First-ever Outdoor Adventure
The older children did really well on their first-ever outdoor adventure camping trip with Outward Bound, in the beautiful mountains of Transylvania! Outward Bound uses outdoor education through cooperative exercises and games, challenging experiences (often at dizzying heights with climbing equipment) and expeditions in nature, to teach kids responsibility, teamwork, and determination in completing a task.
An AMURTEL Family Legend
The kids were really excited to take part in this expedition. It is an adventure that was a legendary annual tradition for previous groups of teenagers growing up in AMURTEL Family. As we saw that it really helped prepare them for life, by gaining problem-solving skills, confidence, and team-working skills, we were very happy for the new group of children to benefit from this valuable experience. However, they were at least three years younger on average than the previous groups – so they were really getting an early start.
Indeed, Andreea’s backpack was almost bigger than she was! The instructors thus shortened some of the hikes and challenges to be age-appropriate, but have the same benefits for the participants. Hopefully, we will have many years ahead of us to really get used to all of the challenges and games.
Bear watch!
The experience empowered the children to take on responsibility, make decisions, and solve problems for themselves. They were responsible for organizing the equipment, reading the map to guide and orient the group and cooking. One of the most challenging tasks was keeping a fire going throughout the night to keep the numerous bears in the region away from the campsite. This was organized in shifts – and amazingly, nobody whined and complained about it – even when at 3 am it began pouring rain and Dani had to get up together with one of our instructors. The preparation of the campsite also involved very organized, concentrated work outside as a team.
Cat-woman Emerges!
The rock climbing experience was another amazing moment – at first Alina, watching the boys get set up with the equipment said “Is this obligatory? Because I am not doing it.” But when she saw Nicoleta go up just as high as the boys, she was inspired and decided to give it a try, turning into a real cat-woman herself and making it even higher than George!
They also did a great job at constructing rafts which then they had to “race” back and forth in a small lake and jumping into the lake from a height, though our very macho George got scared and took almost a half-hour to make the leap… We also had a tower building competition: we had to build a tower of plastic cartons in pairs. George and Dani were the champions getting all the way to ten boxes, but everyone was brave enough to give it a try. The two Didis made it to only 6 boxes, on the other hand.
Preparing to Sail
The name of Outward Bound has an interesting history. It comes from the phrase that captains use when the ship is ready to sail on the seas – it is a metaphor for preparing youth for life. Indeed, we hope that through these memorable experiences, the children gain the skills that will make them well prepared to be successful as they grow up into young adults.
If you want to help the children of AMURTEL Family have more such experiences and to provide them a safe home, good meals and help in their education and development, you can find out how to become a sponsor by clicking the green button below.