Girls - Mentor Planning Weekend

There wasn’t much I had known about the Sweden Camp prior to the Mentor Weekend apart from the obvious i.e. a) it was a camp, which was b) to be held in Sweden. Oh, and then there was the fact that I was to be mentoring a huge group of 11-16 year olds. I. Me. Although it was something I eagerly anticipated, a certain image had flitted through my mind a few times since learning that I was to be taking on the role. An image of myself rowing a boat of half a dozen kids into a riverbank and remaining there for a good twenty minutes or so, before somehow overturning.

I’d have to make sure we’d have lifeguards.

Despite my uncertainties concerning my skills in the water sports department, I was curious to find out who would be making up my team, my “second family” for the duration of the camp.

We met on Friday evening, at Peterborough Hussaini Islamic Centre after Maghrib.

After the initial introductions (“[Insert surname here]? Oh, you must know [Insert name here], they’re my [Insert relation here]!”], we continued to bond over a meal of chana bateta and crispy spring rolls. Though I suppose I shouldn’t have expected any different, it amazed me at how easily our conversations flowed; how natural our banter was; how similar our sense of humour was, and so how frequently our eyes would crinkle with laughter. And this was within an hour of meeting eachother! After that traditional but all-important cup of chai, the real fun began: we were to officially meet “the team”.

The session, led by the admin team, began by detailing the origin and nature of the camp, followed by team introductions. This involved explaining the reasons for having applied as mentors for the camp, and for having been chosen. Our next activity took the form of quoting passages from previously submitted mentor profiles at random. My eyes met those of fellow mentors, similar expressions to my own being reflected at me in quick succession: question marks. It seemed I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t for the life of her remember reading many of these profiles!

Having learnt a little about one another, we were told to get some well-needed rest and wake up bright and early the next morning. Wishing the others luck getting sleep, I set my alarm and prayed I wouldn’t oversleep. If I did so now, who knows what would happen in Sweden!

Saturday morning saw a group of tired- but somehow still smiling- mentors helping themselves to my idea of a healthy and nutritious breakfast: cake and doughnuts. 

After asking of what had been planned for the day, we were shown a pair of brightly coloured beach towels. “Get ready, girls- you’re going to get WET!,” Mehjabeen- one of the admin- said. “We could be using waterguns!,” I squealed. One of the sisters grinned at me. “Yeah right- more like buckets of water!

To my disappointment, there wasn’t a watergun in sight, however, to our relief, we didn’t end up soaked! What followed the brief explanations of the campsite were a series of tasks designed to encourage us to work together as a team. Whereas one saw us screaming at the top of our lungs and exercising our vocal chords (don’t ask!), another required us to transform ourselves from a tangled mess to a circle of us standing upright hand in hand. It was interesting to see how- at first- we talked over eachother and took a while to achieve our aims. By the second or third task, however, we had learnt the importance of listening to one another and being willing to try out a number of different suggestions to reach our goal. The way we saw it: the more people we had, the more ideas put forward, the more likely we were to reach our shared goal.

In the beginning, it had struck me as odd that our first Mentor Weekend was to be held two months ahead of the camp. The reasons for this soon became apparent, however: we, the mentors, were going to be doing most of the planning!

Following Jamaat Namaaz and yet another delicious meal (we joked that they were feeding us well in preparation for the camp), we were back upstairs discussing our own views on what we felt the camp should include. These suggestions were divided into four main categories , with each being designated to a group. We were then asked to present our ideas to the group as a whole. With each team member having to take a small share in the presenting, it was heart warming to see those who had initially been softly spoken and a little shy, standing before us and talking with confidence about their group discussions.

Several discussions later, we departed, having assigned ourselves to a variety of different tasks involved in the planning procedures of the camp.

My mind, yet again returned to that recurring vision I’d had prior to the training. Only this time, I realised I’d missed a few things- two mentors, one standing on the riverbank, shaking her head at me while I tried but failed to extricate the canoe, the other sitting directly behind me (“Turn it ANTI-clockwise, baana!”).

And following the canoe catastrophe? Mentor #1 gaping, somehow rooted to the spot, before wading in to usher the girls to the bank, and mentor #2 struggling to keep a straight face, “You do realise I’m writing today’s Mentor diary?”

In actual fact, we had decided that we would be unable to cater for and take part in any water sports during the camp. Regardless of this, however, I had realised that as a team, we would do the job of supporting, motivating and encouraging one another whilst in Sweden. These personalities, with their own unique strengths and abilities, had been chosen to make up my “second family” for the duration of the ten days.  And as clichéd as it may sound, I don’t think I could have chosen a group of better individuals as my team members.

Shabana Walji

Sweden 2009 - Mentor Diaries - Girls