Trouble in Paradise

So this is an entry that is probably more personal than many I have posted thus far. This is something that happened to me last week. I was watching an episode with a summer staff member last week when this individual semi-accidentally disclosed to me that they were planning on drinking that night in their cabin, and that this was not the first time that they were going to drink on property, something explicitly against protocol regardless of age during the summer.

I knew that this was something that I could not stand idly by. I also knew that I was not going to report due to policy and the fact that my job could have been on the line, but more so to do with the fact that the students with which we work come from backgrounds that are less than ideal, perhaps often to do with drugs and alcohol. How can we create a safe space for them to grow and learn if these activities are going on in the very same space.

I of course went and spoke with my supervisor immediately. The next day we all got together, the staff living on property for the summer and had a conversation. All the summer staff were very upset to say the least, save for one or two. Additionally, it seemed one of the summer staff at one point had spoken up to the group but had been ignored and I felt as if they were going to start blaming this individual for “narking”. Finally I spoke up and told the group that it was me who said something.

They were not exactly happy with me. One individual actually spoke up and said that they didn’t know if they would be able to trust me. And then an additional person spoke up to say the same thing. This was probably the single most hurtful thing that has ever happened to me that has been an blow that happened verbally.

I take trust very seriously and believe that I have never given anyone a reason to doubt me, to not trust me, certainly not anyone from this group. I don’t believe I betrayed anyone’s trust, so this blow hurt me greatly.

Since then, it has been rather awkward with the summer staff. Most of them no longer like me, which is difficult to work with, but it has improved in the past few days, especially since we had a program the last few days last week, which was amazing and the subject of another post.

Thanks for listening! Talk with you all soon!

g

A new take on an old activity.

Many of you are familiar with the challenge course initiative pipeline, I found a really cool blog today with a variation of this that I thought I might share here. The post is by michael cardus and can be found here:

http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building-activity/team-building-activity-coriolis-affect

It is called the Coriolis Affect and I can't wait to try it out! What is your favourite activity that you have recently learned?

DMB, Snakes & Training

So this past weekend I went to upstate New York with two of my roommates for a spontaneous weekend trip to see Dave Matthews Band. It was a blast. I had such a great time. The show was a bit different than the one I went to last year in terms of energy and types of songs he played, but in all it was a good time.

Since I have gotten back we have been prepping for the summer staff to arrive. It is kind of weird as I am watching all of my friends be the summer staff while I am getting ready to train/ be trained with the summer staff here. Some of them came this evening and we got to have dinner with them. In all they seem like a pretty cool group. I am very excited to meet with more of them and learn more about them.

Additionally, I got to go kayaking this Sunday with two of my roommates on the Delaware River. It's pretty much like a big ole lake, which for my whitewater boat, kind of sucks. I have to paddle extra hard to keep it straight as opposed to them who had a leisurely paddle. At one point, we kept seeing all these fish and it was really cool and exciting. I got a bit ahead of them and thought that I saw a really BIG fish. So I sped up to see it and it was moving really fast. I got a bit closer and saw that it was REALLY BIG, like 5 feet big. Them I realized that this fish had no fins. Then I realized based on how it was swimming with it's head above water that it was a water snake! Now, as some of you may know I had a pet snake for a while, so snakes don't generally freak me out that much, but water snakes freak me the hell out. I immediately turned right around and paddled my happy ass out of there. It was crazy!

Luckily, they do not have poisonous water snakes here, so I need not to be freaked out that badly, just mildly! :-)

Well, training started tomorrow and it's going to be hella intense.I am excited. I shall update you on it as we go!

Thanks friends!!

New Groups

SO today I ran support for two different groups. One high school peer leadership group and one middle school group. The middle school is a group of students with which we work on a regular basis and the high school group had come out to us at the beginning of the year and now this was the culmination of their year-long peer leadership experience.

Running support generally means making sure the programs run smoothly by doing whatever need to be done. I enjoyed this, but the highlight was being able to facilitate the dam rappel with the peer leadership group. That was a lot of fun and the students were fabulous!

Also, I got paid for a week of work. It was much more than I was making as a GA. Ugh. That was sweet. Now if I could only find a bank...

I guess that brings me to another thing I guess you all don't know about this situation. I live in the middle of nowhere. I know you all say that NJ is overpopulated and full of nothing but smokestacks and all. I call bull.

As you know I have been to many places in my life. My breathe was taken away today by the beauty of this old mill next to a field. It was crazy. I wish I had had my camera to take a photo. But I digress, as I was saying I am far from everything. It is really different and really cool. I like it a lot so far. I promise, sometime this week, I will try to get some photos up of the area.

Take care dear friends.