5. 6:30 p.m. Second group activity: night walk in the forest without torches5 hours of bus drive was truly exhausting… I hate heights…
6. Day 1 Reflection 23/05/11: Today, during the day and night activities, I gained many new experiences. To start off, the first activity that I did was learning about the fundamental first aid at outdoor environments. Through this activity, I learned how to react and take appropriate actions according to the person’s level of injuries. I also learned about details of properly treating the injured person and put them into the recovery positions based on the surrounding environment. After that, I went to rock climbing which was pretty much struggling and challenging for me, who was especially afraid of the heights. At the first try, I could not even make it to the halfway. However, I was “cheered up” by Mr.Breen and was able to make my way to 2/3 of the height at the second go, though my knees got hurt a bit from it. During night, we went out for about 30 minutes night walk without any help of the torches, therefore everyone had to be extra careful while they walked on the mud. From this activity, I realized how things that are granted to me are important and need to be appreciated and valued.
9. 3:00 p.m. third activity: building cater poleBuilding cater pole really portrayed our teamwork
10. Day 2 Reflection 24/05/11: Looking at the display of my watch, it is now already 9:00p.m. It has been an exhausting but an interesting day for me today. To start off telling the day of my story, I started with the biking activity in the morning. The teachers checked off with everyone’s fundamental biking skills, then we started to ride on the streets. In the beginning, I was surprised that nothing was difficult or “brutal” according to what the people who biked yesterday told us. However, as we entered further into the villages and farms, more ragged hills and roads appeared more frequently that almost made me to collapse onto the mud. Later on, an enormous water buffalo abruptly emerged on the corner of the road. If I did not break the bike at the right moment, I would have killed the buffalo or the other way around. After the biking and a short time break, I went shopping with the group in the village. It was truly intriguing to see the local people’s lifestyle there: there were many students holding a bunch of homeworks on their arms, looking at me curiously; some old men were selling clothes, food, various household items and even farming tools which I could not normally see in Shenzhen and other cities; some students, seem to be dropped out form the school sneakily, were gathering around in a building with many game machines…… Everything was great except one thing: a guy seemingly drunken, holding a bottle of beer, walked towards me and pointed at my coke with weird expression. I did not know how to react and walked pass by at the first time. What really scared me was that he had been following me behind for 15 minutes, craftily walking through the crowds and trying to reach me with his hands. Fortunately, Mr.Breenstopped the guy and I was able to get rid of him eventually. To finish off this journal, my teaching group was not as much prepared as the other groups. There were too much errors and flaws that we had found out and we did not have sufficient amount of time to discuss and practice about it. We will se how we will go tomorrow…….