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!) 

Making A Difference

During my fundraising, I am always on the look-out for grants and awards to apply for, which will help me towards achieving my goal of £2000 for GOLD. These grants sometimes have the most simple questions (Name, Age, Describe your trip...), and sometimes, they ask for more complicated things. Today, I have been trying to fill one out which asked the question:

Please tell us how this grant will make a difference to you as a person

Well. That threw me. I'm not doing GOLD to make a difference to myself. I'm doing it to help other countries, and their Guide (and Scout) organisations - in my case, that's Latvia. I went to both India and Finland for myself, and whilst both of those opportunities did involve me helping other people (as staff in both instances), I purely did it because I wanted to go, I wanted to experience things, to develop, to change... The helping people was an added bonus. But this one, Latvia, this time, wanting to go is the bonus. It's not like I woke up one day and thought "Of all the countries in the world, Latvia will have the biggest impression on who am I as a person." It's not even like there's a cool camp happening there that I really want to be involved in, and I have to go as staff because I'm too old to be a participant. There's a project to help people, to help Guiding, and I want to help. I'm there to make a difference to other people, not to me.

But I know that at the end of the day, whatever your motives, everything you do in life makes a difference to you. But I don't know how. So I closed the grant form, and left it for another day... and then I had a flash of inspiration, and I wrote...

I have been lucky enough to attend a wide variety of Guiding events throughout my life, and each one has made a difference to me in ways that I never expected, and often don't realise until a long while after the end of the event. Sometimes it will be skills learnt and developed, whether leadership or teamwork, or practical (how to cook for and serve 3,500 hungry Scouts and Guides). Sometimes it will be future opportunities arising, getting more involved in WAGGGS, or the chance to help run the next event. More often than not, it will be friendships gained that become more important than I could have imagined.

Right now, I anticipate that GOLD will help me to develop my "transferable" skills - including organisation, time-keeping and in training others (useful for both my Guiding life and my career), and to allow me to experience new ways of Guiding and Scouting that I can bring back to the UK and use within my own local guiding. However, I have no way of knowing the full extent to which this grant will make a difference to me personally, but I am excited to make that discovery.

Unfortunately, the box on the grant form is too small for that answer, so I'll have to re-write it more succinctly, but I think it's important for me to remember that this will make a difference to me as well as Latvian Guides and Scouts.

PS. if you know of any grants/awards that may be able to help with my fundraising, please let me know - I love filling in their forms!

PPS. - if you personally want to donate some money towards my trip, my justgiving account can be found here.

Thank you!

I'd just like to post a brief, but heartfelt, thank you to Girlguiding Leicestershire for their generous contribution towards my trip. I arrived home from my non-Guiding travels to a totally unexpected, and rather large, cheque, and as always, a lovely letter from the County Commissioner.

Having grown up in Leicestershire, and under the wing of the incredible Leaders that this county seems to have in abundance, I am all too aware of the impact they have had on my life, and I am so grateful that they continue to support my Guiding adventures. 

Thank you so much to everyone! 

Guiding Is Determined That I Travel The Baltic

So I guess it's time to find the Guiding Travel blog again, because, after a whole year and a half with no International Guiding Travel (just several UK based camps instead, and some non-Guiding international travel) I am OFF AGAIN! Well. In 2014. September 2014. Still. Time to start planning. 

For now, lets start from the very beginning, it's a very good place to start... 

September 2013 - INTOPS. 

At the end of September, I travelled up to Edinburgh for a magical weekend in a field (and several indoor spaces), for the national INternational OPportunitieS weekend (INTOPS) along with 84 (I think) other participants. We were there to learn about all the incredible things we can be doing with Girlguiding as 18-30 year old members. Some of them I knew a lot about (World Centres), some of them I knew less about (how to take my own unit away). A vast majority of the 80+ participants there were also interested in GOLD (Guiding Overseas Linked with Development) and INTOPS is also the selection weekend for GOLD projects. I can't tell you a lot about the selection process, or the weekend in general, because they try and keep it quiet for future selection weekends to get the same element of surprise in next years applicants. All I will say is if you are thinking about going to INTOPS for whatever reason, firstly, GO, and secondly, be prepared for the most random weekend of your life. That is all. 

GOLD

This year (as most years) there are several GOLD projects running. They are 3-5 year projects in countries that are less developed, and where the Guiding MO (Member Organisation - so the national body that is a member of WAGGGS) has come to Girlguiding here in the UK to ask for help with a project - sometimes it could be HIV/AIDS education, sometimes it will be helping to develop certain aspects of the guiding association in that country, helping recruit more members, or train more leaders, or implementing a programme for Rainbow ages (5-7 year olds). Girlguiding sends a team of 6 18-30 years old over for 3 weeks, and those 6, in conjunction with the MO run the whole project from there on. They plan the dates, the way that things will work, all the logistics, as well as the content. I have had friends who have done projects in Tanzania, Armenia, Malawi, Madagascar, Latvia, Ukraine... the list is endless, the countries are incredible, and they have all come back saying that it was hard work, but WORTH IT. 

So good job I guess that I have been selected to go! I will be travelling with 5 other lovely (I hope!) ladies to Latvia in September/October time next year. I have to raise a SHED load of money (literally) but it will be amazing. I have grand plans, and if my plans go to plan then I will have as much fun doing the fundraising as I do doing the trip itself! :D 

Hopefully you can expect more dates, fundraising, countdowns, planning, and other general excitement (including finding out who the rest of my team are!) in not-so-distant-future blogs! YAY! 

Journey to Roverway

I meant to write this blog last night, but my body clock is still 2 hours ahead, so I went to sleep at 8.30pm and I woke up at 5.30am (BST) so I'll write my blog now (at 6am) instead! 

Here goes... in case you hadn't worked it out yet, I went to Finland last week. Here's a blog of my journey to Roverway - I was going to try and fit it all in one blog, but apparently I just have too much to say! 

Thursday 19th July

Today was flight day. Luckily I had the day off because I still had loads to do: find my spare neckers, buy my euros, buy insect repellent, finish packing... I managed to do everything, and even have time to cook a nice curry for my lunch! I headed to the train station, where I got on a coach to Heathrow. Got to Heathrow in plenty of time, sat around for a bit, then checked my bags in, headed through security and sat and waited. And sat and waited. And sat and waited. My plane wasn't delayed, I was just super organised, so I was there really early! 

Eventually boarded the plane, flew to Finland, and met Jess in Helsinki. 

Friday 20th July

After meeting Jess in the airport (at about midnight, hence the change of day!), we (along with one of the patrols, the Pennine Rovers) had an adventure. We needed to get to the school we were staying in that night. This involved a bus and a tram. Except that it didn't. On the first bus, we were packed in like sardines. You try fitting 7 girls, plus a 65l rucksack and a day sack each, onto an already full bus. Entertaining is the word! During this bus ride, one of the girls got talking to one of the locals, who informed us that trams actually stop at midnight, so our instructions to get a bus and a tram were going to fail. Luckily, he was quite a nice man, and he told us where to get off, and which bus we needed to get to complete the rest of our journey. As we got off, we discovered that also on the bus were a bunch of foreign Scouts - German I think, but I can't remember - who seemed to have been given different instructions to us, and were aiming to get a bus as well. So the nice local man was right. We found the right bus stop, and got on another, slightly less full bus, along with some drunk locals who provided some entertainment. 

Eventually we arrived at the school, settled into our classroom, encountered some Spanish Scouts who wanted to smoke so much they were trying to climb out of our window (this effort failed), and eventually got to sleep. 

Still Friday 20th July

An early start, and another bus journey - this time a private coach - got us to the Olympic Stadium (from 1952) in Helsinki. Along the way, we met up with another patrol (from Ulster), and the rest of the IST. We piled into the Stadium, and saw the rest of the participants and staff who were at that opening ceremony - there were three opening ceremonies around Finland, because the participants were starting from lots of different locations. There were hundreds of Belgians, some very noisy Spanish, a Portuguese guy who had the best necker in the world, and loads of other nationalities that we hadn't yet seen. By the end of the week, we knew the nationality of a Scout/Guide by their necker (except when they started swapping them!). 

Highlights of the opening ceremony included seeing bits of the other opening ceremonies, seeing Santa, and singing the cheesy Roverway song (which includes the line "Follow your B-P spirit" - oh yes it really does!) 

After the opening ceremony, the participants were sent off with their various leaders, and the IST were told to wait. So obviously, we all took this as the perfect opportunity to play in an Olympic Stadium. The Belgians played Bulldog, the British Scouts pulled a football out, there was a frisbee flying around from someone... and us? The UK Guides? we took the chance to run 100m on an olympic track, and got a round of applause from our audience... Probably the only time we'll ever be able to do that - I can't see London 2012 letting us do it! 

Then we got on yet another coach, and travelled to the campsite...

More coming soon, but I should probably get up and get ready for work at some point!

Five Photos

So I didn't get a chance to blog whilst I was in Finland - it was just too mental! Loads of fun though, and I'm exhausted now, so it's nearly bed time, but just thought I'd give a quick update before I go. Ruth just challenged me to send her my five favourite photos from the trip (and there are quite a few, I'm uploading 92 to facebook as I type, and I've been relatively selective!) so picking just 5 is pretty difficult. I also have to explain why they are my favourites in less than 750 words apparently!! So, here goes! 

So number 1: Me Jess and Sarah - I just love this photo. It was taken at the IST campfire. There was no fire, and there was a guitar, so basically, it wasn't really a campfire. Sarah and I messed around lots, using the long grass to poke people, and trick them into thinking it was a mosquito! Brilliant! I also don't have that many group photos from the week, they all seem to be on other people's cameras, so this is the closest I have got of a nice shot of multiple people! 

Number 2: The Boots by the lake - This photo is just Roverway 2012. scouting, lake, trees, it's awesome. Nuff Said. 

Number 3: This was one of my favourite things about Roverway - the random messages that kept appearing! At the start of the camp we had these - free compliments! Later on, people wrote nice messages, and they got stuck on the inside of the toilet doors, to provide some entertainment for "those lonely moments". They really amused me, and I definitely think I want to bring in something similar for my camp next year!

Number 4: This was at the main stage one night - a band was playing, and a whole load of the guides/scouts pulled their neckers off their neckers and started swinging them whilst dancing - which let me get some pretty cool photos, including this one.

Number 5: My last night at Roverway - my team jumped into canoes, paddled across the lake, and went to a sauna on a university campus, which included this beautiful lake. We had a BBQ whilst the sun was setting, and then wandered back to our canoes and paddled back to the party, feeling a lot cleaner than anyone else on site!! 

Done in less than 300 words. I'll write more when I'm more awake, but right now, it's sleep time!!

Net x