Learning How to Cook Rice-Personal Narrative
During my Duke of Edinburgh Training weekend spent at Tow Ford
training centre I learned a great many skills that will stay with me
for the rest of my life. I learned how to work effectively in a team;
how to pitch a tent, and how to navigate my way around uninhabitable
and inhospitable terrain (Longformacus) using nothing but a compass
and map. However, the most valuable lesson I learned from this weekend
was how not to cook rice!
It was the first night. Mr Walker had told us all to prepare a storm
cook, which meant cooking inside the tent as if it were raining or
blowing a gale outside. This was to be practice for the real thing as
we may well encounter conditions like that and we would still have to
eat.
The other two `tent groups` had gone for simple, easy-to-prepare meals
like Super Noodles. My group, full of confident (foolish) people,
decided we would have a proper meal. We decided to cook chicken curry
and rice. We had brought with us three cans of chicken curry (each can
serves two people) and a full bag of rice. This was to feed four.
My job was to fill the kettles with water so I marched off to collect
water from the `centre`. I thought to myself, “They’ve got some nerve
calling it a centre. It’s not much bigger than a shed and it’s only
got two toilets and a sink.” I began to fill the kettles, which
couldn’t hold enough water to drown a rat, however, the water seemed a
good colour to poison a rat so maybe it would have some use. The
`water` was a rusty brown colour. We were told it was drinkable but I
wasn’t so sure. Unfortunately, we had to drink it, as that was the
only water available for miles. I showed the `water` to the group and
they reluctantly filled up the pot with the sickening substance. Alex
then emptied most of rice into the pot with the water.
Halfway up it was beginning to look doubtful, the wind was picking up and everyone was getting out rain gear to prepare for the storm. I voiced my doubts to Phil and he said we might as well keep going until the lighting got too close. So we did. The thunder grew in volume and the echoes magnified the noise to a dull roar sometimes. Then suddenly it began to ebb. The wind died down and lightening came less frequently. I exchanged relieved looks with Phil after a bit, but kept the pace up--I didn’t want to take chances. Eventually it hit us, but by then it was nothing more then a heavy rain. We kept moving, if slower, and made it over the ridge with no other problems. That night I enjoyed the meal a little more and slept a little deeper realizing how much is important that easily goes unnoticed until something threatens to take it away.
at the task before me. My involvement in team sports has taught me the importance of
My achievement of becoming literate in both English and Spanish, after overcoming a myriad of obstacles distinguishes my literacy history. Writing was one of the things I didn’t like to do as a child. I always thought writing was a waste of time and that I wasn’t going to need it in life. Even though I didn’t invest much time writing, I was one of the best writers in all my classes, probably because I was very dedicated in the other subjects and I loved reading adventure books. I learned how to read and write by the age of four, since in my native country “the Dominican Republic”, kids are enrolled in school at the age of three; usually parents start their child’s education at home before that age.
As the dull scent of chalk dust mixes imperceptably with the drone of the teacher's monotone, I doodle in my tablet to stay awake. I notice vaguely that, despite my best efforts in the shower this morning after practice, I still smell like chlorine. I sigh and wonder why the school's administration requires the students to take a class that, if it were on the Internet, would delight Mirsky (creator of Mirsky's Worst of the Web), as yet another addition to his list of worthless sites. Still, there was hope that I would learn something that would make today's first class more than just forty-five wasted minutes... It wouldn't be the first time I learned something new from the least likely place.
All I could remember on my journey to literacy was my concern over my brother and sister’s ability to read and write including solving math problems. That did not really motivate not to become literate; I was extremely playful as a child. What I am able to remember is my first day of school, I cried like a baby when my mom dropped me off. I soon began to grow out of my baby stage and school became really interesting. Even though it was not as hard as it is now, the value that pushed me to be literate was how my teacher was able to discipline students if they didn’t give the best to their education.
Which left our team wondering if we would have a chance to win. At that moment I learned team work we went to our first offensive huddle and we just all new that we had each other’s back. I think it set into we went to score 42 points to beat our foe by a lot which was just showed it. All of the coaches told us after the game the same thing they always told us that teamwork is shown on the field we showed it on the field. After leaving football and looking at what all we did it definitely showed when I came in I was all about me not anyone else but it showed me you are way better in a team than alone. I would also say it help me in my job and in school working but with your co-works also peers it will make everything easier. It also showed I think when I was doing
I have helped me to become a better communicate and listen. I have learned to interact with parents, administrators, school faculty and others. As a teacher, I have learned to be compassionate towards others. I have learned to have different ways and techniques to solve a problem. I learned to always have second plan and to think outside the
...They learned how to work together as a team, and how to share ideas and think outside of the box. As the leader of the entire effort, I also met with the team members who did not stay involved with the team to understand what could the team or I have done different to make them feel closeness or cohesiveness with the others.
improved me to over look on my mistakes. Before I would never go back and
In turn, I benefited from further improving my ability to work as part of a team of professionals and I gained immense confidence practicing medicine in an evidence-based environment.
This past summer I engaged in my first job, on which I was working on a fishing charter. They taught me to master new skills for not just fishing, but also great general strategies. Not only did I learn skills that are necessary anywhere I go, but
In 1995, I decided to volunteer as a missionary for my church. On the application form, there was no space for suggestions as to where in the world I would like to serve as a missionary. Church leaders assign missionaries to the place they feel we should go. I was surprised with the assignment to serve in Taiwan, speaking Mandarin Chinese. I had no previous experience with Chinese people or their language, so I felt fortunate that the church provides 2 months of intensive language training before the missionary even gets on the plane. During my 2 months in the language-training center, I found out just how different Mandarin Chinese is from my native language. The time went by quickly, and after obtaining a very tenuous grasp on the basics of Mandarin, I got on the plane and flew to Taiwan. Upon arriving there, I was assigned a companion who had been in Taiwan for just over a year and a half. From my first day in Taiwan, I was expected to dive headfirst into the task of teaching people about the church. I found that although at the Missionary Training Center I had learned to put together basic sentences, there was a whole other level of the language that I still needed to consider—the discourse level. The pursuit of clear and fluent discourse has been a focus of mine ever since. I always hoped that I would eventually "pick up" the finer points of Mandarin Chinese purely through contact with the people. The church did provide us with some study aids. However, these study aids amounted only to vocabulary lists and a few grammar hints which were either very basic or not altogether accurate. I discovered a trend, which has been accurately pointed out by Bourgerie (1997:107...
I learned my strengths and weaknesses along with how to overcome failure. When I accidentally
my hard work ethic. It taught me that to be able to work in a team