All I can say is....WOW

We are back home and it is time to reflect on another full weekend of Wood Badge training. My body is still recovering for sure. It was also an emotional time. I know this blog will be difficult for those not in Scouting to understand, but this was such a moving weekend I have to write about it.
It began Thursday evening. Several members of our Patrol had decided to arrive early, once again to avoid an early morning wake up call, long drive and a full day of training. It was a time to just sit down, talk, and get to know each other. I was glad Ter stuck around to help put up my “home” for the weekend as we had borrowed a tent so we would have two for the weekend as we are in different Patrols within the Troop of Wood Badge. We put it up pretty quickly so Ter could get over to his campsite to put up his place for the weekend. After a fitful sleep, due to the fact I don’t hear much with my hearing aids out, I woke up to the bright screen of my cell phone alarm. I had brought a second alarm to help, although it was pretty iffy it would wake me up as it was a regular alarm. The worry was waking up on time….although my Patrol would have made sure I was up. I was glad the screen on my phone did the job. The rest of our Patrol would arrive in a little bit to set up for the weekend.
After setting up camp we went to Gilwell Park to have our opening ceremony for the weekend. It was very moving as we honored the victims of 9/11. We lowered the flags to half staff and each individual patrol did a one minute salute to honor the many who lost their lives that horrific day. It brought tears to my eyes to think of the loss to so many. From there it became kind of a whirlwind of learning about leadership and how it relates to Scouting. We hurried back to our campsite for a quick lunch and back to work. We regathered to have Patrol and Course pictures taken. Afterward it was a quick trip back to the campsite to get out of our Class A uniforms because of the heat. There was another presentation and we proceeded to planned team building games. This is where I found out the hard way I hadn’t eaten enough at lunch. A little over half way through there was a feeling of , “oh, oh where am I”, which is never a good thing. My sugar was crashing along with some dehydration coming on. One of my fellow Patrol members saw what was going and and told me not to lock my knees as I looked like I was going to pass out. Thank you, fellow high flying Eagle! The person leading the game told me to get some water from his bottle. I finished up that game and thankfully the next game was a sit down one in the shade. The last game I started to pass out again, but was then reminded I had some candy in my pocket and got some water. That little bit of sugar got me through to suppertime. The day ended with a great firebowl program with all Patrols participating. We finished up the day and kind of fell into bed. I don’t know about my fellow Eagles but it took awhile for my mind to settle down.
Then too quickly came Saturday morning when we had to be up and moving so we could be to Gilwell again for the flag raising ceremony scheduled for 7:30. I turned over my Patrol Leader responsibilities to the next person. After the morning sessions and lunch, each Patrol did a fifteen minutes presentation. Ours happened to be on hypothermia and went over quite well. We were finally able to work on the biggest part, our tickets. These are tasks we each choose and have approved to complete to get our beads…the ultimate goal of Wood Badge. These can be a challenge to write up. Our battle was finally won, though. Throughout the day our plan to have campfire and cracker barrel with the Patrol sharing our campsite grew until EVERYONE in the course was invited. It was a very emotional time as each person spoke about their time at Wood Badge.
Sunday was tear down the camp time. I kind of surprised myself as I took down the tent. The only thing I needed help with was getting the tent folded and put in the bag to go home. A great thanks goes to another member of my Patrol for helping with that part of taking down the site. Our things were then hauled down to the parking lot and put in our vehicles for the trip home. A ride down to the parking lot was greatly appreciated!! Then came chapel which this time was run by the Patrols. A very nice dinner, served by the Wood Badge staff, was greatly appreciated. One more presentation was done using the film “Mr. Holland’s Opus” as a background. A wonderful dessert was served. It was then back to Gilwell one more time for the closing ceremony. It was once again quite an emotional time as we walked from staff member to staff member saying our thank you’s to them on the way out. It was now time to say a brief good-bye to everyone until we meet again.