Living in a Mobile Community:

Helping youth to believe in themselves and supplying them with the tools and knowledge necessary for them to BE the change they want to see in the world is incredibly empowering. Performances are the key focus on this journey and as a result are essential in keeping a team together and helping us to grow as individuals.

To begin, many workshops developed for Otesha are designed by individual members of the team. This type of independent creation and contribution to the project helps to enhance the skills and experience of each participant. Presenting these workshops along with our theatrical performances leads to a dramatic rise in individual confidence levels. As a large focus to team meetings (the other component of 'group living' will be discussed later) our continual preparation, debriefing, and evaluating assured us that we were genuinely committed to the cause and that we were constantly evolving into something stronger and more powerful. This focus is important to the success of a team. In addition to about a million peanut butter and jam sandwiches, what gets teams across the country is the idea that we are making a difference. This idea is inspiration in its purest form.

Notes from past tour member Katharine Ryan

Practical Concerns

Riding on hope is a good start, but there are other considerations. Our time at UBC farm allowed for all of us to get to know each other better, to establish goals and expectations for the journey, and to prepare ourselves in everything from bike safety to captivating a young audience with unstoppable energy.

When we finally set out onto the road, every Otesha member was required to carry their personal gear, except for larger tents that could not be separated between tent mates. Presentation materials and audio-visual equipment, along with cooking and food supplies were carried by our Honda Hybrid Civic, personified and referred to lovingly as 'Zinga'. Packing and repacking Zinga was definitely an ongoing challenge and it would have been difficult to cross the country without this support. Zinga principally had one driver (the wonderful Kathleen Wright) and in addition to transporting necessary supplies, she was also useful in carting injured or sick people, allowing us to secure accommodation in less planned sections of our route and perform various administrative duties. Zinga also allowed for Otesha to present in multiple locations at once, in areas that would have been otherwise impossible for Otesha's cyclists to get to.

Money was another important consideration. Since most of Otesha's participants contributed to planning the project prior to departure time, a number of sponsorship, donation and accommodation opportunities were important to keeping our costs low. We also relied on kindness along the way. Often we approached supermarkets for donations of food in keeping with the collective mandate of the team: vegetarian food with an organic, and or local source, with the least amount of packaging as possible. If food was destined for the landfill, we were often more flexible with our mandate. In so far as accommodation is concerned, we were often so exhausted at the end of the day that we slept easily in church basements, school gymnasiums, backyards, campgrounds, draughty cabins, even a curling rink. Resourcefulness and a willingness to ask others for what you require were important skills for all of us. We also learned that it was important to respect the rules of those accommodating you, regardless of how similar or dissimilar they may be from your own or that of the team.

Ground workers were also saving graces. Travelling with us in heart and spirit, they took care of important tasks that would have been near to impossible on the road. Loki Designs developed and maintained our website, posters and presentation materials. Meanwhile, Deirdre Sieden was responsible for coordinating media relations, preparing schools and camps for our arrival, as well as securing accommodation and presentations where there would otherwise have been gaps in our route planning. Having others to help with the more technical aspects of the project allowed for Otesha coordinators and participants to focus on the more immediate tasks that presented themselves on the road.

Our primary goal while on the road was to get the Otesha message spread as thick and liberally across the country as possible. In order to do this we needed to focus on several key issues as a mobile community:

1. Sharing leadership and fostering the personal development of each member of Otesha through a rotation of responsibilities.
2. Ensuring adequate time for sleep and rejuvenation and respect for others needs in this department.
3. Continually reminding ourselves of our goals and evaluating our effectiveness as a team in order to become more proficient.
4. Locating a balance between work and play and keeping things positive- Each of us growing as individuals as a direct result of our involvement and commitment to the team.

Rotation of Responsibilities

Otesha was lucky enough to be graced with the company of several engineer-minded participants who honed their skills in the creation of several complex chore-wheel structures that have certainly gained a place in the Otesha archives. Initially, each team member was given a daily and weekly task. Additionally, several members volunteered themselves for a monthly responsibility. Daily tasks included wake-up call, cooking, washing-up, packing Zinga, and site-clean-up. Weekly tasks involved presentation material preparation, menu planning, planning fun and spontaneous interludes throughout the week, writing up evaluations from presentations, facilitating meetings, a sensitivity person (who supplied hugs and backrubs combined with the more serious role of mediation), journal and web update writer, a route planner's assistant, and a wheel enforcer who was responsible for making sure that weekly tasks were completed by the day off, at which point the wheel rotated. Monthly tasks were often facilitator-based to assist with the weekly responsibilities, including finances, presentation write-up and an e-journal facilitator, to name a few.

The daily wheel eventually evolved into a 'super-squad' arrangement. Oteshaites were divided into groups of four or five members. In turn, these teams would rotate each day and amongst themselves they would complete all necessary daily duties. This arrangement proved very successful, as individuals had to work together to achieve something. Quite often team members would divide themselves and take care of either morning or evening responsibilities. In this way, whilst the morning proponent of the super-squad were busy cleaning up the site, washing dishes, and packing Zinga, the afternoon crew could get on the road and get to the evening destination in ample time to prepare dinner and complete the remainder of the chores. The wheel, version 3.0, remained integral to organizing weekly tasks for individuals.

Rejuvenation

Despite Otesha's busy schedule, we decided early on to ensure that an opportunity to sleep eight hours per night was possible. We scheduled our almost nightly meetings following dinner and allowing for a quiet time that most often happened at 11:00pm. The weekly sensitivity person worked to enforce this time period.

In lieu of the intensity of the project and living in such a close knit, moving community, finding personal time and space was very important. Otesha enjoyed a day off, approximately, every six days. This was a time to spend the day as your own in whatever manner you chose to. Days off were about personal choices while the rest of the time was about making choices and taking actions as a team, and for the team. The evening before the scheduled day off was often understood as a free evening and the night of the day-off generally encompassed a meeting.

Many Otesha members also took time out. It could have been for a day, a weekend, or even a couple of weeks. Some had weddings or graduations to attend, others wanted to take a side route and do some travelling on their own or visit friends or relatives. Often this meant a rejuggling of daily and weekly tasks, but nothing that the team could not handle. It was always refreshing and exciting to welcome somebody back to the team. More importantly, it was always an opportunity to affirm how powerful and loving the Otesha family had become.

Evaluating Ourselves

Meetings were an everyday event of Otesha, many taking us into the early hours. It was all about taking a step back and making things better. We had meetings on every conceivable topic from revamping our education materials to deciding whether or not we should eat cheese and on what terms. Making decisions that were comfortable for all group members was important. Consensus was an ultimate goal for The Otesha Project, but something all together difficult with the constraints of the human attention span and a twenty-four hour clock. We realized early on that discussing every crumb of our existence together would be counter-productive and the establishment of meetings with voluntary go-arounds, timed discussions, pre-planned agendas, and delegated small-group work during meeting time, were important changes that we made. Having a different person to facilitate meetings each week also helped keep things fresh. By July, the weekly tasks of fun-planners became increasingly important during meeting time to keep us alert, energized, and productive. It is also worthwhile to emphasize that our meetings were as much about improving the impact of the project as they were about building and maintaining a strong and functional mobile community. Occasionally, we had feeling checks, where we would go around the circle and voice how we were doing as individuals. This was an effective way to remind ourselves that we are all different human beings and yet we were all brought together for the same reason: Otesha.

Positively Level Three!

When the Otesha team self-selected themselves well before the onset of the project, they were asked to do so with an understanding that they would put more into it than what they would get back. The trick to this equation is that hard work has never been as much fun as Otesha. The Otesha team had many an impromptu dance party, singing session, soccer game, community garden party, roadside challenge, cycling dare, intimate tent chat, on the spot birthday celebration, massage train, the best talent show ever to be performed, a daily tradition of sharing a lesson learned and a favourite part of the day, the most creative wake-up calls to hit the universe and the beautiful tradition of an affirmation circle that assured anyone leaving the group that they were amazing and would be deeply missed. In keeping with Otesha's message, we were simply being the change that we wanted to see in the world. We approached everything we did with genuine enthusiasm and with no fear of embarrassing ourselves. As well as riding on hope, a sense of humour was invaluable to all of us.

Parting Reflections

Since the Otesha Project's first trek came to an end in Cornerbrook, Newfoundland in mid October 2003, the community is still very much alive. By pedalling across the country with a common goal and a commitment to being real, honest, and supportive with each other, the journey was a very positive one. Ask any member of Otesha and they will tell you that it is overwhelming to describe the experience in full to their friends, family, or anyone who was not there themselves. Many of those who visited Otesha, if only for a day or a week left as changed people. Imagine if you will the power of multiple months of living and breathing the Otesha dream.

Many of us have reflected on our ability to recall each and every ride in poignant detail¿every smile and laugh, each favourite moment of every day, each lesson learned, every flat tire and speedy downhill, every grain of sand caught between our toes, and every awesome youth that knew they could make a difference. Our days were crazy and full, some might even say exhausting, but we often had to pinch ourselves to believe that we were overflowing fountains of energy and determinism. At the rate of twenty kilometres an hour, the world is a beautiful and fascinating place and it is here that Otesha became a family.