Sunday morning

We woke up at around 7.50am for breakfast, courtesy of one of our 4 cook teams. On the menu was eggy bread and toast, a Gillerthwaite classic. After we all ate breakfast, another cook team had the fun job of washing up. All the others went to get changed and to pack up our belongings. We then went to collect some cleaning cards and began to clean. As we were such a huge group we made up lots of time, it only took us around 40 minutes. When all of Gillerthwaite was tidied and our bags were put into the barn, we congregated in the living room. We then got given some key dates and information about the travel to Tanzania in July 2016. After this, we all got given some evaluation forms. These had to be done all alone so the leaders could get a clear idea of everyone's thoughts and views on Tanzania and the group itself. We all split up and separated around the house. When we had completed the evaluation, we met back in the living room and Ian then covered some of the up-coming fundraisers that we all signed up for. By the time we had finished everything, it was around 10.30am and lifts were beginning to arrive. I don't think anyone wanted to leave because we all knew that the next few hours would be a nervous wait and there was now nothing more we could do.

Abby

Bonfire

On Saturday evening, we had prepared to have a bonfire in Walter's field that we could all sit comfortably round in what was a chilly night. We shared marshmallows round the fire and cooked them with skewers, while Walter told us a bit of history about Gillerthwaite, although it was more of a horror story. Walter spoke of a woman called Glennis who once lived in the farmhouse we were staying in, and she used one of the rooms to torture people. Apparently Glennis haunted the farm and if we heard chains then Glennis was coming for you! We did hear chains and everyone freaked out although we had suspicions that it was his children. After we all sat under blankets together, singing songs, it was a great night.

Luke 

Saturday night challenge

Blog post for the saturday night challenge:

Piped up on energy from a day of walking and conservation activities, it was time for a challenge. This one in particular had a single objective; 'entertain' the leaders. Initially we; the students, divided into separate groups to plan a way to meet the brief, however, as we all piled into the same room to rehearse, somebody had a brainwave (I can't remember exactly who amongst the excited chaos). This entaled producing a flash mob-esque performance, to surprise the leaders that we had actually all worked together. With our irregular orchestra together; Sarah armed with her guitar and voice and Luke with his bongo drum, we set off on a rehearsal. The idea was to have a mellow song to begin with (Budapest by George Ezra), and have a sudden surge of energy in a lively rendition of 'Shut up and dance' in a dark room with flashing torches. At the end of one rehearsal we turned on the lights to discover that two of the leaders had observed a special preview! After a hectic few minutes rehearsing half of us entered the living room to perform, beginning with a lovely verse from Daniel and Sophie, which progressed to a clap-along sing-along. The fun began when there was a knock on the door and the party entered, even the leaders were dancing along to our slightly off-key version of shut up and dance! I think we can all agree that the objective was achieved when the challenge turned into a sing along with everyone, and set us up for a nostalgic night around the bonfire

Emily

Saturday Overview

Bouncing out of bed on Saturday morning, the others in Tyson room and I were ready for the day. We had a vague idea of the hours to follow; a walk to Black Sail, groundwork, interviews and (finally) a bonfire organised by Walter, of the Low Gillerthwaite Field Centre, and his family.

            What actually followed was, for me, one of the highlights of my time spent with CRCL. After everyone split into their respective groups, we began the day’s activities. The walk to Black Sail should have took about two and a half hours- our close shave with a group of cows, bulls and their calves notched that up about half an hour. Following Ian and Andrew’s failed negotiation attempts to clear the gate and our scaling of a barbed wire fence, we finally made it around them.

We managed to get back in time to see the other group pulling out copious amounts of weeds and fence posts, those who had had interviews silently reflecting on questions asked and answers given.

Following lunch, the groups swapped around: I was assigned to paint picnic benches, while the others continued trying to tackle the undergrowth to clear way for some of Walter’s projects. The other group accompanied Ian, again, to Black Sail. The distance between Black Sail and Gillerthwaite is roughly the distance between where we stay in Tanzania and Kisondela, an administrative ward with a local high school in Rungwe.

Once interviews were over and everyone had realised that they are totally not intimidating as we thought they’d be, everyone needed some light relief. Following Saturday night’s dinner made by our fabulous cook team, the leaders tasked us with entertaining them.

I think some of us (myself included) had some pretty serious illusions of grandeur- we capitalised on Sarah Jackson’s knack for playing guitar and sang a fair few songs, Budapest by George Ezra and Rather Be by Jess Glynne included. While it wasn’t what the leaders seemed to have had in mind, we all had a pretty good time.

By the time we’d finished, Walter had assembled the wood collected by people doing groundwork into an impressive pile. The bonfire was already burning, and we all sat down to listen to tales about Glynnis, LGFC’s resident ghost. Coincidentally, just as we’d heard of her propensity to rattle chains and walk the grounds at night, we heard some chains rattling and seen someone walking the grounds at night. Some of us were enamoured with the old stories, however some screamed screams that would challenge those of Glynnis’ victims. Despite this, the hilarity of the whole situation and togetherness made the burst eardrums worthwhile.

Giving up on waiting for the moon to come out from behind the fells, we went to bed- those of us in the haunted Tyson room slept in solidarity, hoping there’d be no interruptions from Glynnis.

Ashleigh 

Walk

On Saturday afternoon, after lunch, Group 2 set out for their walk from Gillethwaite to Black Sail. 

The route was planned to take us one hour and fifteen minutes to arrive at Black Sail as the idea was that in Tanzania we have to reach Kinsondela from Lutengano within that time scale. 

We spent most of the walk talking about the selection and sharing each other’s nerves. It definitely helped talking about things. As the walk went on we decided to make it more interesting by putting some music on, although it didn’t last long as it wasn’t loud enough. 

Half way through our walk the group ran into a family of cows, we decided that it would probably be best to avoid them as the last group had been charged by the bull! So we took a detour around the trees which proved to be far more exciting than the original route! 

When we reached Black Sail Ian informed us that we had just made the target for that time (although Group 1 had made it in under). I think that this was a success for both groups regardless! 

After returning from our walk I think everyone in the group definitely deserved a rest!

Becca

Ground work

On Saturday 3rd November we all participated in doing some work on the Gillerthwaite grounds whilst anxiously awaiting our interviews. After breakfast, half of the group went off for their walk whilst the others went off to gather wood for tonight’s bonfire. After around half an hour of wood collecting with the bonfire looking good to go we then split up into groups of 4 to complete several jobs around the grounds of Gillerthwaite.  One of the groups had to take out the old fence surrounding the field so it could be replaced with a new one, another had to clear all of the broken branches and overgrown grass in-between the trees and the final group had to repaint benches in the gardens of the Field Centre. Once we had all had our interviews and we’d had dinner, we switched with the other group so they could carry on with our work. 

Cheiatian

Derdians - Derdians point of view

Derdian’s experience of the activity

After separating off into our groups we were given our task, our team was told that they would be taking on the role of the ‘Derdian’s’- a fictional people created for this task. On the task sheet there was a brief, explaining the issues the Derdian’s were facing with the commute to the closest markets. Currently, this journey took the Derdian’s 2 days to complete; however, with the construction of a bridge across a deep valley, the journey could be considerably shortened to 5 hours. The issue was that although the Derdian’s were of equal intellect to the rest of the world, no Derdian knew how to build a bridge. So a team of engineers were challenged with building this bridge across the valley to shorten their route, in addition, they had to teach the Derdian’s the necessary skills for constructing a bridge.

This process was not as easy as it may first have seemed, as we read on we found out a little more about the Derdian’s culture and their way of life. For example-

• The Derdian’s greeted one another by kissing the person’s right shoulder

• They never communicated with one another unless they were in physical contact with someone involved in the conversation (it is considered exceptionally rude to do otherwise)

• The Derdians did not have a word for ‘no’, instead saying ‘yes’ meant ‘yes’ and saying ‘yes’ whilst emphatically nodding our heads was the Derdian translation for ‘no’.

• The males could not communicate with one another unless first introduced by a female

• Various tools were inaccessible to each gender, pencils and rulers could only be touched by females, no males, scissors could only be touched by males and glue was neutral.

As a result, the teaching process did not go as easy as what we first anticipated. The first engineers came to us (Sophie and Ashleigh, having no idea about the Derdian ways and customs) I went over to greet them with the customary kiss on the shoulder. Both engineers began backing away and questioning my actions, to which all the Derdian’s replied only with puzzled faces and when they began to speak to us without physical contact, we began challenging their ignorance (whilst touching them). This requirement of physical contact whilst speaking delayed the process for quite some time, as us Derdian’s kept urging the engineers to be quiet when they were talking without touching someone. After some subtle hints and constant shushing, Ashleigh soon figured out that physical contact was required whilst speaking.

The two engineers left for some time and then returned with the rest of their team; which I again customarily greeted with the kiss on the shoulder- which they had now been warned of but some still backed away and questioned me. After our initial meeting we got to work building the bridge, which again took longer than previously thought as we had to keep calling out the rudeness of those who spoke without contact. Another problem came when the female engineers started touching the scissors; I had to constantly tell them of their rudeness and take over the job to do what was necessary with the scissors as only males could touch them. Similarly, when male Derdian’s were getting told to use pencils, the same conversations were had. Additionally, the engineers were constantly confused of the as had no idea why us Derdian’s were saying yes to doing jobs (whilst emphatically nodding) and getting agitated when they would hand pencils to males or scissors to females. After some time we successfully managed to build the bridge and shortened the Derdian’s route from two days to five hours.

During this activity I didn’t quite understand its purpose, however, once we had finished we reflected on what we had just done. It came to light that situations like this could occur whilst in Tanzania, where the differences of cultures could make even the easiest of thing a lot harder. What we gained from this exercise was that we have to be more open minded and learn to be adaptable in situations we have never been or not sure what to do in. Consequently, we all now have an idea of how differences in cultures can change a lot of things and when we go out to Tanzania, we have to be cautious of our actions and make sure we are constantly learning from those around us, their ways of life and how things are done. I found this activity extremely beneficial as it made me realise how narrow minded you can be without even realising and so will make me think about my actions if I ever find myself in a similar situation.

Daniel