Throughout this seven months we had regional reconnects with the people in our immediate cohort. Our last one was about two weeks ago, the Garopaba cohort went into the woods with ex-military men to do an overnight survival course.
This photo is us heading there and before seeing how intense the course leaders were.
After walking up a long dirt road with the instructors saying there’s only four more hills before we get there and us sharing glances as we were unsure if they’re kidding or not. We arrived to this beautiful lookout of Garopaba, realized they were kidding and learned how to use compasses.
Afterwards we went into the forest to learn how to make fires, we learnt the many different ways and tools that you can use, and that unfortunately you can’t just rub sticks together for five minutes to make a fire.
We proceeded to learn what was on the blanket, what food you could easily find and how to make use of your resources. They had caught a rat in a trap and then fed us a little bit of raw meat, we were convinced we had just eaten raw rat but they only said that to see our reactions. They also had a rabbit in a cage and talked about how you can find a lot of rabbits in the wild and if you haven’t eaten for a couple days and it’s between you and the rabbit you eat it. We were then convinced that we were about to kill and eat the rabbit.
A group photo as we were filled with relief that we weren’t going to kill and eat the rabbit.
Unfortunately, as we were learning first aid and medical information, Kaya got into an accident and had to be carried away. (We were just practicing, no fellows were actually injured in the process)
After a night of walking in the dark holding onto a rope and then being scared to death as people jump out at you to learn the importance of having a flashlight. Cramming five people into a tent, sleeping in the same clothes and being forced to wake up at 6am, we saw the morning view of Garopaba and still managed to have smiles on our faces.
Overall it was the best regional reconnect we have and was filled with laughter and new experiences and to top it off we have certificates to prove it.
