My Craziest and Most Rewarding TeamBuilding Ever at Phillip's Sanctuary

Phillip's Sanctuary

Antipolo City, Rizal

www.phillips-sanctuary.com

I always thought of myself as lampa-batchoy but that didn't stop me from wanting to try different things...yep sometimes even extreme ones. So I was one of those who voted for an outdoor teambuilding activity last July - our last one with our colleague Naeem.

After our experience in this teambuilding I was once again reminded of this beautiful verse... please pay attention that this is very different from Confucius which is a passive one(Secular teachings can be very deceiving if you don't know your Bible)... this verse on the other hand teaches you to be ACTIVE, to do good things instead of not to do bad things for example.

¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

Matthew 7:12 (NIV)

A very nice verse for the entire team!

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1st Day
The teambuilding almost became an indoor activity due to some very stringent requirements from our company but luckily Phillip's Sanctuary met all the safety requirements. We left early at work and ordered Jollibee takeout for dinner.

It was an agonizing trip as we're all not familiar of the place and the road was kinda wet and dark but as they say all's well that ends well. The place we slept into was very spacious, bathroom was tiled and clean and has all the needed fixtures that made my bathing experience comfortable. We also received some free Marang fruits from the good caretakers before we ate our breakfast.

First set of activities and games were organized by our very own CM members Rod and Zherwin... I must say they're really really good. We had a blast from the ala amazing race-relay games that got us running, doing and eating all sorts of stuffs.

2nd Day
We're requested to wake up early the next day because our day was fully packed. This time Phillip's Sanctuary assigned a game-master "Kuya JC" to our group(part of their teambuilding services) so our organizers Rod and Zherwin also got to participate in the games. First agenda after breakfast was some warm up games... wherein the second game called "Unity Walk" almost had me gasping and aching right away as the stress focused on my lower back which after having epidural shot during child-birth has become extra-sensitive.

The most challenging for me was not the 10-ft wall climb because the boys from our purple team helped me to go up the wall by pulling me... but rather the 7 low-rope course which had me fearing injury. It's also the first one that we had to accomplish a challenge individually and team effort was just timed. It required tremendous balance and arm strength which made me thankful I had gym membership prior to this activity otherwise I'll be more a wimp than I already am.

We ordered lunch from the Breakfast club which was also owned by the Pestaño Family. It was served to our hut VIP style. They have very diverse fruit-bearing trees and on the day we went there, we saw some very nice dragon fruits which were just harvested.

As the games geared on improving team relationship and camaraderie, we also had trust fall(above right), hanging bridge crossing, raft challenges, etc:). By the time we went to the water challenges, I was already enjoying myself even if I fell on the water when crossing the log(most fell anyways hehehe).

(a not-so pleasant fall from Stan on the log balance race - middle)

Everybody was so game that we even did the optional games - zipline and mudslide for Php125 each. Everybody did the mud crawl(before and after pictures above) then went straight to the mudslide. I must say the mudslide was soooo worth it! I didn't expect it would be that enjoyable hehehe. Although you need to make sure your shorts/leggings has the right fabric so you wouldn't stop in the middle like what happened to Stan which was such a bummer as he was the only one who didn't experience the exhilarating rush.

I would highly recommend our game master Kuya JC(sorry we forgot the tip kuya!). He gamely took our gorgeous pictures and was very kind and supportive. But you could guess that we had such an exhausting day so after showering, we couldn't wait to just lie down and rest. I, for one, didn't want to go out of the car anymore after packing my things because I was just oh so tired. Spirits were way up high but body was begging for rest. Hence, we all forgot the tip and also the first part of our going-away surprise for Naeem!

A once-in-a-lifetime teambuilding experience for me! I didn't feel as close to our team as I did after this activity. Thank God we all came home safe and alive.

Love You Shared Services... We'll all definitely miss Naeem's charms and life-of-the-party spirits but Aja!