Update:

Just finished a 3-day course w/ York school, located in George, about 30min. from here.  We spent the course working with matrics, the graduating senior of the school, to develop as a team, develop self-confidence, and several other life skills.  All in all, a great weekend, with little sleep.  Days ran from 5am, till midnight, doing the ropes course, playing games, going on night hikes for miles to rescue mock victims.  The kids were great, and lots of fun to be around.  If any of them make it to this site, good job on the course, and keep up what you learned here at Outward Bound.  Unfortunately, i’m having trouble uploading pictures, but i just made a cd w/ 400 pics i’ve taken this last month, so sooner or later you’re all in for a treat.

After working and playing hard for 3 straight days, tomorrow starts a 21-day course, which i’ve written about before.  I don’t think i’ll be near any civilization during that time, so, everyone, enjoy the Super Bowl for me, and anything else exciting going on in the world over that time. 

-Dan

Topic: OUTWARD BOUND

“Outward Bound is an international, non-profit experiential educatoin organization.  The organization uses the outdoors and adventure activities as metphors through which to promote individual growth and community transformation.

Outward Bound’s aim is to play a role in changing the lives of the youth.  The program started in Britain in 1941 as a sea education school for young sailors.  The founder, a German Jew named Kurt Hahn, realized that the formal schol system was failing the young people to prepare them for the harsh realities of life.

He felt that qualities listed below were lacking in the youth of the day:

-Perseverance
-Compassion
-Initiative
-Fitness
-Life experience
-Enthusiasm
-Care
-Skill
-Adventurours spirit
-Motivation to make a positive difference in society

This motivated Hahn to start a school where young pepole could learn from experience, hardships, overcome challenges and through all of these develop compassoin for others by being more prepared to be of service to them.

Currently, there are more than 50 schools in 40 countries.  The basic philosophy is still the same.  Students are put into groups and put into situations where they share with others their personal limitations, and they go beyond these limits, showing themselves and others, that they are capable of doing more than they thought they could do.  In the process students learn more about themselves, about others and they learn to rely more on themselves and to begin to trust others.  They also learn to find solutions to problems that at first seem impossible to overcome.  The process teaches them to persevere, to push their own limits, to strive for excellence and to never give up.  The students also learn that we need people around and that we are only human because we recognize the humanity of others.  This also teaches that the strength of the team lies in the cooperation of all the people involved in the team.  I nessence, the students learn to deal with success, failure and they develop empathy for others, and they learn that they can make a difference in their own lives and in the lives of others.”

This information is provided by an independent research company that did assessments and the value of Outward Bound South Africa on the lives of S. African youth, specifically on their Chrysalis programs (which I will be assistant instructing on starting next week).

Also interesting, Kurt Hahn was arrested in Germany during WWII for protesting Hitler after seeing a Nazi soldier kick a communist to death.  After his release, he was then sent to England, where he began a school called the Gordounston school, which was the model for the first Outward Bound school founded in Wales.  The funding for that school came from a rich shipowner, who donated boats to the school, and wanted to help seaman who were not prepared for the hardships of the North Atlantic waters. 

Let me tell you, that’s the most history I’ve leanred since I can remember, which shows that having just an ounce of investment in the topic goes a long way.

That’s all for now.  Keep the posts coming.
Special thanks for Dara for her post, and Marla for her e-mail!!! 

-Dan

Hey, hope everyone enjoys the pictures.

Today I went kayak surfing.  About 10 of us from Outward Bound went down to Buffalo Bay, a quiet little beach with some nice waves.  Of course I’ve never surfed before, but I’ve been practicing a lot w/ the kayak, yesturday went for a 4 hour paddle with a good friend of mine Haig who works here.  Managed to ride some waves in, got knocked around a bit, but was able to roll back up and enjoy some more waves.  A whole lot of fun.

Also went drinking at a local shabbeen this weekend.  Walked 2 hours to get there with some of the black staff, and myself and 2 others were the only white people in the town, called Smuttsville, which I soon learned was a township, although it was dark so hard to really see what the houses looked like.  People were really friendly to us though, even said they were happy to see white people there, and wanted us to tell others how friendly they were to us.

This week is actually my last week of training before going on course.  Doing a 3-day backpack this week to work on orienteering, first aid, and some other skills.

There’s a lot of new staff just arriving.  My next post I will go into a little bit about the history of Outward Bound, and the history of Outward Bound S. Africa, which is only 11 years old, and is a very small but growing organization here in S. Africa.

-Dan

PICTURES HAVE ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These are tops of the first bunch from weeks 1 and 2, more to come…
Fill in your own captions!!!

Just noticed an article in the NYT magazine about blogging.  It’s mostly about teens though, but still interesting to see how many people have blogs.

Spending a lazy day around Knysna, it’s pretty warm out, just walking around the boats at the waterfront, spending a day on my own.  Had a nice braai last night, ate some springbok meat, the national animal of S. Africa.  Tastes like steak if you ask me.

Probably won’t post for a while, I don’t think i’ll have a chance this week, and then i’ll be camping for 21 days, so it could be a month!!!  But I promise to have something nice and juicy for everyone when i return.

-Dan

Just thought it would be fun to throw an old picture from my 45-day OB course in N.C. up there.  Just waiting on my S. African photos to arrive, will post them when they do.

Hey all,

Haven’t had internet access in a while.  Want to write a proper article or post on this soon, but for now just a quick update.

The last 7 days I have had training w/ Outward Bound.  The morning starts with physical training at 6am, a warm-up, stretch, then a 3-mile run, followed by a cool down at the waterfront and some swimming.  A good way to start the morning, especially since it’s nice and warm to start the day.

Been learning a lot of new skills.  Sailing for one, some basic lifeguadring, kayaking including self-rescues where you need to flip your kayak back up-right after being turned upside down, running the ropes course, setting up rapells.  It’s been a long exhausing week, but rewarding.

There’s 7 of us in the training program, and the entire staff is about 40.  Definately a building company, w/ an awesome culture, since everyone loves the outdoors and is here to help people.  In a week, I set off for a 21-day course w/ the Chrysalis program, which takes unemployed people from Cape Town, around age 19 i think, who are part of a gov’t program to help them get work or start companies.  Outward Bound helps w/ their program by giving them the tools they need to succeed, leadership, confidence, teamwork, etc.

Yesturday, our program was actually shown on national S. African TV!!! They came to film us the other day, and on Fri. morning, there we were.  I was in a few shots, and had a one second quote in there.  So, now i’m famous, for all the people in the world who saw it, which is probably just us here at OB S. Africa.

This weekend i’m relaxing in Knysna, a nice touristy town 30min. from where i work.  Staying w/ the operations director Mike, who has worked w/ outward bound for 33 years, mostly in wales, and is now helping to build the program here in SA.  He’s been super nice, and is putting all the trainees up in his dutch-style house tonight.  The other people are great too, 2 S. Africans, 2 Malaysians, and 2 other Americans.

Gonna go for now, still keeping the writing going, it’s a struggle, but hopefully will pay off in the end. 

-Dan