Day 7: Do Over

Today was the last day for working on the photo project that has been consuming my life for the past several days. It was a very long, very tiring day, but what day isn’t over here? We shot the five photos we hadn’t shot yet, and we also reshot two of the photos we did yesterday. It was a much busier day, but much less stressful. We ran around finding models and props and getting locations set up. We directed, and shot, and reshot, and reshot. Now I have quite a bit of editing to get done. But the tiring and stressful part is over, so I can catch my breath. The presentations for the nature walk got pushed back until Wednesday also, which is extremely helpful.

One thing about this trip is that alone time doesn’t really happen. To have time alone, one must go very far out of their way. It’s not impossible, just harder than normal.

I’m very tired, and would like some sleep, so with that, goodnight.

Day 6: Stress

Today we hit the ground running, yet again. No more client meetings, just brainstorming and shooting. We regrouped today into bigger groups and split up the work. We separated it so that everyone was Art Director for one shoot, and everyone is photographer for one shoot. Me and the other person are now leading one group each; and within those groups we’ve split up the workload. It was by far the most stressful day yet, and had the heaviest workload. I learned a lot about leadership today. I learned what things are necessary and should be pushed, and what should be left as is. In leadership, one must pick their battles. I did not have trouble with this today; my team is great and has been a blessing to work with. With the amount of work we have had to work through I have learned a lot, even without having to go through some of the harder parts of leadership. There were a lot of situations that could have gone very badly today if I had not pushed for certain things, and backed off of others. Tomorrow we finish our last five photo shoots, then after editing them all we get a few days of rest before starting in on some other projects. But before that my other group also has our nature walk proposal, which is also a pretty big project.

After dinner tonight a bunch of us played dodge ball with several of the staffers here on campus. It was exactly what I needed after the long day. The local handyman Emmanuel, from Switzerland, made it much more exciting. He was by far the best one out of all of us. There is usually a dodge ball club that meets on Thursday nights but tonight it was pretty low key. After playing around for a couple hours I made myself a nice cup of Earl Grey and just relaxed for about twenty minutes. After that I headed down to “The Dungeon”, which is what we call the room we’ve been working in while we’re here. My nights mostly consist of editing for now, but I’m not complaining. It’s good work. I enjoy it.

I really have had a wonderful time here. It’s a lot of hard work, but in the end hard work is what I enjoy the most. I think that partly comes from my upbringing. Granted, I wasn’t raised with a camera in my hand, but hard work has never been something I’ve shied away from. It’s both a blessing and a curse. If I’m not busy, with work or school, I kind of go crazy. I can’t handle inactivity. If I’m not doing something productive I feel like I’m useless. So the work here has been very rewarding, but also very tiring.

Day 5: Frustration

Today we jumped right into it. We started off with group thinking over our ideas for a photo project. We narrowed it down to two different concepts and started brainstorming individual ideas in small groups. We had our overall themes so we started thinking of ideas for each individual part. We also put together a presentation for our client, YWAM Harpenden. After lunch me and another person pitched the groups concepts to the client. We settled on one of the ideas and after that we all figured out where to go from there. We went to do our first photo shoot of the series following the guidelines we decided on. The project is shooting a promotional image for each position available here at YWAM Harpenden. Our first position was Kitchen Manager. Me and the other person that led the presentation are heading up the project. I led the art direction for the shoot today. For all of the other shoots we have split up into smaller groups. The one today was just to show everyone how things need to be done. Three others and me are also doing all of the editing for that project.

Every night after dinner we have a reflection time with everyone from the group. Tonight we were asked to use one word to describe our day; I chose frustration. There were a couple situations today that frustrated me. But I’m managing and am happy with how the day has progressed as a whole. I’m happy with the work today. I realized today that I kind of need to lead on this trip. I’m an upperclassman? Weird.

Day 4: So It Begins

Today I planned on getting up early, a couple hours before breakfast to be exact, so of course I slept later than any other day. I got a late start this morning but still made it to breakfast all right.

Today we were introduced to the projects that we will be doing while we’re over here. The main one that we brainstormed and focused on was for a walking trail around campus and back through the woods. We brainstormed what to do with that space and separated into groups to put together presentations within the next week. At the end of the month as a group we are going to put together a proposal for the walking trail and present it to YWAM Harpenden.

After lunch we went over the other projects we’ll be doing while we’re here. We had some discussion, direction, and brainstorming about the other projects. We arrived at some definite direction for one of those projects so we can start thumb-nailing for that.

Tonight we went to the community gathering. It’s a worship service for all of the YWAM workers and the surrounding community. I do not know how many came from the community but quite a few came that work here. The worship was a little different than what I’m used to. The guy waving the flags was especially different for me, it was not at all bad, just different. I love seeing the different ways that people worship. There were a few speakers that talked about the state of the church in a sensitive location of the world and their desire to send missionaries out from that location to others places. It was intriguing to see the state of the church over there through their presentation. It was a lot of fun to get to meet some of the workers here on campus. They are always busy during the day so we haven’t really had time to get to know them well.

Day 3: Orientation

Today we had our orientation. The director of the YWAM compound talked to us for about an hour and a half and told us some about YWAM. He also told us a bit about how they do things here at the local extension in Harpenden. He told us some stories and we had a little bit of a talkback session with him also. After that we had a tour of the entire facility. There are about ten buildings on campus here at YWAM Harpenden. The facility has 48 acres; it’s a good sized campus. It took a little while to get around the whole campus. There is also a chapel and a pretty nice coffee shop on campus here.

After lunch today we all wandered around for a couple of hours and familiarized ourselves with the campus. There is a wooded walking trail, a full sized soccer field, and an old cemetery all on the backside of the campus. The main part of the compound is a road in the shape of an oval with buildings on the outside and a large grassy quad in the middle.

After that we had a little free time so a couple of my buddies and me boarded to town. We found a skate park and hung around there for a little while. Before we headed back we stopped by the grocery store and picked up some snacks. Tomorrow is supposed to be our first busy day, so I probably won’t have as much free time tomorrow.

Day 2: Discovering London

Today was a long day. We walked to a church in downtown Harpenden. It was a small building with one big room. The group we took about doubled the congregation numbers for the day. There was a baby dedication, which was very cool to see. The sermon was on Psalm 19 and the pastor talked about “who will explain it to me?” Church was optional this morning since it was our first morning so not everyone went. After church we had tea and talked with some of the members of the church. It was quite fun getting to know some of the people from the area.

After lunch we split up into groups and walked to the train station, which took us into downtown London. From that train we got on The Tube, which is London’s subway system. My group just wandered around and had an adventure for the whole day. We wandered our way to Buckingham palace. Nothing exciting was happening there. We did see another JBU student who was not on our trip there, which was pretty crazy. I said “hello” and she looked scared and kept walking.

We walked through a bunch of shops in the downtown area. We saw a man in an orange three-piece suit. We also heard a man say that he was going to stab someone. I don’t think he actually did though; he was a hobo. We eventually found a nice little pub to have lunch. I had a “U-S of A” burger and chips. It was a cheeseburger with bacon and an onion ring, and the chips were fries. It was quite delectable. We ended the trip with stopping by a grocery store and getting some UK cookies to share with the group.

It was another tiring day, but an adventure filled day. There were a lot of train rides involved. And tomorrow we have our first semi-normal day (we’re still working out a schedule).

Day 1: Jetlag

Yesterday and today blend together. We spent all day on planes and there was a six hour time change thrown in the mix as well. The plane rides weren’t bad, I’ve had longer. The hardest thing has been staying awake to keep the jet lag from affecting us. We’ve been struggling to stay awake all day. To keep our minds off of our sleep deprivation we went into Harpenden and walked around the city for several hours. After that we came back to the compound and played quite a bit of “football” with a couple guys from around the area. After football we even played some Ultimate Frisbee. Needless to say, it was quite grand.

Well, after struggling to stay awake all day I’m going to call it an early night.

P.S. (By “football” I mean soccer)