This blog was written by Shelby Bean, PPI-Cyprus’ summer intern who attended the summer camp.
Throughout this years camp, the focus has been to build leaders. Trust and communication, were among the key words in each leadership session. A few of the activities included “taking away” a few senses to practice trust. In one activity, there were three groups, one was blindfolded, one couldn’t use their legs, and the other one couldn’t talk. They were all placed on an “island” throughout the room and were given “boats” (2 pieces of paper) to use. Their task was simple, everyone had to get to one island.
To many people this might seem as a simple task, but when you have each group without a sense, it requires trust and communication in order to be successful at this task. As I watched this group begin to work through the activity, it was clear that communication was more difficult then they anticipated. The group who couldn’t talk, began to feel frustrated because they couldn’t easily communicate with other people. The group who couldn’t use their legs, began to feel helpless as they could not easily move to another island. The group who was blindfolded, began to feel confused as there was a lot of commotion, but they couldn’t see what was happening. Each group had a weakness, but each group also had a strength. It took the entire group some time to realize that they each had a strength they could use. As the group who could not talk, were able to see and easily move to another island. The group who couldn’t use their legs, could see and vocally communicate with every other group. The group who were blindfolded, could vocally communicate as well as they moved to another island.
The point of this activity was to teach the meaning of trust and communication. As everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Part of being a team player and a leader is to realize, your strengths and weaknesses and trust that other team members can help get the job done.