Last month was absolutely amazing! My team was working with Lasting Impressions for the month in Zimbabwe and our hosts, Shelley and Alistair took my team in like family.
Lasting Impressions is an organization that hosts leadership and environmental camps for all ages. We were able to help out with a leadership camp for a week during our stay. My team of six was split up into three groups that each partnered with one group of kids.
I was partnered up with Kenzie from my team and we were with the Crazy Gorillas!
The kids were all from the same 6th grade class. It was so much fun hanging out with them everyday going through activities to challenge them and help them work together.
After each activity finished up we would debrief it and everyone was able to share struggles, achievements, and just how they felt while going through the activity.
A couple of the activities we did were;
Standing in a circle and tossing a ball in a specific order, person to person all eleven of us. Once we mastered that with one ball, we added two balls, then three, then finally four balls going around the circle.
Another activity we did was called Aunt Suzy. We were all standing on a log and had to balance ourselves while trying to arrange ourselves in a certain order on the log. That one was difficult!
Another activity we did was called Follow the Leader. We blindfolded all of the kids and took them around the camp. Then, without them knowing, we put them in “jail”. We tied a rope around four trees so there was no way out to get out by yourself. The “ catch” was in the directions. In the directions, which we repeated close to one hundred times, says if you need help, raise your hand. So the goal of that exercise was to show them that they may need to ask for help sometimes and thats okay. That one took awhile but it was fun.
We ended the week with the Pamper Pole. This exercise was optional for everyone. It was a pole about 20 feet tall maybe, you had to climb up the pole and when you got to the top of it you had to stand on this skinny little thing and then, jump off trying to catch a bar that was hanging in front of it. Except for the pole you have to stand on is very small and the pole is shaking like crazy once you get up to the top!!!
All of Kenzie and I’s kids made it all the way to the top and JUMPED off!!!! It was so cool!! They were so brave and courageous, facing their fears of heights, failing, and falling.
The kids grew so much at Lasting Impressions and so did my team. It was such an incredible experience that I will never forget.
