“It takes a certain type of person to come on this trip” my roommate Tim has said this when speaking about the people and relationships we’ve been able to develop in such a short time period that we’ve been here, and as each day goes on I couldn’t agree more. And it does. This program attracts a certain type of person that has the desire to get outside of his or her comfort zone and discover new things first hand. I believe this is the reason that everyone on this trip loves meeting new people and are able to mold together so well. It’s only the fourth full day and I haven’t been able to interact with everyone yet, but I have set a goal for myself to be able to learn everyone’s full name by the end of this trip and to not just interact at the surface level encounters but rather get to know everyone on a level one step deeper than that. I have met a lot of really interesting and appealing people so far. Jack Konas, for instance, is a guy that I probably would not have meet if I did not attend this trip, but getting to know him and his unique/absolutely hilarious personality has been such a fun experience and I think I can literally speak for everyone on this trip when I talk about him, and despite my passionate hate for Auburn recently and their scams and invalid championship, he’s just one guy you can’t help but love. Cam Newton is still the WORST, by the way.
Go Dawgs (and Falcons, Braves, Hawks.)
Another early morning followed by another late night. From eating the local Mcdonald’s Big Macs late night in our room with Ish (our decorated Taxi driver who already has, and willbecome much more than simply a taxi driver), to waking up to a great breakfast cooked for me hours later by my small group leader, has become quite the experience/routine. I hate it when that dreadful alarm clock goes off in the morning. I am not very perky in the morning typically but once I actually got involved in the activities, I realized how lucky I am to be here in Cape Town, South Africa and don't want to waste a minute. The days are packed from sunrise to sundown and nothing gets boring for me here. I feel that I am constantly engaged in the speakers and the discussion in our small groups. When I woke up this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that our community leaders would be cooking breakfast for us and I was not disappointed. Paige- the eggs were exceptional. Today was the real introduction into the leadership curriculum that we will be studying while we are here. One of my initial interests, besides the awesome adventure opportunities presented to us in this program, was the service aspect. This comes natural, as I have been fortunate to go on mission trips to Peru and Nicaragua and have always had a genuine interest to go out and connect with those that are in need and less fortunate than myself. But I didn’t think much about the leadership aspect of our studies, thinking that these were going to be the typical lectures I’ve heard at leadership seminars in the past. Mallory (one of our Teaching Assistants) headed the meeting this morning and her passionate attitude about the material was very obvious and sincere, just like all of the staff with us. I am able to easily notice that they love what they do- and they do it well. We looked deep into our strengths and Mallory emphasized how we do not need to dwell on our weaknesses and worry about “fixing” them, but rather develop our strengths, and use them in the most efficient way. We used a test called StrengthsFinder to view our top 5 strengths. I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion we had regarding each of our strengths. It enabled me to understand what I need to work on and what I need to utilize as we continue our service during our trip to South Africa.
This was one of my first opportunities to truly connect with my community group and get to know everyone on a more fundamental level. We were able to expand upon our strengths and we discussed the strategies that we would hopefully implement in our optimistic goals that we set for ourselves. I loved the strategies that the staff put into practice to further our development, for example: they were constantly encouraging different people to join different small groups within the activities that we completed. This is one attribute they intend to include that supports me in my goal to get to know everyone’s name on a more personal level rather than just a casual “Hey, how are you doing?”. We split up into even smaller groups of three to discuss these strengths additionally. This is actually one of my strengths that I learned about myself through the test we participated in that I wanted to intensify and develop in the category of “Woo” which me, Jack, and Erin basically described as a genuine interest in striking up conversation and having that desire to love people for their positive attributes and also aspiring for the people we interact with to love us back. After the meeting we had an excellent activity to advance our relationships within our community/small groups even more by having a fun, detailed scavenger hunt that was easy to get interested and connected in by taking goofy/funny pictures of our whole group around the local landmarks and local people of this community. This was a great time while simultaneously allowing me to observe the different personalities within my group and gain a greater appreciation for everyone in meeting them past the “classroom”. The prize was a private lunch with Barbara and Vince Dooley so me and the only other UGA student in my group, Carrie, were the only ones who could have the legitimate appreciation for this great grand prize. Despite the others distance from our school’s great history of a legend coach, the other team members put forth great effort and I believe we have a valid chance of victory but we will find out the winners tomorrow! I have rambled on long enough on this blog considering I finished the second half after our amazing sunset champagne cruise that has been my favorite night thus far most likely. I can’t wait to continue this journey of new discoveries and adventures! I LOVE THIS PLACE.
by Michael Boynton
No comments:
Post a Comment