Second Briefing - Just like the first, but a little bit louder...

So this weekend found all the 2014 GOLDies (i.e. everyone doing a GOLD project this year) at Bramhope Scout Campsite, just North of Leeds, for our second briefing. We arrived scattered throughout the evening, with those of us on trains appearing on time, whilst those in cars were definitely late - apparently driving up the M1 on a Friday night isn't the best idea - who knew?!. The fog also descended which didn't help the drivers, but eventually Team Latvia were reunited at about 11pm - at which point we decided a Team Sleep would be the best use of our time!

Saturday morning started with the sad (but not entirely unexpected) news that the Ukrainian GOLD project has had to be cancelled this year. We are all really sorry for the Ukrainian team, and hope that they have a fun year whatever they end up doing. They are all guaranteed a place on a GOLD trip next year, if they want it, so I wish them all luck with next year's projects!

After breakfast each team did an interactive presentation or activity about their country or project (even the Ukrainian team), which provided a highly entertaining morning with a wide variety of tasks, ranging from finding hidden facts to true or false quizzes, to blockbusters, to tying neckers and playing with balloons. We learnt a lot about the other projects and their aims, which was really interesting, as a lot of the first briefing was focussed on our own project. We also discovered some teams know A LOT about what they're meant to be doing in country (Peru!) and some know nothing (Latvia!).

Next up was some time in our own groups. For Latvia this meant attempting to plan our lives and fit in two more briefings before we go in October. We didn't manage it. In our team of 6, we have two members who work Monday-Friday office jobs, one who works freelance, one who works nights at the weekend, a nurse on shifts, and me who works 6 days a week with often strange timings. We tried every weekend, we tried mid-week, we tried a combination of the two... we discovered it was impossible. So Team Latvia will be together again for 3 days in August, and will be having LOTS of teleconferences to make up for our lack of briefings! 

We also discovered that Team Latvia love squash.

After lunch (soup!), we had workshops on delivering trainings and WAGGGS, as well as working with translators and facilitation skills. It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of information, and there were some very sleepy GOLDies at dinner time!

BUT. We soon woke up again because the evening was BIG BROWNIE BIRTHDAY! Each team had selected a Brownie badge and based an activity on that badge. We had the entertainer badge (create a dance for your country), we had the hostess badge (plan a party relay race style), we had the world traveller badge (play Good Evening Friend Brownie with various greetings from around the world), we had the designer badge (create a brownie uniform from a different country out of recycling), we had the booklover badge (sack race with book related questions), we had circus skills badge (put food in each other's faces basically...), we had the dancer badge (create a dance based on a fairytale, with props), and Team Latvia's Swimmer badge (relay race with swimming kit and bubbles...). As you can imagine, there was a lot of laughter and a lot of mess! But once again, I was amazed at how quickly a group of 18-30 guides can tidy up - within 10 minutes (including time for photos) the hall looked just as it did before we started!

Team Latvia 2014

Unsurprisingly, we all slept VERY well that night! Team Latvia almost didn't wake up for breakfast, as we all forgot to set/turned off alarm clocks. Luckily I woke up at 7.45, and in 10 minutes we were all out the door (including two members showering!) - and even with enough time to get good seats at breakfast!

Sunday morning saw us learning about our various roles - documenting (writing blogs and taking photos), accounting (yawn) and first aid (in the smallest hottest room in the world) - followed by more team time (which turned into us buying badges in the campsite shop!). We also planned most of our Challenge badge, which will be coming out very soon!

After lunch (all the leftovers you can imagine), all the GOLDies cleared up the two blocks we had been using, in record time. I hoovered. Then my team mates set off party poppers just after I'd hoovered. Thanks guys.

Our final half an hour consisted of an inspirational speech from Anna, GOLD co-ordinator, a slideshow of photos from our GOLD journey so far, and the realisation that this was the last time all of the 2014 GOLDies would be in a room together. We've been given all the tools and information that we need to undertake a successful project, and from now on, we split off down our own paths. In December, Team Latvia will join up again with Team The Gambia and Team Sri Lanka for a debrief in Northamptonshire, but the other teams (Peru, Cambodia, Guyana and Malawi) will already have had their debrief earlier on in the year.

2014 GOLDies with Anna (left - GOLD Co-ordinator) and Carly (Right - Events Co-ordinator)

Good luck to everyone on their projects, and I can't wait to read all your blogs! (I'll put up links to all blogs on here in a few weeks if anyone is interested about any of the other projects)

Abseiling...

So. It's been a while since I updated, but things have been plodding along - both GOLD-wise and life-wise! I started work again, so GOLD got put on the backburner a little bit while I settled in, but now I'm back and bursting into action - just in time for GOLD briefing number 2 at the weekend! We've had two conference calls to plan for the briefing as the team have to come up with an interactive presentation about Latvia, and an activity for the evening entertainment... The theme is BIG BROWNIE BIRTHDAY (it's 100 years of Brownies in case you didn't know!), and so each GOLD team is running a Brownie Badge - we're doing the Swimmer badge, and we're very excited! I'll write more about that after the weekend, I don't want to give too much away!  

The conference calls have been a bit of a challenge - you try finding a time when 6 people are free to chat, when two of them work 9-5 office jobs, one is a nurse working shifts, one works freelance, one works nights at weekends, and one is me who works all sorts of times! Unsurprisingly, we haven't managed it yet, but we're having calls with the majority, and filling the rest in afterwards - everyone has managed at least one of the two so far, so that's good! I think finding times to organise will be the biggest challenge for our team. 

In other news, I am back on the fundraising - I have managed to organise a sponsored abseil on May 12th - I am going to be abseiling for a whole hour, constantly up and down the 40ft tower at PGL Caythorpe Court. I'm hoping to do 40 descents during the hour, and any sponsorships over £10 can suggest things for me to do whilst abseiling - perhaps the YMCA, or the cha cha slide (not sure how I'll do that one, but you can suggest it!)... the more original the better, and as long as it's safe, I'll give it a go! I'm also hoping to film a lot of it, and create a video at the end to prove to everyone that I did it! (As long as the camera batteries last...) 

If you would like to sponsor me, you can do so at my justgiving page or by speaking to me directly. I need to raise approximately £2000, and I've got around about £800 so far, so please help out! 

That's all for now... more next week all about second briefing! 

First Briefing

This weekend, we had our first briefing. The first time that everyone who has been selected to undertake a GOLD project in 2014 got together since INTOPs. There are 8 teams: Cambodia, Sri Lanka, The Gambia, Malawi, Guyana, Peru, Ukraine and, obviously, Latvia. There are participants from all over the UK, ranging from Bognor Regis and Plymouth (and possibly beyond) in the South, to Aberdeen in the North, with everywhere in between covered too. 

Map of UK showing where we all came from

With the support of Anna, the National GOLD Co-ordinator; Carly, one of the Events Co-ordinators for Girlguiding; and the two fabulous cooks, Cara and Marie; we dived head first into the tasks of getting to know each other (does anyone snore? who's accident prone? and what's your favourite gummy bear flavour?), making the first decisions for our projects (what colour hoodies should we have?), laying out our expectations for ourselves (shower) and our Team Leader, Alice (be Switzerland, and provide gummy bears...), as well as having so many other important discussions. 

The sun came out and so did we! Team Latvia 2014

Interspersed with these discussions, the Team Leaders of the various projects lead us through sessions on fundraising, culture shock, health and well being, the GOLD journey, PR, kit and packing, and group roles. Whilst some of it I knew from previous travels, it was all interesting and useful, and allowed both leaders and participants the chance to dispense knowledge, hints and tips from the wide experiences we've all had. 

It was great to learn so much, and for me, I learnt two main things. Firstly, the session on culture shock allowed me to put some theory behind what I've felt so many times before. I've felt it, I've experienced it, I've dealt with it, but I don't think I've ever really understood it, so it was awesome to be able to reflect on past experiences and put words to how I was feeling at those times. 

Secondly, I came to realise that, whilst GOLD is a guiding project, when it all comes down to it, it is a Community Action Project. It's developing youth organisations overseas, and I think when it comes down to me talking to the general public about what I'm doing, that's a clear way of explaining that this is not just another one of my guiding jaunts. It's through guiding, and it's developing guiding, but strip away all of that, and I'm going out to Latvia to help young people over there to have an organisation that they can be proud of. Like I'm proud of Girlguiding. 

Oh, and we also had a chance to have fun, with our first night of acting under duvets, and our second night of Winter Olympic themed chaos (including an appearance from Clare Balding - and a tweet from the ACTUAL Clare Balding!), it was great to be having so much fun with new (and old) friends! 

OMGosh - It's Clare Balding!!! 

(Photos taken by Anna - sorry I stole them!)