7 February 2014, Friday

Today was the day of the actual catholic retreat 2014. It all starts in the Marketing Lobby, where we all gathered to get ready to leave at 12:30 p.m. I was assigned to be in the same bus and take care of grade 10 together with Patrick, Jonathan and Tiffany. Amongst us, we had to set jobs equally. So we all agreed that Tiffany would be documenting the entire event, Jonathan would be taking care of our luggages, Patrick would keep watch of the students and i would be taking attendance. It was teamwork getting everyone set and making sure everyone was present and transported safely to the bus and to the retreat place. I realized that when it comes to a large crowd, it is important to always have yourself heard when making announcements to the students. It is also important to take self initiative to help others even when you are not used to it. We planned to reach the place by 3 p.m., but we ended up reaching the place by 2 p.m. Which was good, our trip there was not long and this allowed all of us to settle down and rest before starting the sessions. Because this was our assigned jobs, we had to make sure that we would do our work before putting our 'free time' or 'playing time'. I had difficulties in giving out the grade 10 name tags, as they were all tangled and mixed up. But with the help of my friend, we were able to sort out the name tags and properly hand it out. We also circled the area to find locations for our respective amazing race positions and we did it greatly, as we all looked out for great different places. The night patrol was quite tiring, because we had to wander around making sure everyone is at their respective rooms. This made me realize that when you are doing something, you need to make sure you do it well and to the maximum. Meaning, you do not just leave it, you have to end the day making sure you did all the things you needed to do. Overall, the day was great, things went fine, everyone were at their places and the students enjoyed it.

5 February 2014, Wednesday

Today was our last meeting before the actual retreat. We had a lot of things to discuss and finalize. The most important thing was studying the schedule and our respective jobs. I was assigned to be in bus number 1 along with Patrick, Jonathan and Tiffany, with the supervisor Ms. Maria. We also finalized the attendance list and where students will be assigned to. We also discussed regarding the daily activities and what we would be doing during the sessions, and also the amazing race clarifications and preparations. There were a lot of things i learned today. First, was that having a large number of students, organization and most importantly, familiarity of the students is important. This is because you will be taking care of them and taking full responsibility for them while they are under your care. Knowing where you will be at all times and where the students will be at is important because you want to make sure that you are staying according to schedule and following the rules of the retreat. The second thing i learned was that being a part of this means you need to always be prepared for things before hand. I am usually lacking in preparations so now i know i need to work on that. For example, buses should have plastic bags for trash and tags so that we would know where to go. We were also given night patrol and jobs to wake up earlier than the others. The third thing i learned was that being the host of the event, you must always keep yourself working to ensure that all work is met. We had to decide on who takes the night patrol and where. This, we had done together smoothly, as we would be doing our patrol wherever our respective rooms will be. We also had a last minute explanation and finalization of the amazing race: place, ribbon colors, grouping, instruction, sequence, rules and clues. After everything was settled, we just had to wait for the actual date. 

17 January 2014, Friday

The meeting was focused on three things: the amazing race, the things that were needed to be bought, and the things that were needed to be made. Everyone was there and were giving out the best ideas in order to make the amazing race work: we were able to design the posts and who were allocated on each posts, the sequence in which each team would be playing, the games, the rules, and the prizes. We were also able to decide, based on the games played, the things needed to be made and bought. I know that money is limited, so we had to make sure our games and our activities were as efficient as possible and that it would not need too much spending of money. We all also had to have self initiative in order to run the retreat, because we would be the one helping organize the things there. It was also important that we familiarize ourselves with our committee members and our students and teachers involved. Because of this, we all planned on visiting the retreat location in order to familiar ourselves with the surroundings so that we would have future planning ahead for changes and for adapting.

23 October 2013, Wednesday.

I met the 'Frater' today, and i had a short picture of how the retreat would look like. I also met my fellow colleagues: Felicia Dhanika, Patrick Mailoa, Jonathan Willar, Claudia Pratadaya, Stacey Agustino, Eldric Kieran, Aleks Khristoffer and our leader, Steven Reynaldo. Along with supervisors: Ms. Maria Gosal, Ms. Alma and Mr. Anton, and the parent Tante Teresia. For this years retreat, the theme is 'Pelayanan dan Kasih.' We talked about rearranging and making fixed our schedule for the entire trip and what the sessions would be like. We came up with several ideas, but the most important one would be that in order to show our love and appreciation to parents, on the day that students will go home after the retreat (Sunday), students will perform something to their parents. I think this is a great thing, we as children, give time to just show to our parents how much we love them and how important they are to us. At the same time, parents are able to know that we do love them and we do appreciate them even though we may be horrible at showing it. One difficulties we faced today was how to arrange the sessions just in the right time for breaks and lunch breaks to happen. So i know how difficult time management and arranging is and that is something i, and all the others, needs to make sure we can handle and solve.