25 th September

Together on the field

A lot can happen on a football field. Day two of the course was designed for Outbound activities and the weather gods seems to agree. With the cool morning breeze the participants with their green fk t-shirt seemed one with nature. Each of the project groups energized themselves with a team cheer and were preparing to compete in the open. Balloons filled with water were seen flying over peoples head as teams tried to play ‘catch’ with towels in their hand. A loud cheer erupted as the competition picked up as project teams were winning and losing with water splashing all over.
Backed by an interesting commentary by Mr.Anthony on the mike, the inspired teams put in their very best. Genomar walked away with the honours after beating Thaicraft convincingly.

Leading the blind

‘Time up Ladies and Gentlemen, the real fun is about to start now.’ The participants who were sipping their soft drinks leisurely abruptly moved to the field. Sure enough, a very exciting game was played. Each group was asked to stand in a line, and in their path at some distance were placed a towel, a water balloon, a basin and a chair. All participants in the line except for the last participant (leader) would be blindfolded and the group would have to pick up each of the objects and finally reach the chair.
The groups were given some time to prepare their strategy. Incredibly Genomar fulfilled all the objectives once again and in record time. What then followed was sheer entertainment, with groups losing their way, bumping into each other and probably the most hilarious moment was when two groups were fighting over a chair. Another group was seen slowly backing off towards no-man’s land in search of the elusive water balloon 
Genomar summed up their astonishing win in these words – ‘We had a great understanding and system of communication which enabled us to reach our goal quickly.’ The teams that lost agreed that they had a poor leader and poor communication skills.

Together we can reach the centre

Wonder who cooked up these interesting games! A can of soft drink is kept in the centre of a large circle on the floor. Each group has to devise a way to pick up the can without touching any part within the circle. As usual, even before the whistle was blown, Genomar succeeded in lifting the can very cleanly from the circle.
It was a fabulous lesson in team work and required grit and determination. Interestingly the circle sizes kept getting changed, but the teams matched up to the occasion and very soon all the teams were able to do it on their own. Lots of great photo opportunities were created in this game, and there were lots of cameras out.
When asked, Genomar had this to say – ‘We are a very relaxed group and have a great sense of humour. It works. Everybody knew what they were supposed to do’.

A pen and a bottle
Dropping a pen into a bottle is child’s play. Imagine if that pen was tied to a long thread a few feet in length and imagine likewise it was similarly tied by very many threads and that each participant standing in a circle were holding one part of it with the pen in the centre. And now try dropping that pen into a bottle kept on the floor into the centre.
Doesn’t sound very easy, does it!
It was a frustrating time for everybody. Each group had to develop different strategies and work together like a single unit to achieve their objective. And guess what they were all victorious. Whew!

Papaya – Banana – Fruit Salad
The Papaya – Banana – Fruit Salad energizer was a lesson in moving your bodies the way you moved way back in Nursery. A little difficult for some of the folks, very challenging for others, comparatively easy for some but enjoyable for everybody and a great way to stay awake after lunch.

The tower of ‘Pesa’
Here participants in their own groups create a tower made from paper. The tallest tower is the winner. Soon each team was busy preparing strategies to create the tallest tower in the room. Within a short time there were skyscrapers looming over us. Well er…not all of them…Genomar looked rather out of place. Although they were the only team to stick to the time-line, it was certainly not a tower. Anyway, that was good because not all of us can be perfect!
Pesa and Thaicraft created what were the two tallest towers, but Pesa’s was just a wee bit tall or an ‘illusion’ like someone said ‘because it’s standing straight’.
What worked for Pesa and the other teams which created the marvellous towers were that they first worked on the base or the foundation and from there on it was easy to build the rest. Well you can say the same about life, isn’t it!

Awaking the actor in me
Each group was asked to do a little bit of acting for a change. They were given specific topics based on which they were supposed to create that topic using their bodies. Some of the topics were water conservation, HIV Aids and Peace. What was incredible was that the groups were very easily able to present the topics and the audience were able to guess the topic very quickly.

Final Round
It was time for feedback and sharing at the end of the second day of the Indian experience. Some of the feedback was –
‘The trust level of the group is great.’
‘Dropping the pen into the bottle was the toughest exercise.’
‘If the objective of the game is clear then it works, otherwise it doesn’t’
‘We learnt from previous games.’
‘We know each other now.’
‘Today’s session increased my confidence and my creative abilities.’
‘I had a wonderful experience. Now I know team work is not easy.’
When Sacha asked the participants if they were scared or worried about going to a foreign country on their own as part of their project, one participant shared ‘I am scared a little bit about going to Nepal.’
Sacha replied, ‘You are not going to be alone, you have your team with you. You can trust each other. These games were designed to help you. We hope from today you can further strengthen the relationships to help you support each other, share information with each other. There is nothing like a perfect posting. You will face hardships in a new country. There will be adjustments and sometimes it may be difficult. Your success is something we are very interested in.’

Spotlight
Daniel Bernando da Silva is from Angola. Speaking about the past two days, Daniel is elated, ‘I feel happy. I know how to speak to people now. English is not my language. I speak Portuguese. Earlier I was shy to speak English, but now I feel confident speaking English. I have now learnt how to be in a group. How to respect others and now I can stay in any country and not feel alone’.
Daniel’s passion is Tilapia. He hopes to learn as much as he can about this fish. His interests include Dancing, Music, reading, studying, watching T.V and soccer. What does he hate? Here is one guy who doesn’t mind admitting that he hates to be alone.





Overheard - One gentleman was heard commenting – ‘but I thought they said there would be some physical activity and not all physical activity!’