Moreland week 5 2018

Its week five on the program and were officially over the half way point!

Wednesday started off back at oxygen to participate in some hip hop writing. On this day we are lucky enough to work with the talented Motley and One Six. The day entails the young people picking a theme and write a verse about themselves that relates to that theme. It was great to see everyone jump straight into it to agree on the music and the theme of 'reaching our potential'. After this everyone got working straight away on the chorus, which was finished and finalised in less then 5 minutes. It was great to see how enthusiastic everyone was for this activity. Once everyone had taken time to themselves to write their verse, had some help from Motley and felt good about it, they jumped in the booth. While each person rapped their section, the rest of us completed a reflection activity, had lunch and practised for when it was our turn. Thanks to the quick skills of Motley, we were able to hear the song by the time we left and could celebrate our actions. it was a great day where the young people could express themselves, step out of their comfort zones and be rewarded with their efforts straight away.

Thursday saw us heading to Cue to canoe on the Yarra river. We started by loading the bus with the canoes, PFDs and our personal gear and set off. Canoeing is an important day on the program as it is a day that requires good communication and is quit physically demanding. Once we were at the river we paired up, dropped the boats in the water and set off. It was amazing to see how fast everyone picked up the specific strokes and techniques required when canoeing. Although arguments did erupt and we had a few hiccups in communication, the young people were able to reflect back on how/why they had bad communication and how it could be better. As a group we ate lunch on the banks of the Yarra, admiring the bats and playing some games. It was a challenging day but one that I'm sure everyone felt was worth while.

Friday was a day for bikes! we headed back to Ceres to work with Denis to deconstruct and then reconstruct some bikes. All the young people got stuck straight into it and did a lot of great work really fast. We worked all morning on taking apart bikes and building new ones to donate. It was lovely watching the young people work in pairs to builds bikes for people that are less fortunate than us. Everyone helped each other out and we were lucky enough to leave the day with four bikes that we will be later donating to a family. Friday was a challenging day but one that the young people took in their strides to work hard and efficiently to get the job done.