Thursday, February 26, 2009
First article out about us!
The Journalist Erina Botha was publishing the first article about our sailing project in the Cape Argus - more are planned to follow!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
On Air with Soli Philander
Today, we had the chance of joining Soli Philander's show at the radio station Cape Talk to speak about our amazing sailing trip and to ask for funds for our candidates from the disadvantaged backgrounds. Dennis, the CWET president, teamleader Dayana, as well as the 2 candidates Monde and Chrissy were confidently speaking with Soli in the studio and they really enjoyed it! See below the info on the Cape Talk website:
THE SOLI PHILANDER SHOW Tuesday, February 24, 2009 2:35 PM,Ten youths sail to Burmuda on Canadian tall ship-Dennis Stevenson, the president of the NGO Cape Windjammers Education Trust (CWET) talks about the concept of sail training as an empowerment tool for youth development. He says that when these diverse groups get together there is an immense learning as they pull together to sail the ship. -Dayana Dreke, talks about the Class Afloat/CWET sailing project, where 10 young South Africans will travel 2.5 months from Cape Town to Bermuda on the Canadian Class Afloat tall ship.-Two young participants in the South African team Chrismarie Braun and Monde Sitole speak about their motivation to go on the trip, the preparation process and their expectations. Check out: http://www.capetalk.co.za/onair/heardonair/heardonair.asp?action=heardonairsearch, put in Soli Philander Show - and date: 24.Feb to find the whole info!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Testing our swim skills to get ready for the sail voyage
We had our first teambuilding event at the Silvermine pool near Muizenberg on15th of Feb, where all the candidates as well as the teamleaders had to test their swimming skills for emergency cases on board the tall ship: 200m swimming with clothes on and stay floating in the water for additional 20min - we had lots of fun and cannot wait for the next event on the 7/8th of March in Hermanus, which will be organised by the team candidates themselves!Please find below the logbook of our 2 candidates Bryan and Chrissy:
Logbook entry
Sunday, 15. February 2009, 4 pm
This morning at 10 am, we, the members of the representative SA Team all met up at the nature reserve in Silvermine. We were really surprised to find out that two members, Patrick van Wyck and Ncedo Gomba, whom we havn’t had the chance to meet yet, left the team. However we were also excited to get to know the new potential members, Monde and Brandon, who now officially belong to the Team! J
All of us, Alex (Team organizer), Dayana and Hilary (Teamleaders), the photographer, and the Team SA: Asekho, Monde, Shane, Gustav, Helen, Marx, Brendon, Felix, Andi, Bryan and Chrissy all met up at the parking lot of the Silvermine nature reserve, from where we hiked about 2.6 km to the dam. As we arrived at the dam, we got to know the two lifesavers and the Cape Argus photographer/reporter. We were given our task, which was to swim 200m in clothes and then stay afloat for 20 min. as we will need to be able to do this in case, once we are on the tallship, we fall over board. We will have to survive until the ship turns around!
The water was quite cold so most of us started to shiver after the first 5 minutes and the wind didn’t really make this better as it was even harder to ignore the cold. We kept ourselves entertained and distracted though by telling quizzes and guessing around for the answers.
The swim was from the one side of the dam, where we had dropped our stuff, to the other side and back again. We all got put with a buddy so we had to watch out for someone and that buddy had to watch out for us. This was an important exercise so we could feel safe and practice to rely on each other! After the swim, we all got together in a circle (in the water) and had to stay afloat for 20 minutes which seemed to last forever but once we got used to the cold water and the wind blowing around our ears it was quite fun. There were also lifesavers, to ensure our safety and control that all of us manage the task. However not everyone managed the swim as there were people who still need assistance with swimming so they did exercises with the lifesavers while we swam and they are currently working on improving those skills! They will continue to practice their swimming until they can do the required 200m swim and 20 min float.
We learnt that it is very important for a team to watch out for ALL team members and make sure that everyone stays together, as a team is only as strong as its weakest member! Also it is important not to forget that there is no ‘I’ in a Team, literally and figuratively because it does not really matter how strong each individual is. What matters is that we learn how to apply our strengths in order for everyone in the team to gain something! There were problems like a few people not being able to swim but this was solved very well by most other members swimming back and assisting those who needed help until the lifesavers took over and practiced with the ones who cannot swim very well yet. Our team was very tolerant though and encouraged those members that they will manage complete the task and we are all holding thumbs for those who are still working on improving their swimming skills! J
After the swimming, we were all pretty hungry so we divided the preparing of sandwiches into tasks. Alex provided all the food for us, there were French loafs, cheese, polony, cucumbers, apples and chocolates (bar one). Chrissy cut the bread, Helen cut the polony and the cucumbers. Andi and Chrissy both tried cutting the cheese but gave up after noticing that, that was maybe not the right task for them (:D), so Gustav took over (which was a better idea). The food tasted very nice and we all enjoyed our lunch!
The most exciting part for most of us was certainly getting the food. After that swim we were starving, (haha). It was also very nice to get our T-shirts and all walk around in one group with the same top on, kinda gave us the feeling that we all belong together. We are all officially part of the representative Team SA which made us very proud! And most of all, it was great to see each other again!
Bryan & Chrissy J
Logbook entry
Sunday, 15. February 2009, 4 pm
This morning at 10 am, we, the members of the representative SA Team all met up at the nature reserve in Silvermine. We were really surprised to find out that two members, Patrick van Wyck and Ncedo Gomba, whom we havn’t had the chance to meet yet, left the team. However we were also excited to get to know the new potential members, Monde and Brandon, who now officially belong to the Team! J
All of us, Alex (Team organizer), Dayana and Hilary (Teamleaders), the photographer, and the Team SA: Asekho, Monde, Shane, Gustav, Helen, Marx, Brendon, Felix, Andi, Bryan and Chrissy all met up at the parking lot of the Silvermine nature reserve, from where we hiked about 2.6 km to the dam. As we arrived at the dam, we got to know the two lifesavers and the Cape Argus photographer/reporter. We were given our task, which was to swim 200m in clothes and then stay afloat for 20 min. as we will need to be able to do this in case, once we are on the tallship, we fall over board. We will have to survive until the ship turns around!
The water was quite cold so most of us started to shiver after the first 5 minutes and the wind didn’t really make this better as it was even harder to ignore the cold. We kept ourselves entertained and distracted though by telling quizzes and guessing around for the answers.
The swim was from the one side of the dam, where we had dropped our stuff, to the other side and back again. We all got put with a buddy so we had to watch out for someone and that buddy had to watch out for us. This was an important exercise so we could feel safe and practice to rely on each other! After the swim, we all got together in a circle (in the water) and had to stay afloat for 20 minutes which seemed to last forever but once we got used to the cold water and the wind blowing around our ears it was quite fun. There were also lifesavers, to ensure our safety and control that all of us manage the task. However not everyone managed the swim as there were people who still need assistance with swimming so they did exercises with the lifesavers while we swam and they are currently working on improving those skills! They will continue to practice their swimming until they can do the required 200m swim and 20 min float.
We learnt that it is very important for a team to watch out for ALL team members and make sure that everyone stays together, as a team is only as strong as its weakest member! Also it is important not to forget that there is no ‘I’ in a Team, literally and figuratively because it does not really matter how strong each individual is. What matters is that we learn how to apply our strengths in order for everyone in the team to gain something! There were problems like a few people not being able to swim but this was solved very well by most other members swimming back and assisting those who needed help until the lifesavers took over and practiced with the ones who cannot swim very well yet. Our team was very tolerant though and encouraged those members that they will manage complete the task and we are all holding thumbs for those who are still working on improving their swimming skills! J
After the swimming, we were all pretty hungry so we divided the preparing of sandwiches into tasks. Alex provided all the food for us, there were French loafs, cheese, polony, cucumbers, apples and chocolates (bar one). Chrissy cut the bread, Helen cut the polony and the cucumbers. Andi and Chrissy both tried cutting the cheese but gave up after noticing that, that was maybe not the right task for them (:D), so Gustav took over (which was a better idea). The food tasted very nice and we all enjoyed our lunch!
The most exciting part for most of us was certainly getting the food. After that swim we were starving, (haha). It was also very nice to get our T-shirts and all walk around in one group with the same top on, kinda gave us the feeling that we all belong together. We are all officially part of the representative Team SA which made us very proud! And most of all, it was great to see each other again!
Bryan & Chrissy J
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