Intro: My time at Outward Bound South Africa

I've seen nine African countries, have come across almost all the wildlife with the exception of the very seldom seen leopards, have encountered remarkable and fascinating people and have learned to appreciate cultural differences - passed along

from one generation to the next including beliefs, assumptions, theories, customs, songs, stories, dance, superstitions, prejudices, tastes, attitudes - which most of us take for granted, not wanting to be bothered with comprehending anything different than our way of thinking and doing things, and above all, constantly learning about who I am and how I can better myself, or better yet, defining myself spiritually. I've mainly been working on two things: patience and tolerance, among other things, and let me tell you how hard that is when you're from a first world country like ours, expecting certain things to be done a certain way. Needless to say, it has been a joyous and crazy ride over the last couple of years and I really don¡¦t know where to start except from the inception of this journey. So sit back, grab yourself a cup of coffee or two, as this is going to be a long, long story (25 pages!) with thumbnail photos. Please don't rush through this and keep in mind that i's the process of enjoying rather than your desire to arrive towards your objective. Since time isn't something that always proceeds at the same pace, it is you who determines how quickly time passes so take your time. I too have been finally able to come to terms with the commonly coined "African time.¨ From what was only supposed to be a four-month volunteer project as a Logistic Coordinator for Outward Bound in South Africa, pleasantly expanded into eight challenging and rewarding months of acting as both the Logistics Coordinator and a part-time Instructor /Facilitator, opportunely working with disadvantaged and underprivileged young adults (16-20 years old), teaching them how to reach beyond their means by the use of outdoor facilitation over a period of 21 days at a time. Basically, it¡¦s a wilderness-survival expedition where we provide the students with a backpack, tent, sleeping bag, cooking supplies, a torch (flashlight), rain jacket, food, and other basic necessities. Their group objective is to efficiently navigate through the wilderness with only a compass and a topographical map in addition to surviving resourcefully with only their survival kit and natural resources. At the beginning of the expedition, we simply teach them how to appropriately pack, dress, set up camp, read a compass & a map, cook and eat, making simple suggestions like what time they should wake up, when they should eat, how many kilometers they should hike, where they should set up camp but towards the middle of the expedition, we're required to back off as leaders, forcing them to make all of the day-to-day decisions on their own, giving them the strength and power not to need us anymore. The idea is to get them to think critically and to problem solve, teaching them the concept of responsibility - for their own actions and to others. For example, whenever they take the wrong path - which I hate to admit happened more often with girl-groups, we let them carry on for at least an hour before we say anything. We become their moral support, teaching them that no matter how difficult things got, they can't give up, not then and definitely, not in life. Some days were harder than others, depending on the weather and terrain, ranging from extremely hot sunny days with no shade to hiking in the rain with wet shoes to hiking in extremely cold, mountainous weather, adding a couple of more hiking hours, sometimes bringing us into the campsite way after dark (10pm was the latest), with everyone languidly struggling to set up camp, let alone, try and cook a meal then falling fast asleep only to wake up the next day at 6am to do it all over again. Imagine hiking 17-23kms a day, climbing up massive granite -mountains, cautiously hopping from boulder to boulder and carefully hiking down the other side of the mountain in hopes of not slipping - which is often the case especially on rainy days - while carrying 30lbs of camping gear on your back! The commonly asked questions were: "Are we almost there?¨, "How many more hours?!¨ followed by "No, it can't be!!¨, "Why are you doing this to us?¨, "I can't do this anymore!¨ and the nastiest remark I ever got was "I hate you! Why didn't you tell us that we were going in the wrong

direction!!!¨ I can't blame them for their impertinent behavior sometimes, because after a few days of hiking in exhausting and strenuous conditions, everything sort of becomes mundane and monotonous, and even tortuous. All they want is to be at their final destination, unfortunately disconnecting themselves from the beauty around, becoming irritable and doing what they do best: complaining. They complained about anything and everything from blisters, bruises, mosquito bites, sunburns, cuts, scrapes, cramps, headaches, back and shoulder pains to constipation, diarrhea, dehydration, and nausea. We had one girl go as far as eating something that she knew she was allergic to in hopes that she would have a critical allergic reaction so that she could get evacuated! That was a scary moment for me as she quickly went from wheezing to convulsing to passing out. As much as I tried to keep it together for everyone else, we started panicking, my co-instructor Mike - even more so, as we couldn't get reception on the walkie-talkie, plus we were on an inaccessible beach, miles from the nearest road. When we finally got signal, they informed us that we had to try and carry the victim to the nearest road as there was no other option. After 15 minutes of struggling to carry her, she started having problems breathing so Mike administered first-aid and gave her assisted breaths as I tried to look for reception, repeating over and over, ¡§OB base, do you copy. She's having problems breathing. She needs medical attention now..!¨ Help miraculously arrived via 4x4 as someone just so happened to be listening to our channel and evacuated her to the nearest hospital. She actually came back a few days later, apologizing and asked if it was OK to finish her course as she realized how important it was for her. Apparently, she' s now running one of the girls sectors for a government-funded school, the Chrysalis Academy?º Needless to say, being at Outward Bound was challenging, physically and emotionally. I have to admit that at times, even I felt like giving up. I had to constantly remind myself that we were as much responsible for them as they were responsible for themselves, giving me the drive and determination that I needed to push them to complete their course. Fortunately, we did get to breakup the repetitiveness of trekking by incorporating a few non-hiking days with kayaking, sailing, abseiling (repelling down ropes) and rock climbing. It made my day whenever they accomplished a new activity - bringing out their self-confidence and self-esteem - especially with rock climbing, where I would sit at the top of the mountain and give each girl a proud high-five as they reached the top, producing an even bigger smile that was already on their faces. Now looking back, being at Outward Bound was the most fulfilling experience I've ever had and to know that I might have inspired at least one students life or at the very least, changed their perspective on life, makes all the difference in the world.