Working in Bukit Tinggi

Ah, had a hectic time back up in on Bukit Tinggi helping out with training. But it was fun! Started off with my lecturer asking if I was interested in becoming a facilitator for a training job. I said sure and got some details from him. Turned out the company doing the training was his wife's. Training was supposed to be on Friday, but Christine wanted to leave on Thursday evening to check out the place. So, after asking leave of several lecturers for missing class...up we went to Bukit Tinggi.

Since I've been there several times, I didn't feel as nervous as I would have expected. I know the place we're staying at, and I know the place where training was to be held. At least I won't get lost, right? First thing we did was went up to Colmar, where the training hall was. Peggy and I had been put in charge of the treasure hunt, so we went around the village looking for good spots. After that it was work all the way.

Christine has high expectations from us, and we got a lot of feedback too. It was pretty corporate to me, with all our ideas being questioned for suitability and practicality. But we managed to work out the ideas somehow and spend the rest of the night working on the preps for the treasure hunt, and getting briefed about all the other activities we'll be doing. By the time Peggy and I went to sleep, the birds just woke up. It was what, 6.30 am? And we had to wake up at 7.15 too....

But it was all right...I've had my fair share of pulling close all-nighters and Peggy isn't weak on her knees either. We got the day started setting up the hall, and greeting the clients. Then it was a matter of just going through with our itenary...helping out where we were supposed to. There were 38 participants, so it wasn't too bad. Then it after the breaks and all, it was time for the treasure hunt set-up. Due to some miscommunication, we had to check out of the hotel on that day itself (don't ask me, I have no idea what went on) so while Peggy went with my lecturer to pack up, I was running around the place sticking clues.

When it finally started, I was nervous as hell, hoping things would go well. I had been appointed runner, meaning I had to run all over the place taking pictures of groups while solving puzzles, deciphering clues and at the same time, troubleshooting. I was literally running back and forth Colmar to see what's happening at the stations, snapping pictures of the groups and looked out for the lost teams. Quite a few of them misinterpreted clues and ended up in a completely differnt place, and some even ended up in the wrong stations and missing out certain vital pieces of the puzzle. It took all I had to give them hints without telling them the answer. I think, I spent about 7 hours on my feet, and 3 of those running. I must have ran around the length of the village at least 10 times.

When it was over, they went back for debriefing, we took of the stuff we stuck around town. The clients invited us to their dinner, but since we have no room to stay in, and it would probably end late, we declined and went straight to packing. They sent us home after dinner lol.

This being my first time being part of a training job, I think it was challenging since it was a different environment. The elements of event managament were there, so I wasn't out of place, but all the previous jobs I've done where either for charity or workshops. The agenda was normally decided beforehand and all I did was help out. In this case, it felt a lot more involving since we had to plan as well, which was challenging. But I learnt a lot from the experience and had a lot of fun doing this. Overall, it was a valuable experience. I hope next time, we can do this again with a bigger team.