update 4 sept

4 weeks break will start on 4 Sept and end on 29 Sept. Sept is going to be a very busy month for me. I will be doing my 5 days work attachment at OPC, 5 days work attachment with the NZ army, helping them to do an adventure course for the 13-14 years old. 3 days to Taranaki with my first host, 8 days volunteer service at YMCA Christchurch and 3 days up at Nelson doing some tramp and kayak before I come back Turangi. By then, school will start again. I lost my voice completely yesterday. Probably due to the flu bug I got from my course mate. The flam is affecting my throat. I have to do my co-instruct this coming Monday. I prayed very hard that my voice will come back by then. I missed my “chirpy” voice. Many of my course mates were down with flu for the last few weeks and I was quite unfortunate to be the last one to catch it. Attendance had been low, partly due to flu, partly due to the nature of the course. A lot of theory lessons and some of my course mates took turn to absent themselves. The absentee rate was so high that Graeme, my instructor had to remind us of the compulsory attendance rate of 90 % and the importance to produce MC to account for our absence.

I completed my half marathon in 2 hrs 10 min. God had been so good to me. Fine weather and no wind chill that day. My host, Bev, was down with flu but she completed it in very good spirit. She has been an inspiration to me. But ever since that run, I had been quite ill- disciplined in keeping up with my running routine. Having a goal is essential to keep us going.J

This term has been pretty quiet. A lot of theory lesson. One thing worth mentioning is the ABL activities I conducted. We have to practise conducting activities, doing RAM and debrief after the activity. From the feedback of my course mates and instructor, I realized that there’s still so much to learn about facilitation process. Our debrief should be focused on the objective of the activity and good questioning technique is the key to consolidating the learning outcome of our participants.

My good friend, Jean, went back to Philippine this month to see her mum and will be back only 2 weeks before I leave for Singapore. It’s quite an impact for me because I used to hang out with her and her daughter during most of my weekends. But God is good, Goodie, another of my philippine friend, came along and invited me practically every week to try her soup.

My term ended with a 3 days 2 nights winter expedition. Our original plan was to split into 2 groups, with our 4 fitter boys going on the 4 days 3 nights full pack up the 3 peaks, Tongariro, Ngaruhoe and Ruapehu. While the 6 girls and 1 boy will doing the 3 days 2 nights, going on 2 peaks of Tongariro and Ngaruhoe. But due to bad weather and lack of instructors, all of us went on the 3 days 2 nights at Ruapehu instead. It’s a blessing in disguise because carrying 20 kg pack up the snow mountain was quite a handful. By the time we reached the summit, we were told to dig a hole big enough to shelter our tent from the wind. With me and my female course mate, we have to dig a 5m x 5 m x 2 m hole before our tent can fit it. The digging required us to “hack” the hardened ice beneath the snow and to shovel the ice/snow to build a “wall” against the wind. To make “life miserable ” for us but was essential, we used ice axes as our pegs and had to use plastic bags to pack ice into it to act as anchors.

Everything in the winter expedition was DIY. I tried melting the ice to boil the water. It took me 1.5 hour and the water simply refused to boil. It was only after I got the wind shield from my instructor before the water finally boiled.

Now I really appreciate the luxury of having porters during my many trekking trips in the Himalayas. Also due to the heavy pack and my old knee injury, I experienced anxiety when I had to walk on slippery ice while cutting my steps.

Our team consists of many strong personalities. The boys were very keen to try new challenges and they would just bulldoze their way through. Once, my female course mate was supposed to lead the group to a certain direction, the boys chose to deviate from the bearing because of the deceptive valley in sight. In the end, we were “stuck”.

Our instructor intervened and got us to assess the situation. From the map, we either has to go down a series of steep cliffs which required us to front point down or to back track up the original ridge. He got us to consider the emotional and physical safety of the group before we made our decision. The boys chose to front point down because they were confident they could do it. Many of us were not comfortable about having to front point down with our heavy back pack. The obvious danger is : If we fall, we will really fall badly. Our feet may get caught by the crampons during our self arrest if we were not careful and we may even break our legs. Choice of backtracking up the ridge was definitely a better choice. I saw the relief on the face of my instructor when we all finally agreed to backtrack.

After the trip, we did a debrief, and we failed the component of not “taking care of the group’s emotional and physical safety” during the trip. We have to “demonstrate” it during our last expedition which will be prior to the end of the course.

All in all, I do appreciate my instructors because they are always so encouraging and supportive in times when I need them. And that’s what make the course so unique. We also covered topics like professional image and expectation of an outdoor instructor. Many nice things came out from my course mates but somehow they just couldn’t reconcile what they knew and what they practised. They were still very young.

I got a chance to do my volunteer service in DoC [Department of Conservation] last Friday. We did distance sampling on the bird species : Tomtit. We have to identify the bird from the distance and note down the number of tomtits detected along the baitline. I learn to identify the sound of male and female tomtit This project was to sample the number of tomtits in the area and from there extrapolate the number of different types of native bird in the forest. But unfortunately the mission has to be called off after 2 bait lines because the weather was too windy, the birds simply refused to come out.

From one of the outdoor magazines I read, there was many write - up on outdoor education in NZ. This includes a 3 pages write up on S’porean experience in OPC. OE was very established in NZ and many polytechnics and universities offer outdoor education as a 2 year diploma course. The majority of the graduates will go into outdoor industries or even the research fields.

Spring is coming. Flowers are blooming. I’m getting ready to help Bev to do some gardening. She’s always off station, need to wait for her to be free. I’m going to plant potato and lettuce. Umm.. Oh yes, time to slim down too. I’m 64 kg compared to the 56 kg I am in Singapore.