Training Weekend 2 - Part 2!!

As Dan, Charis and I were the first to pull up outside West Morriston hall on the morning of the second part of our training weekend we began to worry if we were in fact at the right place. But no sooner than the thought had crossed our minds more people began to arrive and soon we were all present and keen to get started.
The day began with most of the leaders having a private meeting to discuss the timetable for the day, whilst Jono went ahead and began to sort out our clothing just as the rest of the leaders scheduled that task for later in the day. But no worries as we soon had the clothing sorted and were ready to begin our training.
We then all congregated in the main room in the hall where Ruth went over the itinerary (or itinerarary as she liked to say) for the day. We decided to start with some first aid training, kindly provided by Alan Mcghee, during which we practised CPR, the recovery position and how to deal with various other scenarios, hopefully none of which will become necessary on the trip.
After the first aid we headed down to a local pond to practise some canoeing and have some lunch. Some basic canoeing skills and safety procedures were taught by Jim Macpherson before we all got a shot of paddling in a figure of eight around the pond. The canoeing seemed to go well (no one ended up in the pond anyway) so we all headed back up to the hall to move on to our next item on the list.
We had all brought along our entire rucksacks with all, or most, of our luggage for the trip which we proceeded to unpack and then repack. This activity started with Nancy giving us a quick demonstration, and some tips on how to pack lightly and efficiently. After watching her pull most of her clothing for the whole two weeks out of an incredibly small bag we all set to work unpacking and then repacking our rucksacks in the most space-saving way possible.
It was then time to go over the itinerary for the trip where, for the first time, we heard exactly what we would be doing in Poland. After hearing details about the various things we will be undertaking on the trip we were all very excited and got to work setting up the hall for the parents meeting which was set to finish the day.
Once all the parents had arrived and were seated we went through the itinerary for the trip one more time for the parents with each of us telling them a little bit about what we will be doing in Poland. There was then a brief introduction of all the leaders and venturers, each of us telling the parents who we were and how we had got involved with the trip. A question and answer session marked the end of a very informative and enjoyable day and left us all feeling a new level of excitement for the forthcoming trip.

By Adam Bouglas