AIM:
The whole group must climb from one side of the little house, pass along the roof and come down on the other side.

METHOD/INSTRUCTIONS TO THE GROUP:

To go down the other side, the group must use the horizontal beams and must climb down.

2 people (at least) should go blindfolded.

The group has to make a choice regarding the degree of challenge involved in the exercise: either they cannot talk while crossing the house (they can talk during the preparation), or they cannot use the horizontal beams to climb up the house.

Time allowed for preparation and doing the exercise: one hour.

The group must find its own safety system.  For this they can use one rope (this cannot be used for climbing) and they have two helmets.  This safety system must include: spotting those who are climbing; protecting heads.

Trainers will spot the first one who comes down and the last one to climb up.

MATERIALS:
blindfolds
2 helmets
1 rope

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
How was it?
Did you feel safe?  Why?
(Only if group members felt unsafe, this question can be used: What happened?)

[NB: This exercise used a little wooden house in Camp Bebrusai, which was checked for safety and stability before sending 10 people over it!]

CREATING & RUNNING THE EXERCISE AT BEBRUSAI

We started with what we find important for ourselves at this moment to do.  We needed the following elements in our exercise:
- making strategies in a group
- teamwork
- physical exercise
- safety for everybody in the group
- exercise where you need the group to reach an aim

We did a brainstorm, but we were very happy that Dirk gave us the advice to look around to get ideas.....

* Deciding who does what

We looked at who wanted to be responsible for each aspect.  Andris will explain and introduce the task.  Ilza will tell the group about the safety system.  Annelies will do the reflection.  The three of us wanted to practise doing this.

* How it was

If was difficult because we had to make sure that everyone's aims are in it and it was not easy to find good ideas.... But it was fun when we reached what we wanted.  So: DIFFICULT FUN!

* Doing the exercise

The exercise was very good.  It was easier than we'd expected.  During reflection several people said that it wasn't challenging enough.  The group suggested adding something to make it more difficult, eg., we could have made the house more difficult to reach by hanging a rope.

Judging from the feedback we received, the team ran the exercise confidently.  And we were happy about the result and each member could run something and get personal feedback about what s/he did.

© Ilza, Andris and Annelies