Day 1: New Faces, Awkward Introductions and Our First Team Challenge 🤝

So, first day of Impact Makers! 🌍 Imagine walking into a room full of people from different countries, knowing almost nobody and realising you're going to spend the next week together. A little awkward at first, not gonna lie. But we didn't really have time to stay shy because we immediately jumped into icebreaking games. We played Fruit Salad, ran around trying to complete our Bingo cards and had these short speed-dating conversations where we basically had to meet a new person every few minutes. At some point, remembering everyone's names seemed impossible, but honestly, the games helped a lot.

Later, things got a bit more personal. We talked about our expectations, fears and what we could contribute to the project. And something we noticed was that even though we came from different countries, many of us worried about similar things. Speaking English in front of everyone, fitting into the group, not knowing what to expect... all of that. We also created our own group rules and started the Secret Friend activity, where everyone secretly takes care of another participant during the exchange. A pretty cute idea, actually. 💙

Then came Mission Impossible, and well... suddenly we had to function as an actual team. 😂 We received a whole list of tasks and only 60 minutes to finish them. Everyone had ideas, people approached tasks differently, and we had to figure out who was doing what. The interesting part came afterwards when we discussed what happened. We realised that teamwork isn't just about everyone doing something. It's about communicating, trusting people and making sure nobody gets left out. Also, sometimes listening saves more time than trying to do everything yourself.

We finished with feedback, choosing our daily reporting roles and some evening games. Looking back, the biggest lesson wasn't even about the project topic yet. It was about how quickly a group of strangers can start cooperating when everyone gets a chance to participate. Pretty good start, we'd say! ✨

~Reporting Group 1