|
Today we had “Leaders round table” session. After the morning meeting we went to ballroom and we sited around the table and 8 great leaders came to talk to us. We had 10-12 minutes of conversation with every leader who came and it was really great. I noted so many of inspiring and useful information from leaders who came to visit us. There was one sentence from Douglas Jackson that really made me think more about what I want to be and who I want to become. I’ll quote Mr. Jackson: ”Any time you get involved in leading a group of people who don’t have to be there, its powerful thing how do you motivate people who you can’t pay and can’t fire. If you can answer that question you’ve found the crux of what it means to be a leader.” Wow…I’m still impressed of power of that sentence and how deeply it touched me and made me think. Please, read that sentence one more time and close your eyes and picture who you want to be.
After Leadership session, we had introduction to community impact in which we will be involved this Friday. Wow, my first communities work with UWP. I’m really looking forward to it. First we talked about previous volunteering experiences and there were really amazing stories from my cast mates about their previous experience. What an amazing people I will be traveling with. After that, we received brief information how our community will look like. So, in Friday we are going to build trails in mountains near Colorado Springs. More about that in Friday.
After lunch, we had dancing lesions and today we learned how to step. That’s hard dance to learn and I had some big problems with it so I really need to put more effort in learning how to step but it was really fun, especially when we started to make choreography.
After dancing lessons we had a game to play called Barnga. The rules were really simple. There were 9 tables for exact number of people and you had to choose one to sit and you have 5 minutes to read rules and discuss with others about it. After that, you are not allowed to speak; you have to find way how to communicate with others without speaking. We were playing cards. Every winner and loser of table has to move and sit to some other table and so we started. First round was easy as we all know the rules. When we started to move from one table to another, problems started, especially with communication and we spent more time in explaining rules of plays than in playing. Some people took it very seriously. I kind of got an impression that every table has different rules so I tried to be flexible as much as possible and I enjoyed playing cards. It was fun.
After the game, we had brief discussion what happened during game and than we finally find out that every table had different rules and it was kind of simulation what will happen when we start traveling. We will have to be as flexible as possible in many different situations and we will have to follow new rules. Or, how did my roommate Faith explained (I’ll try to quote her): “Our first table is our home and it’s always nice to travel the world and get to know new things, but it always nice to came back home, and you will for sure eventually come back home (to your first table) and there may be some changes and you have to see those changes and again try to adopt to them even if you are at home.” That’s what she said, maybe I have added more lines, but that’s the way I also feel.
So…this is how I spent my day. For dinner, Diane made some Mexican food and it was really tasty. We had some guests during evening and it was girl who was also involved in Up with People and she was also host-kid in Diana’s and Brian’s house. She moved to Denver and now they are really close friends and they spend at one evening during the week together. I love how life can be unpredictable.
|
