Our morning started with a quick breakfast followed by a
couple of hours of debriefing the the Intercultural Development Inventory, or IDI.
Paula reviewed the stages of the model, offering an excellent
explication of each stage. Paula
divided the students in to four groups to generate skits representing different
stages of the broader model she originally explained. One group was assigned Denial, another
Reversal, a third Minimization, and a fourth Acceptance. The students produced useful and appropriate
skits demonstrating their clearer understanding of the model they’d been
learning. The application to their own
IDI results must have been made that much more clear as a result of that exercise.
Following our “work” we had two hours plus on our own, so a
few of us decided to follow the river path to the village in search of real
coffee.
Rachel, our leader here at the
Summit, had given us some background about the area. She explained that there
been three collieries in our immediate vicinity, all of which were closed by
the mid-1990s. The facility housing the
Summit had once been the offices of the western most mine in the area. We learned that one of the reclamation
projects has been to improve the water quality coming from the old mine
areas. The water was originally a bright
red color due to the iron content,
but with the use of strategically located
reed beds acting as filtration systems, the water has been purified.
As we walked, we espied a heron preparing to fly.
It was gorgeous. I’d never seen that species anywhere
else. There were lots of ducks in the
river,
and wild orchids growing along the banks.
It was a beautiful day to boot.
We arrived at the village, Trelewis,
part of an area called Merthyr Tydfil named for the daughter of King Brychan of Brycheiniog, Saint Tydfil. Wikipedia reports:
"According to her legend she was slain at Merthyr by pagans around 480;
the place was subsequently named Merthyr Tydfil in her honour.[2] Although the usual meaning of the word merthyr (from the Latin martyrium) in modern Welsh is 'martyr', it is probable that the meaning here is 'church (in memory of a saint or on his/her grave).'"
We were greeted by park employees asking if
they could survey us.
We all agreed to participate, which meant
there were four surveyors at work. We
got to talking with them and I asked about where we might find a place selling
real coffee. My surveyor, Carol, became
rather flustered trying to think where we might go and then said she would walk
with us to the next village to get the coffee.
We demurred and insisted she shouldn’t do it, but then she said the
staff at the visitor center would make us coffee. They couldn’t have been more charming and
hospitable. They sent one person out to
buy us milk, but while we were waiting they talked to us about their park.
The area is slowly being revitalized. With the closing of the collieries, they
needed to engage in a program of creating new opportunities—starting with the
land itself. One of the men pointed to a
hill and said, ‘that used to be my playground when I was a boy. I’d come home after playing and my mum would
accuse me of playing in the mine pits, but it was the coal dust.’ The workers were so proud of their park and
were anxious to share with us the various projects they’ve completed as well as
their plans.
Their photo displays were
quite impressive. They also showed us a
sculpture titled “breaking the mold” which featured an egg-shaped object they
perceived to represent a “seed of the new.”
They asked to take a photo so they could put it in their
newsletter. I was sure to zip up my Minnesota
fleece so that they had evidence of our “foreignness”. We stayed for more than an hour and then it
was time for us to return to the Summit for lunch and our afternoon activities.
We hurriedly ate our lunches and then gathered for a series
of team building activities, including the human knot, gutter ball, sequence
racing, and puzzle solving.
And then, it
was time for climbing. I was bound and
determined to at least try and climb the wall, but I didn’t have a very good
start. There was a practice wall we were
instructed to navigate,
and I fell off halfway around the wall. This did not bode well. We were suited up in harnesses and then
instructed to go to the ropes to begin climbing. The first time I went up, I scaled about half
the wall. But with some encouragement, I
found myself going all the way to the top on the next attempt!
What a rush! I did it! I successfully climbed to the top of a climbing
wall. And, I did two separate, complete
climbs all the way to the top. It was a
tremendous feeling of accomplishment and I was very grateful for the
chance. Many in our group were quite
expert climbers, including our Cath who ascended five walls of increasing
difficulty with amazing agility and speed.
Her young 15 year old daughter Alex was also quite the climber. There were so many good and adventurous
climbers in our group I lost track. I’m
sure we’ll all be quite sore in the morning.
Another group prepared dinner. While we were waiting for dinner, Paula and I had a great game of ping pong. I’ve never been very good at that kind of thing, but we managed to improve over the course of our game and had a number of excellent rallies.
After cleanup, Helen, Paula and I walked back along the
river to the village for a pint at the pub.
It was, to quote one of the Summit staff, in “the ugliest building you
ever saw.” We really didn’t take notice
of that. We ordered our drinks and sat
down in a corner of a room with a big screen television featuring soccer and rugby, alternatively. We chatted up a few of the men sitting in the
vicinity and learned some of their stories.
One gentleman told me he had been to the US in 1966 when he was a 17 year old member of the Royal Navy. He'd made his way all the way to Lake Superior via the Erie Canal. Another man told me he will be celebrating his 89th birthday next week--this after working 45 years in the mines (starting at age 16).
The students came and we sat with them for a short while. A few of the young women mentioned they had observed some odd activity along the river on their way in to town. They thought they had heard pigs squealing. They had seen lights flashing and perceived young men's voices. They felt nervous about walking back to the Summit, and asked if they could walk back with us. I checked with the men to see if they could offer an explanation of what they girls had observed. One of the men said that it was probably "lamping"--somewhat akin to "shining". As he said, "a group of lads set off with torches and dogs and they shine the light on rabbits. Once the rabbits are stunned by the light, the dogs set out after them." Our acquaintance said, "I don't hold with it, but that's what they're doing."
We told the girls what we had learned and agreed to walk with them back to the center.
It was a beautiful starlit night. We were spared any more lamping instances.
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