ILI Students: 11
ILI Staff: Alice McFarlane and Matt White.  Ernie and Lori St. Germaine visited Saturday morning to cook breakfast.  Lyle Dallman and Craig Kerr helped with transportation.
 
A big Thank You to Camp Nawakwa for use of their Bridge Builder retreat center and Faith Evangelical Free Church for use of the blue bus.
 
The magic blue bus began its journey at AVW, stopped at LDF school to pick up more students, and continued on to Camp Nawakwa.  After unloading the group played a game involving the animal kingdom and their motions while waiting for the last students to arrive.    The game required skills of concentration, coordination and quick thinking. 
 
Then the group had a discussion about what expectation everyone brings to this event.  There was a wide range of expectations, ranging from staying in tents to thinking there would be more students.  It was good to share and hear one another.  The group agreed on some attitudes that we would all practice during the weekend that would make it a great experience.  During this discussion, the staff introduced the theme for the weekend, which was, ‘Service Leads to Leadership.’
 
We had a tour of the facility, moved into rooms and had a snack.  The students brainstormed which name learning activities they wanted to play.  They chose ‘Have you ever?’  This activity gives students a chance to learn each others names and to learn similarities they share. 
 
We split into two service groups.  One group worked on preparing dinner, while the other group planned the evening activities.  The group planning the activities was asked to come up with a list of active games, get to know you games, and quieter activities for sharing time together.  They had a very impressive and thoughtful list and thought carefully about the order of the activities. 
 
 As dinner wrapped up, several students volunteered to clear other people’s plates and to help with the clean-up.  Great to see the students taking initiative.  The group gathered to play the first planned activity, a seek and hiding game.  The reverse of hide and go seek, one person hides and the group looks for them.  This was so popular we played it many times.  The students wanted to try out the new hiding spot they had found.  It was a challenge the longer we played, to find new and creative spots to hide. 
 
Those who were interested went outside to play some games in the snow, while others stayed inside to play quieter and warmer games.  The group from outside came in to warm up with hot chocolate and snacks.  There were three different games going on at one point, each group was very well mixed.  It was encouraging to see how well the students mixed and interacted with each other.  There were many other activities on the list, but we enjoyed these so well, that time ran out and it was time for sleeping.
 
We awoke to a snowy day and a delicious pancake breakfast prepared by Uncle Ernie and Auntie Lori.  Oh so tasty!  While breakfast was being prepared, the students arranged the tables and set places for everyone.  The whole group pitched in to clean up breakfast.  After clean-up, the group gathered to hear what Uncle Ernie had to share.   We began with one of the students introducing everyone else, which required a good memory.  Uncle Ernie shared the importance of knowing the history of your family and people, and how that gives you more confidence to be who you are.  He asked the students for information they knew about their grandparents and great-grandparents, their names, where they lived and what they did.  He then shared the story of his ancestors back to the 1790’s and how each of his parents came to be who and where they were.  He left the students with a challenge to learn as much as they can about their ancestors so that they could pass it on to their great grandchildren.
 
After Uncle Ernie’s departure, Matt engaged the students in a discussion about the need to know who you are in order to be prepared to lead.  The group discussed figures from history and personal experiences to emphasize what worked and how people’s knowledge of themselves led to positive experiences for the leaders and the people they served. 
 
The group then started talking about individual styles of leadership.  To have a concrete example of this, the students were asked to take a cup of M&M’s and to organize them.  Every student organized them differently; by color, in a word, shape, idea.  The students were then asked if anyone’s organization was better or more valuable than any one else’s.  The students all agreed that each way of organizing was equally important.  Next, they were asked to use their M&M’s to tell a story.  All of the stories were very entertaining and vivid in their imagination.  We had everything from a rainbow and pot of gold to people boating.  The students were challenged to see their own way of telling a story as valuable and needed.  The group showed signs of needing to move around, so after a quick snack we headed outside.
 
Once outside, the students were challenged with an exercise in serving and looking out for each other.  They were taken 60 yards from Bridge Builder and given a story line to finish.  The story was that they had crash landed in the woods and all had received injuries of various kinds and had to make it to safety together.  No one could be left behind and the group had to maintain contact to move forward.  It was a challenging time, but they cared for each other, made good progress and had fun.  Considering the weather and the snow, they did an excellent job in finding a way to move the whole group to safety.  After the successful completion of their mission the group wanted to play some games in the snow.
 
When the group came in, it was time for lunch.  The two service groups switched roles.  The lunch group decided to create some ambiance for our last meal together.  The entire group enjoyed the ‘Wilderness Café’ experience for lunch. 
 
After lunch the group decided to clean-up and then play.  We had time for a few rounds of their favorite activities before it was time to wrap-up the weekend.  As a closing, each student shared something new they learned over the weekend and suggestions for next time.  The students enjoyed their time together and getting to know each other.  Many of them wished that our time together could be longer.  One sign of a good weekend. 
 
The next 8^th grade overnight is being planned for February.

Bob Kovar, Project Director

Intercultural Leadership Initiative