Guiding Leadership

So over the last couple of months I've been taking a course called Guiding Leadership. Basically it is designed to give its participants the technique and knowledge required to take a group of people and build them into a team safely, efficiently, and effectively. A couple of days ago we embarked on an intensive retreat at the Coast Mountain Outdoor School facilities (beautiful, rustic, log cabins). During our stay there in Pemberton we were each required to lead the group through the team-building activity that you and your partner had devised. Forty-eight hours later we had played 8 team building games, had the most enormous and delicious potlach buffet (including all of: a complete turkey dinner, hot thai salad, lasagne, veggie platters, fruit platters, currie dishes, seven layered dips, and the list just goes on), huge group campfire, late night festivities and group pictures. It was the most fun that I've had in quite a while. For those of you who had the priveledge of attending grade eight outdoor school at FVCH... this trip was of the same variety of fun.

This is my group skipping... it's a lot harder than it looks :) We definitely learned how to communicate and work as a team but also how to facilitate other people's team building experience. Experiencial learning is VERY educational and highly effective... I'm living proof. I'll hopefully have more pictures to follow.
Here they are:

Ali is holding off the attacking forces so that we have time to cross the acid river of death using four acid-proof barrells, a 2x10 plank and an acid-proof metal pole! What a hero!

Here we're crossing the acid river of death under heavy fire with only a camouflaged Graham to protect us! Good thing we worked together as a team to get across! :)

Here we were practicing getting onto the world's smallest liferaft (which looked surprisingly similar to the modern milk crate) in case our Niagra Falls tour boat went down! Guess what! It actually happened and we had to save ourselves! Good thing we practiced beforehand eh? After we got onto the liferaft we had to yell out our mayday call... ours was: Mayday Mayday Mayday! This is Trevor's Mom, Trevor's Mom, Trevor's Mom! Mayday Trevor's Mom, we are taking on water and require assistance! Trevor's Mom over!... (Trever incessantly makes fun of other people's mom's so we got him back. ooooh we got him good did we ever :) )

This was a simulation of how sometimes in life you have to work with people you don't want to work with or that slow you down. We've just got to learn that with good communication and energy you can overcome those obstacles to work as a well oiled machine... like a clock or something. Our legs are tied together and I was probably one of the only people to actually fall... and I fell about 6 times often taking down multiple other people with me in fits of giggles and hysterical laughter.

This is Dan Dejong and I delivering our plea to the greatest of the world's criminal minds to help us steal the last of the earth's cookies which are now artifacts in a museum in the year 2400!

This is Rachel our elected leader helping us sort out our "traffic jam". She got to wear that super cool traffic control uniform for like half an hour! Sweet eh?

This game forced us to use alternate senses in order to pass a message through a chain... reminiscent of telephone minus the speaking.

Surprisingly girls and guys slept separately which made the evening much more entertaining. Some of the girls took this picture of their cabin-mates.

This is my class of 30 friends. There are some great people in this photo.