Horn Field Campus
And so ECOEE 2009 began today…officially. Everything was exceptionally new to me as I joined in as a new addition to all the planning and preparations. We began by meeting this morning at 8 a.m. where we found each other in good spirits and shared summer highlights. To our surprise our class was missing one. We discovered Nathan’s absence and because we are unsure of the details it has worried the group and I hope and pretty for his recovery of an injury he endured over the summer. But as we met in our first circle, our conversation strummed deep to sharing what our reasons were for being here and developing personal goals for this four month experience: part college, wilderness experience, road trip and individual and group development exploration. As we find ourselves digging deeper within, similarities presented themselves and these words surfaced: communication, skills, patience, clarity, confidence, coping, and leadership. Reflecting on the notes from our goals we shared I realize just how interrelated we are; how we are beginning to create our own ECOEE-system.
Then we played a group game called King Elephant, a circle game using rhythm. The animals our group chose were: elephant, bison, caribou, gorilla, giraffe, alligator, skunk, porcupine, beaver, lemur, rabbit, and amoeba with one for each of us. The game represented our creativeness and pure enjoyment of play as we animated in action and sound of the animals. Afterwards, we returned back into the lodge for some more info. Highlights of the stories Jeff, our coordinator/instructor shared were concepts about a variety of imperative and fundamental things that would help us prepare for the ECOEE experience we are about to embark on. Such ideas as the how we will receive knowledge but they are like Christmas gifts or growth opportunities that may rise from conflict or challenges. Considering how they are wrapped and given to you, you ultimately can do with it what you want. We covered some of the expectations, touched on group culture regarding values and influences. As well as understanding how recreation is based on the social affect and as we began to value that learning about the whys and wherefores develops a strong outdoor leader. Then we got into the Facilitator of the day (FOD) setup. My thoughts go to what makes a leader and abstractly what might one look like and I drew a picture of this concept and began implying traits that are effective to leadership. Other tasks today included grocery shopping picking up gear and cleaning out the trailer. Meals: Lunch: sandwiches, potato salad. Dinner: spaghetti, garlic bread, salad with excellent homemade dressing-sweet fruity made by Josh and some brownies by Shane. A full day!
-Christine Lagattolla
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