25/2 - Building a team

The next two days will be spent in Kuching, in the Damai Beach Resort on the coast of Sarawak. It’s a beautiful area, a gorgeous beach with palm trees and seawater that has the temperature of a warm bath. It is in these surroundings that our group will be made into a team. Whether that happens or not, we’re sure to enjoy it.



I’m off to a bad start. At 7am we have to get up to do morning exercise. At 7 on the dot I leave my room, only to be greeted by Sylvia, one of the Malayan girls. ‘Hi Sander, where were you?’ I ask her what she’s talking about. It turns out my watch is still on Bangkok time, and I’m one hour behind… no morning exercise for me.



The morning session takes place in the conference room. First it’s the result of the Incredible Adventure. We’re very confident we’ll win because Chia’s planning made us save a lot of cash, and our confidence isn’t misplaced. We finish first in the race and we collect our cool prize, a T-shirt with embroidered Iban (native) patterns. We then continue by learning about group dynamics, and the Johari window, a theory which helps you to open up in a group and let people get to know you. For me it’s partly stuff I’ve heard before, and partly stuff that’s a bit too soft. In any case, later in the day we will have good fun with the term ‘opening your Johari window’…

After a delightful lunch buffet it’s time to head into the jungle to do some cool teambuilding activities. We start off by building a radio mast using rope and bamboo. The guys in our group (me included) start off by being difficult about the design, and one of the girls saves the day by actually tying a very good knot. We finish second in the contest.



Our last task for the day is to do pass through a minefield. Not quite HSE-agreeable you’d say, but it only involves hoops, long heavy pieces of wood and rope. As one of the strongest guys in the group, I get to bear the brunt of making sure all the light girls step on my knee to reach the other side. Nice.



After that it’s back to the hotel, and another nice dinner, this time at a local seafood place. Wonderful food, the huge king prawns are especially nice. When we get back, a few of us, including me, feel it’s time to swim in that lovely tropical water. It’s just the three of us at first, but it soon turns into an orgie of about 8 people when some others return from the bar with pitchers of beer. We sit in the surf drinking our beer, trying not to have it invaded by the seawater. After playing chickenfight (fun), we are challenged by Helen (nickname Hell's Bells) to ‘open our Johari windows’. I’ll leave it up to everyone’s imagination to figure out what that means.