Wingate Wilderness Therapy

 This is what me and my pack look like after spending a week in the desert... sleeping/eating/playing in the dirt everyday, only washing my hair once (if dumping water on my head and lathering up some shampoo and conditioner in my partially wet/partially dry hair counts), having no access to deodorant, and only changing my undies three times the entire week... yeah maybe that a little too much information ;) Needless to say, I get pretty dirty out there in the wilderness and coming to shower is quite the treat!

 We pack everything we bring into the desert with us on a pack on our back. We move campsites almost everyday, except for a two day layover which usually is from Sunday night to Tuesday night. Each week I try to pack lighter and lighter, because it get exhausting carrying 40-60lbs. of weight on your back every day for hours at a time, depending on the length of the hike to the next site. My first week in the field my pack pack completely fell apart and the whole boys group I was with had to stop and wait for a half hours while the Senior staff helped me to make the best of my pack and re-strap all of my belongings to my prim pack in some kind of structured way that would last the next 6 miles of our strenuous, intensely difficult night hike. It was pretty rough!

 This is my primitive pack and all of the accessories I recently added to make it more comfortable. Notice the straps are actually from a real backpack. I picked up an old beat up backpack at DI for $2 and cut off the whole back. I then secured the straps to my primitive frame (made of sticks and strips of leather) to create a little more comfortable pack. We hike about 5 of the 8 days we are in the field and when you are hiking in the hot desert, cross country, up and down crazy steep hills, in the sand, for 3-6 miles at a time, with an uncomfortable pack that weighs almost half your body weight, it is TOUGH! This is why I am continually making adjustments to improve my pack on my off shifts. It's a little more comfortable now than it was during my first rotation, but it still needs some adjusting. The shoulder straps kill my shoulders and collar bones. By about mile 3 my entire upper body is aching and it feels like the shoulder straps are ripping into my flesh and cutting it open... that means I still MUST make some adjustments to my pack! I'm determined to make it fit somewhat comfortably by the end of the summer, before I quit working at Wingate!

 Yes it's true I really haven't showered in a full week... pretty gross I know!

 This is me posing with my crazy to the max buff muscles, with knife in hand! In the field we have to carry our knife on us at all times, which I think makes us look pretty hardcore. Nobody is going to mess with me while I'm out in the wilderness baby! ;)

 This is a what is called a stuff sack. This is the bag in which I carry all of my food for the week. At the beginning of the week it extremely heavy, because I have a full food drop, which I would guess weighs at least 25lbs. or more.

 This is an army bag that I use kind of like a purse. I keep things that I need quick access to during the hikes, because it's really difficult to get anything out of my pack while hiking.

 These are some rock that one of my cute little teenage boys from the first boys group I was in game me during my training week. The top two are pieces of chert. I think it's so pretty.

 This is the pot that I keep in my food bag and I use to cook all of my meals in throughout the week. As you can see it gets blacker and blacker each week. We are now on fire ban so we are not allowed to make fires until fire ban is lifted, which they suspect won't be until the end of the summer or longer because it is so dry in the desert this year. We cook over little propane stoves and will continue to do this until fire ban is lifted.

 This is my heart pouch. Everyone that comes into the program as a student or staff receives a heart pouch. It is called a heart pouch because it is shaped like a heart. It is worn around your neck and is used to show others kind of how you are feeling each day. If you are feeling like you are in a good head space and feel open and have no quarrels with others you wear it on the outside of your shirt where everyone can see it. If you are feeling upset or experiencing some inner turmoil, you can put it inside your shirt to show others that you need some space and are trying to work through some things inside yourself. It's a cool concept.

 This is how our food is distributed to us each week, each food in its own separate Ziploc baggie.

 These are sun dried tomatoes they give us in our food drop. Nobody like them! I love tomatoes but these tomatoes taste really weird.

 Nobody is given any kind of silverware in the field (desert) so we have to make our own spoons to eat with out there. I made my first spoon and it wasn't very well made so I kept getting splinters in my tongue and in my foods. I lost that spoon, which was very sad because it was my first spoon. Bob, a fellow staff, gave me this partially finished spoon and I finished carving out the bowl. It's HUGE but doesn't give me splinters and I am happy for that!

These two pictures are pictures of a fire board. This is how all of the kids and staff bust a coal to put in a nest and blow into fire in the desert. I busted my first coal in a tandem operation during training week. I really want to bust a coal on my own before the summer ends though! It's crazy how much adrenalin I got just from busting that one coal and blowing it into fire. It was amazing!!!