A Tough Week

   Reception is fairly quiet right now. Every once in a while there is a crisis of some sort or another which keeps me busy for a few minutes. Then everything will settle down and there is nothing to do. I suppose I could ask Andy for some work to do, but it would probably be mindless work which would bore me out of my mind. Right now I would rather spend my time writing. I still have four more hours in reception, plenty of time to continue telling about what happened this month.
    On November 7th all of us who were doing Level 2 training had a day off so Blum, Benjamin, Pati, Chiara and I took a taxi with Nancy to Chingford Station. It was sad to say goodbye but we made her promise to come visit us often. Allan gloated to Gustavo before we left because Nancy leaving meant the number of Ecuadorians was now even with the number of Brazilians, an important fact apparently.
   After we left Nancy at the station we took the bus to Walthamstow to fix Chiara's phone and look around the shops. Really the only good thing about Walthamstow is the 99p shop, it's amazing, and also terrifying. Blum and I bought a small cake, it tasted pretty good and we didn't die, so that was good. In general though Walthamstow is quite shabby, and doesn't feel like an incredibly safe place to be by oneself.
    The next day was back to Level 2 training, we did Aerial Trek rescues all day which was tiring. Things started to go wrong when I got an email from my Dad at lunch. Poor Ty, our chocolate lab, has been diagnosed with bone cancer. It was awful to realize he will not be there with his tail spinning to greet me when I come home in August.

 I thought the day could not get much worse until we stopped for an afternoon break. We went back in Den to find everyone angry and upset. We were informed that Rodrigo, Nicholas and Seth were being sent home, fired essentially. I will not go into the reason for this, but the bottom line was that we thought that being sent home was an unduly harsh punishment for something which was, in our view, an honest mistake. We were so determined to do something that everyone, including the volunteers who had the day off, showed up for the morning meeting the next day to demand that the leads and manager talk to us about it. They did so, though obviously not willingly. We did our best to keep it civil but emotions ran high on both sides. I could understand where the managers were coming from, even if I did not want to, but I still did not think the boys, knowing them as all of us volunteers know them, deserved to go home for what they did. Nothing came of the talking though and we all left just as, if not more, upset.
  The interesting things that once everyone was feeling none too happy with the leads, and indeed the Scout Association in general, suddenly all the little problems that we had laughed about and put up with seemed to be major problems. Which was why we asked to have another meeting to address those issues which we did the following Tuesday. We re-negotiated how much food money we received and which meals would be eaten in the restaurant because the current situation at the time was leaving us hungry sometimes. Then we started listing all of the problems in the Den: broken curtain rods, broken kitchen floor, a useless extractor fan, a hole in the living room wall, the fact that we only have one dryer that works, our couch without working springs, the twelve mice that we caught in two days.
   I think the leads and managers were eager to say yes to our requests after the last stand off and by the end of the day we had new doormats, frying pans and mouse poison down. Some of the other problems have been fixed but we still only have one working dryer and now we are down to two washing machines between nineteen people.
   Needless to say we were still upset up the boys being fired, we still are somewhat though now we have accepted it. It has ruined some peoples' opinions of some of the bosses. It has led some volunteers to believe there is a bit of a double standard because we know of past volunteers who did things just as bad if not worse and did not get fired. At this point I just feel sad that it all had to happen at all. I feel so badly for the boys, they were all so happy to be here and it seems like such a waste to send such good volunteers home. Allan, Gustavo and I drove Rodrigo to the airport this past Friday which was really sad, I am really going to miss him. The other two boys are still here, I think they are looking for other placements.

   At the end of it all I realize that this is just one of those hard life lessons that serves to remind me that things are not always fair and that sometimes perception has more of an impact than the truth. The only good thing to come out of this hard week was that we came together as a team to support the boys and we stood up for what we thought was right. We felt like more of a family than ever.

Robbie Williams

     Yes another post! I said I was trying to catch up. I think I will relate the story of going to the Robbie Williams concert, which now that I look back on it was the last good night before things went wrong.
    Nicholas and Gustavo had got it into their heads that they wanted to go to Oxford Street in London on November 6th because it was the official Christmas light-up and the pop singer Robbie Williams was playing a show there.

 The boys were so determined to go that they got Kerry to let us off early, and then drive us in the camp mini bus to Chingford Station. We even convinced all the Koreans to come, which is rare. I was also speciall because it was Nancy's last night.
     As I mentioned before, at the beginning of November Nacy told us she was leaving. The program she came with allows volunteers to switch their placement after a few months if they wish. She wanted to try something different so she was given a placement in a care home south of London, about the same distance from the city as Chingford. Originally she had wanted to start in January but they wanted her to start at the beginning of November.

     Practically the whole time she was here, Nancy had been studying for her English proficiency exam so that she could come do a Masters Degree in England. She took the exam the weekend before she left so on November 6 we were eager for her to come with us to Oxford Street. Kerry drove us to the station and then after three stops we got on the tube. We're such a big group that we can be quite annoying on the public transit, sometimes we run up and down the escalators yelling and singing.

     When we arrived at Oxford Street we started walking and wondered why everyone seemed to be walking the opposite direction. The Koreans disappeared almost immediately and we did not see them until we got home. We also lost Nicholas off and on but that is pretty normal.

    We continued walking down the street. The lights were already on and eventually we realized that we had missed the concert. Then we all bothered Gustavo, telling him it was his fault.

Goodbye Nancy!

    We laughed about our mistake and continued walking, taking tons of pictures and spending a good while in the department store Primark. Eventually we decided to start walking back, we stopped at MacDonalds and at the biggest Starbucks I had ever seen; it had two floors.
   Despite the fact that we really did not do much that night it was fun just to be silly and loud and carefree in the middle of London with great friends. When we got home a handful of us stayed up very late talking about our first impressions of eachother and of Gilwell Park. It was funny to think back to when I had just met everyone. They all seem like completely different people now that I have lived and worked with them for almost three months.

Ropes and Metal

      I'm trying to write this post while at the reception desk on a Saturday morning. Despite the fact that there is nothing going on at the Acticity Centre, in the White House and Conference Centre it's incredibly busy. At least I'm experienced enough now that I can answer most questions and tell the right people the right information. So far I have not messed anything up too badly.
   The big news from the first week of November was that Eric, Blum, Soo Young, Chiara, Benjamin and I  began training to become Level 2 ropes instructors. As a Level 2 we're certified to run Zip Wire, 3G Swing, Aerial Trek and Fan Descender. All of these involved wearing instructor harness with 'cow tails': two ropes attached to the harness with clips on the end that allow the instructor to safely stand on the platform or hang off the poles. To get up the poles we clip cab-locks to our harness which run along a wire all the way up the pole. Then we climb up the pole on the staples. It can be slightly unnerving because even though I know I'm safe it feels like I'm climbing a 15 foot pole with nothing to stop me falling.
   I find the set up for the 3G Swing especially difficult because it involves carying a very heavy pulley with a lot of rope up the highest pole. There is no platform at the top of the pole, unlike on Zip Wire and Fan Descender, which means once I get to the top of the pole, I need to clip in my cow tails and other safety clip and hang off the pole. I then have to reach around the pole and with both hands take the very heavy pulley and lift it almost above my head onto an eyebolt. It's easier if the person is stronger and taller but we girls found if quite difficult. The one good thing is that the view from the top of the pole is pretty amazing, not that I really had time to look.
   I think Zip Wire is the most fun of all Level 2 activities to run, but setting up is still a little difficult for me. Really I just need more practice.
   Fan Descender is one of the high ropes activities. The participant climbs up to a platform where the Level to instructor is. They are clipped onto and then hold a metal bar. The metal bar is attached to a wire which runs up and along a beam. At the end of the wire is a fan. When the participant steps off the platform the fan slows their descent, making the land gracefully on the ground. Well, sometimes they land gracefully, sometimes the fall over.
   Aerial Trek is inside. It really is not that far off the ground compared to other activities. Particpants get clipped in two different ways, then climb up the wall to a platform,clip themselves into the next set of clips and then unclip from the first. They then walk along the rope to the next platform and do the same thing. There are 3 sections to Aerial Trek and then they climb down. Nice and easy right? Except almost without fail this activity terrifies people more than the other ones because the participants are respnsible for clipping themselves in and out. So as the Level 2 instructor we have to be prepared to rescue them at all times. This means wearing our cow tails during the session and if someone gets too scared to continue (or God forbid passes out) we have to climb up with a rescue bag and attached ourselves to the wire and the rescue rope to them. Then, using our body weight, or the body weight of another instructor on the ground, we need to winch them up enough to unclip them from the wire and then lower them safely to the ground.
   Phil and Emma made us practice this so many times, because it can be very dangerous if done wrong, and it needs to be done quickly so as not to cause further injury to the casualty. I must say that being rescued is incredibly uncomfortable and when rescuing someone much bigger than me I had to practically jump to winch them up. According to the leads, Aerial Trek rescues happen fairly frequently.
   Originally Emma said I was not going to be a Level 2, though I had asked if I could be. The reason being is that Level 2 activities usually get booked on weekends and since I work reception most weekends, it means I would never have a weekend off. Then Emma decided that they could train me anyway and they just would not use me much. I'm fine with that, even just doing the training was a great experience and it's one more qualification to put on my resume. :)
 
  PS - I apologize for the lack of pictures, we did not really have time or free hands while we were training. Perhaps I will get a chance another time.

End of October

      This past month has felt completely crazy. Somehow with everything else that has been going on, posting on this blog got pushed to the back of my mind.
    The first unfortunate event occurred when the wi-fi stopped working in my room. Up until a month ago, I had a really fast connection but it suddenly became very weak. One of the other girls reported it but Gilwell Park has a bad track record of fixing the internet in a timely manner. It is almost embarrassing how much I was bothered by the whole situation. It is not like I spend all my time on my laptop but when you're far away from home, having a reliable connection does a lot to prevent homesickness. There is internet in the Den but for some reason all of us who have MacBooks could only get very weak connections. So with some advice from Eric, who has been here for many months, one after the other we bought wi-fi boosting USB dongles from Amazon for 10 pounds. Mine arrived two weeks ago, so I now have a very strong connection in the Den. The connection in my room is still less than reliable, which makes it difficult to use Skype. I have taken to Skyping in the Den's laundry room while sitting on a machine.
   This is the reason I have not written a blog post for quite a while. Besides bemoaning my lack of internet what have I been doing? Well, on the Monday and Tuesday after my last post we had two days of team building. Technically they were work days but on Monday we were split into four teams, given rucksacks, blindfolded and led onto a bus. From there we were loaded off the bus at Chingford Station (even blindfolded we know our way there) and put on a train to London, still blindfolded. When we finally removed the blindfolds all the lead instructors had left the train and we were surrounded by strangers who were obviously looking at us weirdly. We opened up the rucksack and proceeded to race around London, trying to solve the clues which led us to different landmarks. Here are a few pictures of our team, Francisco, Nicholas, Patrick and Johnny.

Outside of Baden-Powell House with "a famous person"

I think this is my favourite picture of the day.

   Tuesday was more training about customer service, team building games and setting up house rules in an attempt to keep the Den clean. Tuesday evening we were split into different teams and had to cook a three couse meal from an assigned country. Patricia, Rox, Sujin and I cooked Spanish food, which was really the easiest since both Rox and Patricia are Latin American and knew quite a few Spanish dishes. This was probably why we won, it may also have been due to Sujin's superior food presentation skills.

  The weeks all begin to blur together here and time seems to slipping by quickly. We threw a pretty awesome Hallowe'en party on October 30th. Everyone cobbled together costumes from whatever they had available without spending any money and I was quite impressed by the creativity.

The Boys.

The Girls

The Mario Brothers.

The Pirate and the Superhero making spiced brandy.

Yes, I went as a Canadian, thanks to Deborah for sending me the stickers!
   
   After everyone had a costume and Johnny had got home from London we all trooped out of the Den and across Gilwell Park to go trick-or-treating. We knocked on lead instructors' door and yelled, "Trick or Day Off!" Dave and Phil laughed and gave us drinking straws, tomato sauce, a can of sliced peaches and a pinata. We then knocked on the door of Kerry, the Deputy Centre Manager. He was very confused and said he didn't have anything to give us. We partied until late that night and I confess it was difficult to get up for work the next morning.

   I have much more to write about, but I think I will leave it for another post.