Challenges Unmet

We’re in Wales for four days at an outdoor adventure facility called Summit.  It’s a Christian organization that’s been helping underprivileged children around the UK since the 1920s.  Perhaps its biggest claim to fame is an immense series of climbing walls, but it also provides a number of other activities for groups such as ours aiming to do a little team building.

We met the bus this morning by the Worcester Cathedral at 6:30, which meant getting up before the crack of dawn—a real challenge for yours truly, given my nocturnal inclinations.  Having been such a night owl of late, I made sure to go to bed before 10:30 last night.  I snuggled in to read for a bit and ended up finishing my book.  By that time, it was already well past midnight, but I felt compelled to turn out the light and make an effort to sleep.  Naturally, sleep was not forthcoming.  On nights like this I always remember what  my mother told me about my terrible sleeping habits as a baby and toddler.  It seems I just wouldn’t go to sleep, no matter what my parents tried.  My mother finally turned to the family pediatrician who advised to just let me stay in bed—regardless of whether or not I slept.  Merely resting was important.  I still attempt to just “rest” to this day.  It’s difficult at those times I can’t turn off my brain, or feel anxiety about something impending—like an early morning call before travel.  Ah well.

We collected the students about 6:45, but didn’t leave Worcester until 7:00.  I tried reading and watching the countryside as we headed south.  Ultimately, I gave in and snoozed a bit.  We arrived on site about 9:30 and immediately formed teams. 

My team was slated to do a raft-building exercise.  Our task was to build a raft with  six 10 foot long pieces of wood, rope and barrels.  We were warned that there was a strong possibility we might fall in the water and that we should have brought a change of clothes and shoes. Unfortunately, I didn’t have either, because when I left Duluth I didn’t pack for such an eventuality.  I felt terrible about sitting it out, but tried to participate by taking photos and helping to dismantle the rafts after the water activity.

The team "suited up" with helmets, wind breakers and boyounciers (or, the more pedestrian term--life jacket).

Our team was quick to build the raft, only to realize that we needed to do some repair work before they headed out on to the “lake” (it was really more of a pond).  Our guide, Johann (from South Africa),

came to our rescue before we had a major mishap, so that was a real blessing.  The team immediately set about correcting the problem  with our raft (our boards were too far apart and our lashings needed to be tighter),

and then it was in to the lake/pond to do a few assigned tasks.  First, they had to row to the other side, sitting three in a row astride the barrels, rowing with size-appropriate oars. 

Then, they had to rescue 10 rubber ducks tucked in to hidey holes in the wall of the lake/pond.  

Once the duckies were “rescued,”  they had to pass their bodies through a loop of cloth—I believe Johann made them do that three times.  Johann assigned them each fruit names, such as “apple”, “pear” and “banana”.  They had to stand up on the raft when  Johann  called their assigned fruit name.  This meant that initially, two people were standing on either side of the raft.  Finally, they had to all stand up and do “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”   at an increasingly more rapid pace.  

They were great team members, gamely following every one of Johann’s demands.  Finally, he went too far and they all fell in to the rather frigid water. 

I felt real pride watching them, and some personal shame for not having joined them due to my fear of getting wet and not being able to get dry.  Mind you, there are a number of students running around in their stocking feet because their shoes are still too wet.   In other words, my excuse for not participating seems shallow in retrospect.

Our opposing team had met their fate earlier in the process, but they too worked well together to achieve their goal—and they had only five team members.

We ate our lunch (which we had brought from home), and then moved on to our next activity—spelunking.  We suited up in something resembling a “gumby” outfit, wellies and helmet—complete with headlamp—and trudged off to the cave. 

Helen had warned me that I wouldn’t like it, but I really wanted to give it a go—until I saw the opening.  Not only did you have to bend down to enter the cave, but the entry point was quite narrow.   

I couldn’t do it.  I’ve become increasingly more claustrophobic as I have aged, and this was something I just couldn’t bring myself to do.  Additionally, I have a real aversion to being embarrassed.  I didn’t want to get stuck in the entry way because I am too fat—that would have been mortifying.  I shamefacedly backed out of the cave and sat down to wait for the team members who had braved the challenge.  I was particularly proud of one young lady on our team who has similar fears, but moved forward and did it in spite of her anxiety.  I felt like a failure, but she was a real trooper.  Everyone who participated, those who succeeded as well as those who attempted but had to back out, got something out of the experience.  

Our final team activity was to prepare dinner.  Finally, I had an activity I could participate in wholeheartedly.  The team was fantastic.  We set to work making hamburgers, chicken and veggie burgers on the grill.  We also prepared a large salad and roasted vegetables.  It was delicious.  Everyone pitched in and had a good time doing it.  We sang, we danced, we joked around.  We even had a few folks from other teams helping us.

We ended the evening with group activities designed to facilitate greater group awareness.  We started with some serious reflection on how we perceived our Study in England “family” and what we wanted each other to know about ourselves.  We divided in to groups to debrief and then we returned for some large group work.  We had tremendous fun playing games including a version of musical chairs wherein the person in the middle had to shout out something others had in common in an effort to claim a new seat.

We retired to our very cold rooms and hoped for warmth.  We’re in a facility which very much resembles a hostel.  Our room has three bunk beds and two singles—a total of eight beds.  Each bed had its own pillow and duvet and we had to obtain bedding to make up the beds.  Since there are eight beds and three inhabitants, we each have two duvets, which made sleeping possible.

We also have two toilet/showers en suite.  This is very convenient.  There’s a sign warning us of the “dangerous” hot water, but it sure felt good the next morning when I took a shower. 

One of the bigger challenges was finding out where our room light switch was.  I came in and flipped every switch I could find, but alas, it evaded me.  Finally I asked at the front desk and learned that it was located behind the entry door and covered by one of the bunk bed units.  Silly me.