Building and hiking in the mountains

When I applied for the programme I expected to encounter amazing scenery, learn wilderness skills, find out new things amout my strengths and weaknesses, meet like-minded people and just have a good time in a beautiful place. The programme gave me all this and a lot more.
I applied for the position of a team leader, so before the other volunteers arrived, I had a week-long training with the other team leaders improving both soft skills of volunteer management and learning the practical skills of trail work in the Icelandic mountains. When the volunteers arrived we were divided into teams with 1-2 leaders. During the week each team was given their own project, but we gathered all together for Friday night dinner. Arriving at the main camp for Friday night was like coming back home to all the people dear to you. Having a set project for the week enabled you to look back on Friday and see what you have achieved as a team during the week.
It was amazing to see how motivated everyone was, no matter the weather or a colder night. The teams were unstoppable and even when it was time to go, there was always someone who still wanted to give a stob just another whack with a sledgehammer.
It was heart-warming to hear all the positive feedback for our work from the mountain guides, who took tourist groups along the trails we were fixing. After all, they had a perspective of how it used to be versus how it now was.
Generally, the programme is very well organised. The other volunteers were very interesting and varied from chess player to landscape architect to stone wall builder to park ranger to programmer etc. etc. etc. with the oldest during my time being 65 years old. The food was plenty and good, and I've never eaten so many biscuits in my life.