Dienstag, 31. Januar 2012

Volunteering at the Opti Worlds in Napier


On the 2nd of January I took the plane to Napier to volunteer at the Optimist World Championship 2011. I spent ten days there and helped out in the GPS tracker area.First I flew from Kerikeri to Auckland, where I had to wait about 2 hours before I could catch the plane to Napier. At 7.30 pm I finally arrived and was a little bit nervous to meet the host family, in which I would stay for the next days. I didn’t know for who I was looking for...I just knew the name of the family. I must have looked pretty lonely and lost. At the end I got picked up by the three children, aged 13-17. They were very friendly and I immediately stopped feeling nervous and I relaxed. We drove to town for dinner and went back later to their house with Pizza and afterwards we watched a DVD. Late in the evening their parents came home from a party and I could talk to them before I went to bed.  They were very nice and I was so happy to stay at their house.

The next morning started very early, because we had to be at the sailing club at 7.30 am. We had to switch the GPS trackers on, pack them each in a waterproof bag and put them in a bigger bag for each of the 49 countries. After this job was done, we went out on a boat to watch the races. It was so exciting to be so close! I’ve never thought I could even go on a boat! 


I knew quite a few of the participants from last year in Malaysia and from earlier Optimist Regattas in Europe, but on the first day I didn’t have the chance to talk to them…                                                             
We came back in the evening and had to collect all the country bags and take all the GPS trackers out, dry them and switching them off. Our last job was to charge them, because they would need to have a full battery the next day. Quiet tired we were back home at 8.30 pm, after dinner I went straight to bed.

The next day began pretty much the same and in the afternoon we watched the Team Racing on the water. On the 3rd day was a free day for the sailors. Most of them had a look around New Zealand, went training on the water or sailed the Fun race, where I helped out. I was on a boat, which got used a mark. It was a long day on the water with a lot of sun and I was very tired in the evening. The next days I spent quiet a lot of time with the Swiss Team. I could speak Swiss German with a friend of my sailing club and French with the others. I was surprised, my French was still quiet good and fluent. =)

The weather became worse and worse and we had a lot of heavy rain, but the time ran and World Champion became a girl from Singapore. The last day I had a look around Napier and packed my bag. In the evening I went to the prize giving and enjoyed the last evening with all the others and I used the time to talk to old friends and had a great time.

On the last day I helped to pack everything together, (so much work!), it took us about 3 hours!!      My flight was in the late afternoon, so I had still some spare time, which I used to go swimming and relaxing in the sun. For 2 hours I had the chance to go sailing, which I used of course. I took an Optimist and had a great time out sailing in a nice breeze. It was the first time I sailed Optimist again since I stopped last January. It was a very awkward feeling, but everything came automatically and it was as I never stopped. I really enjoyed being back on an Optimist and I was really surprised, how well I did, but the time ran and I had to go back to get ready. After saying goodbye to my host family, I went to the airport.  

It was a great experience and very nice to meet all the people and being a part of the whole Volunteering Team.




Keine Kommentare:

Kommentar veröffentlichen