Silent PBL

“The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak”, Spinoza, Dutch Philosopher, 1632-1677.  

This PBL seemed a great new challenge: a week of complete silence, living with a group of 10 students and a teacher in Heggnes, a Norwegian old house from 1900. Isolation, nature and muteness were the start. However, what was presented as a project meant one of the most meaningful experiences of my first months in RCN and from it I learnt valuable concepts that I will never forget.

It was October, and in Heggnes I contemplated my first snow in Norway.  

Next to the fjord, in the middle of the forest, with the waterfalls, the rainbow in between the constant changes of weather, the water.... I appreciated every single element that nature was providing.

The aim of this project was to learn about how to live together with a group with no use of verbal communication. For 5 days, we should organize ourselves and the duties in the house, developing other activities together, and strengthening cooperation.

The arrival to Heggnes was the first challenge. The weather conditions were not the best for a boat trip... and the storm made it difficult to arrive to shore safely.

After many trials, we managed to get close enough to land so that someone could jump and moor the boat to the quay. Mariano, our teacher, jumped, but his foot got stuck in one of the ropes and he was really close to fall into the water. Luckily one of the students held him on time and avoided the fall. The boat driver kept giving us instructions of how to go down while the storm and the waves made the boat go up and down. But he could just speak in Norwegian! After minutes of adventure, we managed to go down safely.

The days were pleasant and enjoyable, and our main activities ranged from reading, writing, playing games, going for walks, cooking, cleaning...and of course sleeping!! It seemed that we left back on campus the concept of stress and time pressure.

Heggnes had the commodities characteristics of its time: made of wood, with no bathroom, no heating system or tap water. To get some water, we needed to go out to the natural fountain, water coming down from the mountain. We had to boil this water in order to make it drinkable, but for the washing, cold water will make 

this simple duty something painful.

It was cold, really cold! And we couldn´t take off our thermal underwear in the whole week, since it was even colder inside the house than outside the house.

But to my understanding, this lack of facilities was also part of the challenge of this PBL, and we learnt that the privilege of having running tap water in our houses, or a heating system are real advantages that not everybody appreciates.  

The impediment of being mute was not as hard as I expected. The hardest moments were on the first day, when we were getting use to new forms of communications, and we couldn´t set our minds apart from the impediment.

Frustration arose when trying to explain for minutes and minutes a really simple concept. There was also a danger with unconscious moments like saying: - It´s so cold, when you just wake up, or a simple –Ay!, when you hit yourself whit the corner of the table.

I also felt very impolite not being able to say “thank you” or “sorry”.

Before the PBL started we were told that the silent could be broken as soon as we could see the boat coming back to pick us up. Then we could start shouting.

That was a really strange feeling! After almost a week, we heard our voices differently, we heard other people´s voices differently too and you find their accents weird.

And the most curious case is that once talking was allowed, we didn´t want to talk!! And we remained silent 

most of the time on our way back to the school.

When I look back and evaluate this experience I just hoped it would have been longer!!

Silence around gave us peace and a rest from the stressing and always busy life on campus. Also living in this traditional house with all its peculiarities was my first approach to Norwegian culture.

The surroundings of the house were just amazing, and a glance outside the window the perfect postcard. I learn to appreciate the small details of nature, and be thankful for them.

I also observed how body language can be really influencing in our communication, and how most of the times, our speeches are full of useless words. We learnt to work as a group, how to solve conflicts without arguments or fights, and how to be supportive just with a look.

I learnt a lot about my companions there, and long walks in silence brought me closer to them than what hours of conversations can mean.

As Margaret Lee Runbeck said “Silence makes the real conversation between friends. Not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts”.