well, back from another 5 days of 6 or 7 Am starts and sweaty days. some good photos on this one. The lead trainer was Nora, who was pleasant to work with.
I pitched in more than usual, with games from my manual, plus ones I've learnt from the Malay trainers. Also briefs on Kayaking, a smoother navigation brief where I built a hilly area with sand on the beach to show spurs, knolls, saddles to the students. We did a 7KM paddle with the 14 yr old students - quite a bit for them. From a small island called Tiloi, to aother islands, then across a channel with waves and wind to Tuba island, the main island we use on these camps.
I got a bit exasperated trying to coach one or 2 double kayaks who had trouble keeping up with the group because they were doing the usual beginner zigzag path - often at right angles to the desired direction. My english wasn't getting thru to them because these few students had quite poor english. Decided that next time I need to set up a signal for stern rudder (left or right), on the beach, and make sure all students knew what to do when I yelled the signal at them. eg "rudder kiri" meaning "rudder left", (kiri = left in malay). mmm so I need to have a bit more basic Malay vocab at my fingertips, to avoid banging my head against a wall occasionally.
Bagus makaan = good food; Tariq = pull; Lagi = more
and so on -- I'm picking up this stuff as I go along. The kids like it when you speak a little Malay. Most of them understand what you say 70 % of the time. a few have very poor grasp of english. Thankfully, we are always paired with a Malay trainer.
On the first day, the kids were zombies and didn't respond much... they usually are pretty tired as they travel by bus and ferry for 6 hours or so to get to Tuba island. They perked up at the end of the 2nd day - after kayaking. Thankfully. My energy levels were the best so far... sleeping better at night and managing the group a bit better. Some stiff trapezius problems while kayaking. plus a bit of a vertebrae out in my upper back... my chiropractor flatmate adjusts me almost weekly... it's not severe pain, but uncomfortable. Well - It would be nice to have got into this profession 10 years earlier, (now 36) . I'm not going to whinge about it... but I have to recognize that it makes me a little more prone to back problems and so on.
Surprisingly, wearing the big pack jungle trekking often fixes any lower back niggles I may have - the large lumbar pad massages the lower back , and the big hip strap places most of the weight low on the back. I highly recommend the large "Deuter" pack.
I'll be doing a post on general conditions - food on course, and so on later, for those who are interested.
Readers: Don't hesitate to leave comments- click on the "comment" section at the bottom of the post- you don't have to register to leave a comment, just type right ahead. it would give a nice warm feeling if you left a comment - Tafe dudes and dudettes, as well as friends and family. Cheers.
