Bush Survivor Trip

Driving Question

What does it take to safely survive, adapt, live and communicate effectively as a team in the bush?

4 Day Outline

Day 1:
I went to the library and watched a bunch of bush survival videos, and then we were put into groups and we went to the school hall to make giant posters to illustrate our groups title. I then left and went home.
Day 2:
I got to school with all my stuff ready for the bush (sort of) and I went to the school hall, where our class accumulated and we all dumped our stuff on the floor. There was a bag check, and to prove my innocence I completely emptied my bag unto the floor and awaited checking. It wasn't very thurough though. Then I packed all my sh*t back into my pack and black trash bag and awaited further instruction with my mates.
"period of forgottenness"... and we got in the vans with our gear. I then sat through at least 20 minutes of crappy opotiki and bush roads. Upon arrival, I got out of the van and we went with our stuff over to the main area by the teachers tent and we listened to what they had to say, then we all went off to find Team Hut Locations in the surrounding trees. Our group just found a small clearing and agreed that it was good enough. We then attempted to build a 'hut' which was more of an open fort by the time it was done. "period of forgottenness" I walked over to the place where everyone was gathering and we did the 'Food Treasure Hunt' which was okay. I (with the help off an opposing team member) aquired some potatos, but our team lost that so we got the designated 'worst food' set, which really wasn't bad We then did a song/chant for our group and we won that, so we got a whole bunch of cooking utencils. With all this stuff we made a pretty good dinner. It was like pasta that had the pasta tomato sauce stuff and cheese sauce that came together to taste a little bit like the smell of corn chips. We then attepmted to go to sleep, which was unlikely because a couple girls in our group were really loud and annoying and made it very hard to sleep. So I left with my sleeping gear and lay down in a bush in between the main areas and my Team Hut Location. After a while I was discovered and ordered back to the Hut, but after a while the noise became unbearable again so I went back to where I was earlier and got a descent nights sleep...
Day 3:
... until 4 in the morning, when an annoying Gook whistle woke me from my slumber. I promptly got up and dragged my sleeping gear over to the hut site before a teacher could spot me emerging from the foliage. I put my shoes on (after a tremendous amount of searching and effort) and we all plodded along to the main area outside the teachers tent. I was told that we all had to gather our team and go on a hunt for coloured tags which would represent our group. Ours were the designated easiest to find based on losses of the day before somehow (I can't quite remember why) and because of this a member of an opposing team hid a couple of our tags when they found them, which meant that we lost that bit. But we continued to the second challenge of the morning which included the deciphering of a code. I found this code ridiculously simple and realised what the code was and Cody helped me write down what it meant. We were soon done and almost caught up with the other teams who had also just finished. Soon after we went back to bed but most people decided to just stay up through the morning because it would have been too hard to sleep in the coldness and stuff. Later, we had breakfast, which consisted of food. Later we constructed a raft, and went orienteering. Both tasks were failed miserably. For orienteering we went very off course because our compass holders idea of north is going North, then east, then north, then east, then north, then east until we reached the top of the hill we were climbing and missed the target place by a big distance and we failed. For the raft we built it and it fell apart in the water, but we won because it fell apart less than the other groups rafts. Yes.

Interpersonal Skills

SKILL: Effective communication

When you used it (what challenges or tasks)	How you usedit/demostrated it (this should be really clear and detailed)	How did it impact on others (you and the group or teachers)	Could you have improved it and how
Constructing the hut	I helped by telling people what to do and doing it myself	The hut was less cold than it could have been	Yes, by others listening and performing tasks correctly
Food treasure hunt	Yelled out the code word in order to alert my team members that food was found	The others were alerted to the presence of food	No, as I can only yell so loud
River rafting	Screamed at my teammates to help hold the raft together	We almost succeeded	No, it was as good as it couold possibly get
Orienteering	Helped people climb stuff by telling them what to do.	People didn't die.	Yes, by giving better advice

SKILL: Problem Solving

When you used it (what challenges or tasks)	How you used it/demostrated it (this should be really clear and detailed)	How did it impact on others (you and the group or teachers)	Could you have improved it and how
Cleaning Dishes	I had no utensil to wash the dishes with, so I used my phalanges.	The team was ungrateful yet probably pleased that there were cleanish dishes to eat off.	No
Hut Insulating	The hut was not insulated so I insulated it with ferns. With a little help from Rory and Papuni.	The team was ungrateful yet probably pleased that there was some wind blockage and a lack off chilly cold.	Yes, used more insulation
Hut Placement	We had to decide where to put the hut, so we decided where to put it with decisive finger pointing and lazy agreement.	The team was displeased as the ground had tree roots all over it.	Yes, picked a better spot
Sleeping Arrangements	The hut was overpopulated with loud and obnoxious females so I solved the problem by leaving.	They had to continue putting up with the loud obnoxious females, whereas I did not.	No

SKILL: Teamwork

When you used it (what challenges or tasks)	How you used it/demostrated it (this should be really clear and detailed)	How did it impact on others (you and the group or teachers)	Could you have improved it and how
Stretcher Racing	I helped by holding up the stretcher along with many other teammates and thus used teamwork in order to achieve whatever goal was to be achieved	My team succeeded in the task and were happy with the meat.	Yes, by increasing the amount of helpfulness that I did.
Building the Hut	I helped by doing work for the team and put appropriate insulating ferns and sticks on the sticks we call walls.	They weren't as cold as they could have been, my teammates I mean.	Yes, by putting more on.
Orienteering	I demonstrated teamwork by guiding teammates into slightly less dangerous paths.	Those who I helped were put into slightly less danger than they could have put themselves into.	Yes, by giving insanely good advice as opposed to regular advice.
Making Damper	I helpededed teamworkish by kneading most of the damper dough.	The damper was semi-kneaded and the team ate it.	Yes, by being more successful in my attempts to knead the damper.

SKILL: Supporting and encouraging others

When you used it (what challenges or tasks)	How you used it/demostrated it (this should be really clear and detailed)	How did it impact on others (you and the group or teachers)	Could you have improved it and how
Bedtime	I encouraged (with poor results) other people to stop being incredibly loud and annoying.	It somehow didn't work and teammates were still very annoyed with the loud and annoying people regardless of the encouragement you read about earlier.	Yes, by viciously and brutally murdering the guilty party that instigated the annoyance of the team. But short of that I don't think there was much else I could do
Rafting	I encouraged and supported others into holding the raft together as we drifted.	The team was happy because the raft stayed together and our team got the fastest time for that particular event.	Not really
Orienteering	I supported and encouraged people in the (apparantly) correct direction.	They went in the seemingly correct direction.	I could have improved it by actually going in the correct direction as opposed to following the guy with the compass who couldn't go up in a straight line.
Building the Raft	I encouraged and supported my teammates to construct the raft	The raft was built and we were happy with it.	No.