Dear Parents,
It has been a long day of cooperation, communication, competition and reflection today. We spent both morning and afternoon taking “Outward Bound” training. We learned that “Outward Bound” (tuo4zhan3 xun4lian4) originated in the UK during World War II. The objective of the training is for the children to learn to care for themselves and others in a challenge-based, experiential setting. It focuses on character development and team building. Two professional “Outward Bound” trainers in uniforms were our coaches.
In the morning session, each of the four teams (Cheng2zi, Yu4tou, Luo2bo, Fan1qie2) elected a co-team-leader representing the American children on the team (the team leaders representing the Chinese children have been determined prior to our arrival). Ruiduan, Lionel, Shannon and Yiran got elected. The first task assigned to each team was to design a team flag and work out a team slogan. The task took about 30 minutes. Afterwards, the Chinese leader of each team introduced the newly elected American co-leader, displayed the team’s flag, and explained to the entire group what their flag means. Each team then chanted their slogan. I was impressed by the oratorical skills of these Chinese children.
The second task in the morning was more demanding. Each team was asked to build a caterpillar belt with newspaper and tape. It should be as wide as a person’s width and as long as it can encircle all the team members (about 15 children)! The project got started on the tennis court and was later moved to the gym as it began to rain. After the caterpillar belt was completed, each team took off their shoes, lined up inside the belt, feet inching forward in unison while heads and hands keeping the belt steady and rolling. The challenge was to move, as a group and inside the belt, from one end of the gym to the other and then come back as a whole (i.e., with everybody participating and with the belt rolling)!! It required exquisite coordination and abundant communication. Only one team finished the job without the belt being broken midway. But all teams completed the task in the end, even though they had to fix their belt several times in the process.
Our training resumed after lunch. It was raining still; so again we went to the gym. Several activities filled our afternoon that call for more team work, the most important of which was the building of bridges. Each of the four teams were further divided into two halves—the Chinese half and the American half. Each half-team was to build half of a bridge, using paper cups, plastic tubes, toothpicks, newspaper, tapes and scissors. The end goal was to connect the half bridges built by the Chinese and American half-teams to make a whole bridge. Each half-team selects one person as the communicator to share initial designs with the other half and to discuss any concerns along the way. Only 3 communications were allowed. Each communication was limited to 3 minutes only. On the American side, the communicators were Arnold, Luran, Shannon, and Lionel. The children were told beforehand that the end product would be judged in terms of its durability, practicality, and aesthetics.
With all the information gap as well as language ability gap (all communication between the half-teams was conducted in Chinese), by the end of the 50 minutes allotted to this activity, three teams completed their bridges; one team was half done. The coach then invited all communicators to share with the entire group how they came to a consensus as to what kind of bridge to build, how to build it, what problems they encountered and how they solved them through communication. He then evaluated the products using the three criteria he had previously given. Team Orange (for which Lionel was the American co-leader) won the first place! However, our training did not stop there. The coach asked the children to think about what they have learned from participating in this activity. A 15 minute discussion ensued. Among the many things that were put forth by the children were ability to find out what other people are thinking and planning, ability to do it yourself, ability to be flexible and negotiable, etc. Finally, Bonnie announced the result of the team competition thus far—Team Orange is the winning team after a whole day’s activities. She also used this opportunity to ask the children to apply the principle of communication and collaboration to other realms of life, such as in resolving conflicts among roommates.
I personally think that there is an important added benefit from today’s training. All instructions were given in Chinese exclusively and all activities (except for when the American-half-teams worked by themselves) were conducted in Chinese. To the best of my judgment, today was the day our children got the most enriched Chinese language input since the beginning of this year’s YiB. With Chinese partners, they are apparently also speaking more Chinese, something that they have not had much chance to do in the previous three weeks.
The Outward Bound training ended at 5:30pm. The children had half an hour break and then had dinner. After dinner, the Chinese children and American children were separated and held their own discussion sessions to reflect upon the last two days. The American children gathered in a conference room close to the dining hall. Bonnie had the children review the leader/learner profile, share some positive experiences from the last two days, identify problems that plague them, and think about solutions. It’s been only 36 hours since YiB children merged with DongDong children but the interpersonal and intercultural problems have already emerged. The evening reflective session lasted for over 2 hours; by the time the children returned to their rooms, it was already 9:30.
It’s almost 12 midnight now. Hope the children are sleeping tight and enough. Tomorrow we’ll go camping. I’m not sure whether it’d be possible for me to write. If not tomorrow, I will as soon as I can.
Agnes (aka He laoshi)