Location: Vennesla, West-Agder County, Norway

When: 23^rd – 27^th of April (5days)

Introduction:

In order to practice and enhance our veileding skills and technique, the group task was to organize and prepare various outdoor activities to facilitate this practice.

For one week we got the task to run an outdoor program for 4 classes (2x 60 pupils, 2x 45 pupils) of the “Tangen high school” from Kristiansand. The pupils were in their last year and around 18 years old. Each class would start in the late afternoon, would spend the night in a camp and would leave on the next day around lunch time. Therefore we had to prepare a program for the evening and the morning. During this week we were meant to camp nearby the activity area in the forest.

Preparations:

Before the actual week started, we did some arrangements to make sure that the classes will get the best outcome of their stay. We collected ideas of outdoor activities and skills we wanted to teach them. Then we divided into smaller groups, so that we got 8 stations for the pupils running through.

1. Shelter Building
2. Fire Making
3. Barefoot Path
4. Orienteering
5. Slackline
6. Jumping Jungle
7. River-Crossing
8. Night Line

Zoe, Sarah and me prepared the Barefoot Path.

Our aim was get in touch with the nature in a more sensible way. Through the task of identifying and recognising different materials of the forest we wanted to bring their attention to nature and its various forms and characters. For this we prepared a path with 10 different materials out of the present nature. We choose:

1. Moss
2. Sticks
3. Stones
4. Bark
5. Snow
6. Logs
7. Straw
8. Acorns
9. Leaves
10. Water

The group were meant to walk barefoot and blind folded to deepen the touching sense and eliminate the seeing sense, which is often our main sense to experience the world around us. As a group they were meant to walk together over the path. One of us instructors were leading the first person and the rest of the group were following by touching the front person on the shoulder. After completing the path they got time to discuss together the elements they were walking over and the right order of them. Two of them had then to present their solutions. So, we decided not to give points for speed or strength or height, but on how mindfully they walked. The more mindful they were, the more points they got in the end. As an additional fun factor and because the shoes were off already, the second task was to build a shoe tower. They got three minutes to build the highest tower with all their shoes. Then the tower had to free stand for at least 5 seconds.

The outcome of this station was a really great experience. We got a lot of good feedback for our creativity and extraordinary idea. Most of the pupils liked the station and were happy about the experience. Due to bad weather conditions of rain, personal feeling of cold, or lack of experience in walking barefoot, some pupils were sceptical or even disgusted by the task. After explaining our aim and positive effects of walking barefoot, most of them changed their opinion and opened up for the challenge. We didn’t force them and even adopted the task in special cases. On one morning we discovered that it was freezing in the night and it was still cold and wet in the morning, so the pupils had to feel the material with their hands. And instead of a shoe tower they had to write a poem, in which they used all the words of the materials from the past. The outcomes of those poems were incredible.

Next to the Programm we were running, we had to live in the forest for one week. During the hole week the weather was more cold and wet, which made our outdoor experience more interesting. The ground of the forest wasn’t really even and covered with a lot of plants. So we decided to sleep in hammocks, which turned out as a very practical, uncomplicated and comfortable alternative to a tent! We figured out the right knots to attach them at the trees, the best height and tension.

Soon we built up again a little village with our course, this time in the forest out of hammocks and tents. During the week some of the boys got creative and built fences and a dome shaped shelter over our fire place.

Due to the fact that we had not to move from one sleeping spot to the next, as on the other trips, we could settle down a little bit. I went in the river all morning and offered yoga to the others afterwards, we cooked delicious food and had a lot of spare time in the midday hours which we used for playing games, drawing, swimming and jogging. I enjoyed this life style very much and could have stayed in the forest and with the work with the pupils much longer. A little bit different it seemed to be, was it for some others of the course. A very disappointing action happened which I don’t want to hide. As I told before, the boys got creative with the camp building. But they got a bit more bored (as they justified) and started to cut alive trees. I was faced with ideas of “Once in a lifetime a man has to cut a tree” and non conscious behavior. When I found out what happened I got really angry and confronted the boys. In the end most of them showed guiltiness and promised to plant 10 news trees. It was good that this two different world views clashed together and that we could clarify it because it seems even if we are all connected throgh the idea of doing activities in the outdoor there are still different basis about the philosophy of nature.

I would like to end this report with a mantra which support my understanding of living in the nature:

“Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu”

 (“May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.” – Sharon Gannon)