty jumping, and initiatives.
Orienteering involves the students working in groups of three to find markers around the site and record the fish names that are on each marker. Each group is given a map of the site which indicates the location of each marker. As the group had 11 students, I got to play the part of a student for this activity, which was quite fun as well as beneficial; giving me the chance to locate all of the markers so I know for future reference.
Lunch followed orienteering and then we were off to the jetty! Upon returning from the jetty we had afternoon tea before I led our initiatives session. Overall, it went pretty well I guess. I had my list of pre-chosen activities written down which was good. We are meant to start with a warm-up activity, then a communication activity, followed by trust, and finally team work.
The group had a lot of energy and was just excited to be at camp. So in instructing this activity I was definitely using a combination of skills I have picked up from my various experiences. I used my enthusiastic camp counselor persona when explaining the activities / challenges and my teacher techniques and tone while conducting the debriefs. It is a bit tricky as you want the kinds to have fun and enjoy the activities but you also want them to take them seriously and be able to get something from them, preferably something that can be applicable to their life outside of camp. I’m finding this is going to require the appropriate mix of seriousness and enthusiasm.
I’m in quite a unique position; somewhere between teacher and camp counselor. Having experience in both of these roles is definitely valuable and now just leaves me to find the most effective balance, which will most-likely differ from group to group.
This was a really awesome group, very well behaved and polite so I may have been a bit more camp counselorish but then during initiatives I definitely put on my teacher hat; using techniques learned in the classroom to get their attention and help them discuss what they learned (often said “learnt” here).
It was really awesome to be able to use both skills from camp and from the classroom to get the kids talking about teamwork, trust, responsibility, and God. I wrapped up with them as I would with a group at the Marsh; having each kid share their most favorite and least favorite part of the day and something they had learned so far. Finally, since this was a private Christian school I was able to end by praying with them.
Yeah, so it’s pretty cool to think about how God has been preparing me over the years and has set a path that has led me here!
*Working at CA Nature camp – sparked my initial interest in working in a camp setting but also helped me understand that I prefer and desire to work in a Christian setting.
*The Marsh – solidified my desire and love for working in the Christian camp setting
*Student teaching – taught me valuable skills for working with kids in a more structured setting, giving me experience in lesson planning with a focus on delivering content. Not to mention the many discipline and teaching techniques and strategies gained.
*WAC and the college experience – well, there’s no way I can sum that all up but yeah, it helped me grow and discover more about who I was, become more independent and form some pretty awesome relationships.
*Crew - physical challenge, love of the outdoors & water
*Studying abroad – again, helped me grow and learn about myself and survive “on my own” for a while. Not to mention introduced me to this awesome country and gave me the “travel bug.”
Bottom line – never doubt that God has a plan! You won’t always be able to see where it is leading but “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight!” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)
P.S. I bought a new bible! A small one I can carry around with me at camp. It is New International Version – good stuff! J $27 but it has a zipping cover, thumb tabs, lots of “stuff” in the back like maps . . . AND – it is maroon and blue like my work shirt- hehe!
Signing off and thanking God for all the people and experiences that have been a part of my life thus far.
Hope all is well back in the states and everyone is enjoying the colors, smells, sounds, and tastes of autumn! I was trying to explain candy corn last night - “Is it sticky?” “Does it actually have corn in it?” “Well, no . . . “
Mel and Julz took me out to Indian for a late birthday celebration!!!
Friday, October 17, 2008
Herding and House-Making
Wednesday October 15, 2008
So far the week has involved doing things that can’t be done when a group is in but must be done in order for things to run smoothly when they are here. Monday involved a bit of changing mattress protectors and pillow cases but the majority of our time has been spent setting up, inspection, and taking down all of our tents, which adds up to around 40. It hasn’t been the most fun job but hasn’t been the worst either. It has given us a chance to work with the others on our team and get to know them a bit. It is somewhat rare that the whole team is here at once, with out trips (camping over night), and people going to help at Port Hacking and Blue Gum so it has been kind of cool that we are all here. For the most part I don’t even notice but every so often I do step back and consider the guy to girl ratio! Julz and Mel have been in the office the past days doing administration stuff and preparing for groups from that end and Alison has been working on washing so doing tents I would once in a while be like “wow I’m the only girl here!”
So today around 4:00 (our day runs from 8-5) Tim, one of our bosses comes in and says “Can everyone just drop their tools for a minute?” and we were like okay and were all attentive before he continued “we need some help with cow herding . . .” At first I was confused but then remembered the cows down in the pasture. “A bunch of the cows have gotten loose and they need help getting them back in the paddock.”
Welcoming a change of scenery from the dining room and relief from the somewhat tedious task of tent duty, you could sense the excitement as everyone dropped what they were doing and ran for the car park, piling into cars and utes! I jumped in the back seat with Julie and Josh to find myself sitting on a pile of Steve’s clothes and other miscellaneous items in the back seat of his car!
After a bit of effort, we finally located the “runaway cows,” if you will, and herded them back into the paddock. Julie grew up on a farm as did one of the men who works maintenance so they more or less led the efforts, or at least tried to, as some of the guys were a bit excited about the idea of charging after cows and ran them straight passed the open gate, which another one of the guys was supposed to be standing at to make sure that didn’t happen - lol! All ended well with 15 happy cows and bulls back safely in the paddock and about 10 Shoalhaven staff happy to end the day with a bit of excitement!
Made it back with only about 5min left in our work day so most of that was spent recounting our adventure to those who had stayed behind! I stuck around to check my email with Dan and Phil and we didn’t make it back to the staff houses til nearly 7:15. Julie and Mel had already left for bible study, which I might have gone with them but oh well. I grabbed some dinner and tossed load of laundry in. We are in need of going to the store as we still haven’t gone since Julz and Mel got back from a week of being away. We were out of milk before the week started and I had the second to last slice of bread this morning! There was a muffin pan sitting on the counter and I remembered a box of muffin mix left on “my shelf” in the pantry by Leanne (who lived in my room for 3 months before I came). I pondered it for a moment then decided to go for it!
I know, I know it’s only a batch of muffins out of a box, it’s kind of pathetic that doing laundry and making muffins out of a box makes me feel “all grown up” but yeah, hahah. Julz agreed the box muffins were an accomplishment, commending me on getting them all to come out looking like muffins, and Mel reckons it is the start of things to come and that I’ll soon be making muffins from scratch – lol. They are both great, so blessed with awesome housemates and workmates!
So this turned out a bit longer than anticipated, but don’t they all! Everything is going well down here. A group of year 3 and 4 kids come in tomorrow; I am assisting with a group and will be leading their initiatives activity – should be good – just the beginning!
PS - the other day I mended a hole inmy pants using needle and thread - so domestic! :) :-P
So far the week has involved doing things that can’t be done when a group is in but must be done in order for things to run smoothly when they are here. Monday involved a bit of changing mattress protectors and pillow cases but the majority of our time has been spent setting up, inspection, and taking down all of our tents, which adds up to around 40. It hasn’t been the most fun job but hasn’t been the worst either. It has given us a chance to work with the others on our team and get to know them a bit. It is somewhat rare that the whole team is here at once, with out trips (camping over night), and people going to help at Port Hacking and Blue Gum so it has been kind of cool that we are all here. For the most part I don’t even notice but every so often I do step back and consider the guy to girl ratio! Julz and Mel have been in the office the past days doing administration stuff and preparing for groups from that end and Alison has been working on washing so doing tents I would once in a while be like “wow I’m the only girl here!”
So today around 4:00 (our day runs from 8-5) Tim, one of our bosses comes in and says “Can everyone just drop their tools for a minute?” and we were like okay and were all attentive before he continued “we need some help with cow herding . . .” At first I was confused but then remembered the cows down in the pasture. “A bunch of the cows have gotten loose and they need help getting them back in the paddock.”
Welcoming a change of scenery from the dining room and relief from the somewhat tedious task of tent duty, you could sense the excitement as everyone dropped what they were doing and ran for the car park, piling into cars and utes! I jumped in the back seat with Julie and Josh to find myself sitting on a pile of Steve’s clothes and other miscellaneous items in the back seat of his car!
After a bit of effort, we finally located the “runaway cows,” if you will, and herded them back into the paddock. Julie grew up on a farm as did one of the men who works maintenance so they more or less led the efforts, or at least tried to, as some of the guys were a bit excited about the idea of charging after cows and ran them straight passed the open gate, which another one of the guys was supposed to be standing at to make sure that didn’t happen - lol! All ended well with 15 happy cows and bulls back safely in the paddock and about 10 Shoalhaven staff happy to end the day with a bit of excitement!
Made it back with only about 5min left in our work day so most of that was spent recounting our adventure to those who had stayed behind! I stuck around to check my email with Dan and Phil and we didn’t make it back to the staff houses til nearly 7:15. Julie and Mel had already left for bible study, which I might have gone with them but oh well. I grabbed some dinner and tossed load of laundry in. We are in need of going to the store as we still haven’t gone since Julz and Mel got back from a week of being away. We were out of milk before the week started and I had the second to last slice of bread this morning! There was a muffin pan sitting on the counter and I remembered a box of muffin mix left on “my shelf” in the pantry by Leanne (who lived in my room for 3 months before I came). I pondered it for a moment then decided to go for it!
I know, I know it’s only a batch of muffins out of a box, it’s kind of pathetic that doing laundry and making muffins out of a box makes me feel “all grown up” but yeah, hahah. Julz agreed the box muffins were an accomplishment, commending me on getting them all to come out looking like muffins, and Mel reckons it is the start of things to come and that I’ll soon be making muffins from scratch – lol. They are both great, so blessed with awesome housemates and workmates!
So this turned out a bit longer than anticipated, but don’t they all! Everything is going well down here. A group of year 3 and 4 kids come in tomorrow; I am assisting with a group and will be leading their initiatives activity – should be good – just the beginning!
PS - the other day I mended a hole inmy pants using needle and thread - so domestic! :) :-P
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