Teresa's 1st OBA Experience ... TOTALLY FULL ON!!! ... pictures now added plus a few more details:)

10 days ago, January 9th, ...

I started my OBA (Outward Bound Australia) training ...

... & I have discovered even more about myself, spending time away from fast-paced office activities, being part of an energetic and motivated team, and the fun that I can have as I continue to explore and create my Great Work and ways that I can share it with others :)

... Teresa's 1st "Ropes Course" experience ... 18 metres up & having HEAPS of FUN!!

Jan. 9-17, 2007 turned out to be a pretty FULL ON introduction to OBA & for all of us as interns to learn more about ourselves & just how much we wanted to be a part of this organization!!

After meeting up in Canberra with 14 of the 15 interns, sorting out a riddle & getting to know at least three things about each other, we headed to the OBA base & had dinner/Barbee with the rest of the OBA mob. After dinner, we met up "down below" at the storage area ... where we were shown a bay full of equipment and informed of the list of gear that we all needed to pull together for our individual & group needs for the 9 day course we were going to embark on.

This 9 day course was intended to help us:

1. start to develop a solid understanding of OBA's philosophy,
2. to experience an OB course in the shoes of a participant,
3. to gain a heightened awareness of ourselves & others within our team,
4. to transfer learnings directly into OBA, it's workplace, and the community, as well as to learn ways to be empathetic with our "Papas"/participants

... and that the "bus"/shuttle van would be on site to pick us up at 7:30 a.m. the next morning.

We slept out under the stars & the "bivvies"/clear plastic tarps set up as isosceles triangles overhead, ... with a rectangular ground sheet & my sleeping bag, no pillow provided but I did have my splendid down MEC travel pillow & rolled up some of my clothes to have under my knees. Needless to say ... we all got to bed by midnight or a little while thereafter & the "sleep" I had was not ideal .. I was quite a sore & tired sherpa dog the next morning.

... "down below" at the course preparation sheds ... almost ready for the 7:30 a.m. start of our ROMEO Course Experience

We started out the morning with a variety of team building activities, which included my first experience hanging about 18 metres off the ground, with climbing harness, carabiners, and ropes keeping me from harms way :)

I made it to the other side of the swinging ropes ... next the moving tires and rope net ... what a workout!!

There was 'heaps" of hiking to be done with fairly heavy packs that included 5 litres of water, sleeping bag, ground sheet, clothes & personal items, plus some group gear, ... I had the 2 plastic "chopping boards" and the PVC tube with 3 kitchen knives. Despite the two fairly big blisters I acquired (one on the back of each of my heels) over the first couple of days of hiking/trekking ... which was made better by adding another pair of socks to my feet :)

hiking up to Mount Wee Jasper ...


Despite the sore feet & the hot sun, I did enjoy the hiking and making our way along the "tracks". We did some major uphill hiking (I discovered that ploughing up each steep section and resting in the shade and/or flat sections along the way was the best way for me to keep up & not have my energy drained by the seemingly never-ending series of steep slopes to hike up). Many of the descents involved rocks & boulders of various sizes, plus nimble bodies and good concentration to navigate the best placement of feet along the way. Drinking heaps of water & having regular snacks to keep my energy level up are two of the most important things I need to keep on top of, to keep myself in a good frame of mind & body.

... ROMEO's at the summit of Mount Wee Jasper (1,121m) ... "we "bagged another knoll" (translation ... we made it to the summit of another hill/mountain!

I also totally enjoyed seeing the "roos" all over the place as we hiked about! On my solo day, around day #4-5 of our 9 day course, I watched 24 grey kangaroos bounce in & out of the eucalyptus trees along the valley bottom just down from my hilltop perch :) It was great to have them nearby in the trees as well, keeping a watchful eye but staying around as long as I wasn't approaching them too closely, how fun!! I will share more details on the transformative moments I enjoyed on my solo day along with some pic's in my next posting, including the roo that affirmed I was ready to move on along my "Values Journey" ... stay tuned .... :)

... we made it to the top of Mount Tennant (1,384m above sea level) ... which we basically hiked up that much & more & then hiked down at least as much!!

It was on the way down from Mount Tennant, as we were negotiating our way along the trail and steps made of granite rocks & wood, that I made the biggest "stack" of our trek when I somehow lost my footing & tumbled down about 4 steps, landing only on my hand & pack, no scrapes or cuts, & fortunately, not landing on Kate who was ahead of me, PHEW ... when I stopped tumbling, I was facing uphill laying sideways across the steps!! The Romeo's in the back of the pack stuck with me as we had a much needed break, water, bird seed (sunflower & pumkin seeds plus other yummy seeds & dried fruits), and scrogin (trail mix that has chocolate chips in whatever chip or melted state they are in, shredded coconut, dried bananas, and raisins). As much as I would have preferred to have napped for several hours before carrying on, we set out again and eventually made our way to the valley at the base of Mount Tennant & then finally over to the OBA base about 2 km away.

As well, before & after our big treks, we had a chance to get out on the ropes course on three different occasions, great fun up on the wires and balancing as we balanced and clamboured about, between 12 & 18 metres off the ground, on bridges, ropes, cables, tires, or climbing walls ... what a challenge of balance, strength, keeping a steady grip, endurance, and patience :)

Chris & Teresa on the way up & then at the top of the giant ladder ... what a team :)

... we also got to go CAVING & ABSEILLING/RAPPELLING on day #3!!!!

dropping down 25 m by a rope late at night into the womb of Mother Earth a little while after midnight was most excellent indeed, ... what's even more amazing is that we had the energy and spark to do this activity after the full day of hiking/navigating through the bush & rocky terrain which started with yet another 5:30 .m. wake up, breakfast, packing up, then heading out for our bushwalk (after learning about Alex Wood's disappearance and the request for us to alter our navigation plan to check on the location of he was last seen), and a full day of hiking amid temperatures in the mid-high 30's Celsius ... about ~12 hours after we set out on our big trek, & once we had a chance to eat our dinner at about 9 p.m., we headed down to the cave 10 p.m. or so & it took about 2 hours to get all 17 of us down (including our instructors Kizz & Brenno). The cooler temperatures, the lively conversations & antics as people mucked about with their gloves and abseilgear before heading down, plus the little massage line that I had a chance to enjoy & discover exactly which muscles in my shoulder area were the most sore after a full day of backpacking!!

... Kizz (Kirily), our female instructor was totally excited to be taking us out caving, & as she about half way down the 25 metre descent/abseil/rappell, ... I led the Romeos in greeting her in song with "Oh Mahlay", one of the African songs I learned with my Seed Mates. Kizz told us later how much she enjoyed coming down to hear us singing like that. I could only imagine the delight to be had in such a gloriously resonant cave with my Seed Mates and other musical friends ... Laurelie, Trudy, Christie, Tracey, Mrs. Chalmers, Kristin, Claudette, Kelsey ... to mention just a few of you :)

ROMEO's in the Wee Jasper Dip Cave ... 25 metres below ground :)
... Brenno (Brendon) our other amazing & wacky instructor :)

It was a truly magical experience to be in & sing in this deep cave (& explore it a little as I had done a little while earlier, when I saw one tiny micro bat that hadn't figured out it was time to head out into the night for dinner :) After about 10 minutes & a couple of group photos later ... the magical & exciting cave time morphed into a mock rescue/first aid scene where we had to figure out a way to rescue "Alex Wood", ... the lost diabetic that we had been calling out to all day (a scenario that led to us learning a few different search & rescue practices along the hike as we also had practice with navigating using compasses, topographical maps, and landscape features such as hills/knolls, gullies, and saddles) out of this cave that was 25 metres into the Earth ...

I went with 3 other Romeos to find the other way out as we scrambled up the rocks and had to watch out for sharp debris and pull ourselves up into the cool, night air to get the stretcher from the OBA vehicle nearby. Our mob of Romeos managed to get Alex (the stuffed hiker) out without dropping him and then proceeded to have to walk/jog with him along the gravel road 2 km to our campsite, where the "ambulance" would arrive to take him to the hospital. All this around 1 a.m. in the morning ... oh, the fun that you get to have when you don't have to fuss with regular office hours, etc. I must say that the first 4 days of this experiential course we were up at 5:30 a.m. and despite the tiredness in our bodies & minds, as a group, we got ourselves up, ate breakfast (muesli & powdered milk), packed our backpacks, and headed out for another day of unknown adventures ... most of us quite enjoyed our chance to catch up on sleep on our "solo day" which went from early afternoon of day #4 to 24 hours later on day #5.

All in all, our intern group which is known as the "Romeos" (since the OBA intern group naming has come to the letter "R" & according to the phonetic alphabet, which is used in the radio communication we are also learning about) is quite a great group, 10 womyn & 5 guys ... I am the most senior, as I anticipated, and Chris, my ropes course climbing partner/the monkey is the most junior with his 19 years ...

We had yesterday off, but that was also our moving in day, following the 9 day OBA philosophy & "empathy" course that kicked us in gear, in full OBA fashion! Now we have a bunch of Induction ... HR/orientation type of stuff to cover over the next couple of days before our Bronze Medallion training & testing, yikes!! This will involve lots of swimming & expectations of times being less than 15 or 13 minutes to do 400 metres of a few different lifesaving types of swimming strokes!! Today was a "cooler" day, only 33-35 Celsius & this week-end is supposed to be around 38, YIKES!!! We actually had rain & thunder the past two nights, which made things quite humid, and has increased the "mozzies"/mosquitoes that are now bugging me as I type ... but I suspect that there will be no more rain for some time.

I believe one of my biggest challenges will be surviving the big heat and another will be finding a balance with the age difference between myself & the rest of the Romeos (mostly how that affects any of the major physical challenges we undertake, which I have been handling quite well so far but also in the social/entertainment side of things). I think there are a few young womyn that are 28 and the rest of the Romeos are younger than that. All in all, we're a pretty decent and happy "mob" and I am looking forward to experiencing the adventures that I have with all the Romeos & the OBA mob here in Tharwa and discovering all that I do within me and with the Romeos as a team. There's already been some great personal learning and there's definitely more to come :)

Be well my friends & family & do consider sending me some snail mail, it will be great to hear from you ...

Teresa Chilkowich (ROMEO #13)
Outward Bound Australia
Naas Road
Tharwa, ACT 2620
Australia

I am not going to be as readily able to plug into cyberspace now that the internship training is in full swing ... pictures from you & chocolate or other tiny treats for me are always quite welcome ;)

Hugs 'n' Bugs,

Teresa L. Chilkowich (aka Tango Lima Charlie)
& Sherpa Dog (aka Sierra Delta)