Final day of project

Today was our final day of our GOLD project and evaluation day. We had done our preparation yesterday afternoon so this morning (before going to Guide HQ) we went into town to buy resources for evaluation, we mainly needed paper, threads and beads, bracelet making time :)

Time for one last 'Funky Chicken'

The main objective for evaluation was to find out what was enjoyed, what needed to be improved on and their ideas for the future GOLD projects in Guyana. We had five aspects to the product so looked at five areas of evaluation and feedback:
1) Charity/Environmental preparation
2) Handbook preparation and idea exploration
3) Charity and the Environmental project
4) Writing the Handbook
5) Camp

As well as discussing these we also all made a bracelet using three colours of beads:
Purple - Favourite memories
Yellow - what we have learnt during the project
Green - Hopes for the future of GOLD in Guyana.

The girls were able to make friendship bracelets but had to 'earn' beads through memories about the project. It was so lovely to hear about the moments they remembered and what they had learnt during our time here. We have all had such a fab time and have learnt so much being here and are so pleased with seeing how much fun the girls we have worked with have had and how they have gained so much from GOLD.

This evening we invited the Guyana GOLD team and the leaders over for a chilled evening with pizza, it has been a lovely relaxed way to say thankyou for all their hardwork and to have fun with them before saying goodbye. Everyone we have met has been so lovely and great to work with it has been an amazing experience.

Sara with Annie showing off her new Guyanese tshirt at our pizza party

Pizza party

Now our mini party is over it is time to turn to tidying and packing, tomorrow morning we have a little time for our last minuite looking around Georgetown (we will find that geocache) before half the group leave for a couple of days tour (leaving Guyana on Sunday) and the rest of the group are leaving on Wednesday so it is very sadly goodbye GOLD Guyana.

This is likely to be the last post from Guyana so many thanks to all for reading, thank you to everyone in Guyana and UK for your support and see you all back in the UK soon.

Love from
Guyana GOLD team 2011

Off t' Kaieteur :)

Today we visited Kaieteur, which is a waterfall on the Potaro River in central Guyana. The waterfall is the largest single drop waterfall with a height of 251 metres. The Potaro river empties into the Essequibo, which is one of the longest and widest rivers in South America.

It was discovered by Charles Barrington Brown in 1870, who was a British geologist appointed as a surveyor to the colony of British Guiana (Guyana),

According to the Patamona Indian legend, Kaieteur was named after a chief who acted to save his people by paddling over the falls in an act of self-sacrifice to Makonaima (the great spirit). Another legend, told by Amerindians, is that is named after an unpleasant old man who was placed in a boat and shoved over the edge by his relatives. As Kaieteur means ‘old man falls’,

Hannah, Claire, Elizabeth, Nikki and I took on the task of viewing the falls for the team. We had an early start at 7am (this is early for some of our team!), and got on our way to the airport. Joining our group, we also had a group of Canadians of Guyanese descent visiting relatives for a holiday,

We got rushed through the VIP/Diplomat line, got patted down by security and then were ushered into the Roraima Airways executive lounge. There were free biscuits and drinks! Everything a travelling Guider needs!!

Once the pilot was ready, we were escorted to our plane and our adventure began, From this point I do not believe words can capture what fun we had, and the true beauty of the falls – so I will leave this to the photographs taken by the team. Enjoy!

Roraima Executive Lounge

Our private plane awaits!

We had a stowaway Canadian in the mix

Charity - acting co-pilot for the trip!

The view from the plane as we approached

Picture with the pilot

And where is the Girlguides view???!!! 

Ahhh here is the Girlguides view :)

Golden Dart Frog (very poisonous!)

Walking through the Amazon Rainforest.

Rainbow view...whats next Brownies??

Acting like Rainbows at Rainbow view :)

Top of the falls

Top of the falls

Wondering if we can go for a paddle?

More top of the falls pictures :)

Basking along the Potaro River

View down the valley

At the end of our long trek, regretting that we carried our rucksacks.......

And when we got back, Sara had done all the housework and made yorkshire pudding mix.


Its now time to plan our last day, which will be an evaluation of the project and then to plan our souvenier hunting techniques!


Hoped you have enjoyed listening to our exploration of Guyana.


OUT (no over).


Lizzy x

Camping in Guyana

We have just returned from a very busy but exciting few days on camp. We were very lucky and where we were camping was near a creek so we were able to bathe in the creek. We also ran some games in the creek which the girls loved, a particular favourite was singing get loose and funky chicken in the water.

Some of the girls had never been camping so we ran a wide range of activities during the camp. We did some sessions on camp skills and taught the girls how to make tripods, pitch tents (although added interest was were were pitching on sand and not all poles and pegs were there) and carry out a flag ceremony. We also ran wide games and lots of team building games as well as crafts. We also did some basic first aid skills with the girls which they really enjoyed, this was required from an activity we ran one evening called a blood trail, where the girls had to follow a trial of red wool to an alien crash scene, they then had to look after the casualties. This resulted in a lot of laughter but unfortunately not a lot of first aid skills so we thought a session on basic first aid would be good.

One of the main activities that the girls loved was the campfire on the final evening. We also had lots and lots of fun teaching the girls new songs although it was quite emotional singing Linger especially being our last night on camp and coming to the end of our project.

Camp was fantastic, it was a fab place to camp and the activities we organised and ran seemed to be very popular with the girls and a great mix of team, active, craft and learning new skills as well as making new friends, exactly what a guide camp should be :)

Tomorrow we have a day off before finishing and project evaluation.

Handbook training

Just finished our last couple of days of training at the Pavilion (HQ in Georgetown) where we have been working with the Guyana GOLD team to start planning the Guide Handbook. We ran sessions on determining the chapters (although titles will be changed):
1) What is Girlguiding?
2) History of Girlguiding
3) Guiding Family
4) Fundamental principles (for Guides)
5) Who is a Guide?
6) Caribbean Programme
7) Organisation of units
8) GGG programme and Guide programme.
Chapters 4-8 are specific to the section and can be changed for Brownies/Rangers etc…

We also looked at the front cover of the handbook and the internal layout of the text and to finish the girls worked out a general timeplan of what needs to be done and the order. After the initial fab enthusiasm of before Christmas they agreed ready for the start of the next year so finished and in use by next September. We are all very excited to see the finish book and can't wait to get our copies. It was fab because the team are also excited and it'll be fab to see where they take it.

On the second day we did sessions detailing a little more what is needed in each chapter. We had graffiti walls (a sheet of paper) for each Chapter where they could scribble ideas and thoughts that had to be covered in the chapter. We also have a front cover discussion, I think there are some very creative people in the GOLD team so the look of the handbook inside and out will be fab.

From organising jobs into a timeline yesterday, they decided that the first job was to form a committee so today we ran a couple of sessions on teamwork and leadership (mainly games) and then an activity on what they wanted in their committee. We had a tree that they decorated with post it notes. The roots were people they could go to for support, the trunk were qualities and responsibilities for the whole team and then the branches were individual job roles and the types of skills needed for those jobs. To finish they wrote a job description for each of the roles they wanted for their committee.

We had planned on lots of games and fun to finish with but unfortunately as we started late we weren't able to do as much as we would like but there is always time on camp :)

Our official training has come to an end (sadness) but we are still very much on project (yippee) and today we are heading off for the National camp till Saturday. The focus of the camp will be fun with teamwork, leadership and camp skills, we're all very much looking forward to it. When we get back we have a couple of sessions on evaluation till we finish (very sad) but we shall focus on camp so goodbye for a little while.

Exploring Georgetown Part 2

After an action packed week in Charity being all environmental, it was time to explore again! Today (Sunday), we decided we would visit the Lighthouse, the Umana Yana, Seawall and even get some geocaching done. Tall order I hear you say....well be surprised we managed all that aaaand had a 'ladies that do lunch' moment in a posh hotel!

We started the day by heading towards the Lighthouse, which is based in a suburb of Georgetown call Kingston, our first adventure was finding the bus - you need to head towards city hall and just shout 'Lighthouse' and they will come a'running!

It was a short journey, and we just stopped short of the Prime Minsters residence on Main Street. It was a short 5 minute walk to the Lighthouse, we even went past the USA Peace Corp residence. They definatly had more air con, mod cons and more bars than us Guides!!

We visited the Lighthouse at the request of Sara and myself, I had even got a geocoin with the challenge to visit as many lighthouses in the world as possible. Mission complete for Guyana, next stop United Kingdom!

The Lighthouse itself is built near the mouth of the Demerara River, the original wooden lighthouse was built in 1817 by the Dutch but was replaced by stone in 1830.

Next stop was the Umana Yana, this is Wai Wai for 'meeting place of the people', it is a 55ft tall thatched roof hut (known as a benab) built by the Wai Wai Amerindians in 1972 to host a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement of Third World Nations. The hut was constructed using traditional methods and tools. It is now used as a venue for art shows to heritage festivals.

In the grounds of the Umana Yana is the African Liberation Monument, this is a sculpture consisting of five greenheart poles which commerates the African Freedom Fighters. It was built in 1974 for the United Nations Commission.

It was now approaching lunchtime, so we went posh like into the Le Meridan - Pegasus Hotel and enjoyed a slap up meal in the air con :)

After lunch we went to the Seawall, this was where the 2010 GOLDies completed their environmental project. We spent an hour playing in the sand and enjoying the emptiness of the beach in comparison to the crazy bustle of Stabroek Market.

On the way back we attempted to find the 'Wilderness Explorer' cache in Georgetown - located near the Promenade Gardens and Independence Park. Unfortunately, it is looked after by someone within a building and that building was closed on Sundays!! We confused the next door neighbours though!

All in all, a lovely day was had and our next day off will be spent at Kaiteur - so watch this space for more Queens Guide Exploration updates!

Lizzy

P.S. just to annoy Sara...OVER and .................OUT :P

Day 2 and 3 in Charity

Day 2 started with morning chores after a very early rise (not sure why Guides everywhere get up at 5am on camp).

After Breakfast Lizzy and Hannah took a group around Charity putting up posters and chatting to the community about the litter pick on Friday. The responses were generally positive although there were some people that said it was so bad they didn't think we would have an effect. Even if one person sees what we are doing it will have made a little difference. Sara, Nikki, Claire and Elizabeth ran sessions for the other group on designing a banner for the litter pick and then creating songs and mini dramas for the girls to perform in the afternoon as well making recycled drums (plastic cups and paper) as they wanted a bit of a fun day after the litter pick. In the afternoon we had a re-using craft session where we made crafts from used materials, these were made to be shown at the litter pick/fun day. The girls made skittles from plastic bottles, photo frames from cereal boxes and plastic cutlery, pompoms from plastic bags, pencil pots from plastic cups, jewelery from scrap paper and candle holders from plastic bottles. They seemed to have a good afternoon making things and being creative and it was good fun working with them.

Our banner

When it was a little cooler we played some games outside, the girls really enjoyed this, they like learning new songs and games and they even taught us some which was great to see that their confidence has grown.

As we have been incredibly hot at night, the six of us attempted to sleep outside on a covered balcony. We rigged up our Mozzy nets and laid out the mattresses, it was quite fun lying outside watching the stars and although still hot was a little cooler.

GOLD team litter picking

On the Friday we had our litter pick. We wanted to make an early start as the sun can get quite strong very quickly. Sarah and Sara were interviewed during the littler pick by the local TV station to ask about Guiding, what we were doing and why? The girls worked very hard and we managed to clear a good section of the main street, definitely noticeable.

After lunch we headed back into town for the girls to show off the performances and crafts at the boardwalk. There had a good laugh and it was great that people actually stopped and watched. The performances were great and afterwards we gave the banner to the local council who will display it which is fab.

This evening we had some some Guyanese food for dinner and we tried Roti and Bakes, quite yummy :)
The girls are heading back this evening as they are catching an early ferry, we are staying another night to finish the cleaning and will catch a slightly later speedboat and meet them the other side of the river to travel back to Georgetown. We had lots of singing as we waved them off.

Traveling back to Georgetown.
After finishing the cleaning we travelled to Supernaan ready to catch the speedboat. This was much quicker and quite exciting as we bounced along the river. We only got wet occasionally and all managed to hold on to our hats.

First day in Charity

We were picked up by the bus and the girls at lunchtime ready for our trip to Charity. First mini problem was the bus wasn’t big enough so we left Sara and Lizzy behind (although not for long as a taxi quickly picked them up). We had to rush slightly to the ferry as we had to catch a ferry across the Essequibo River. On route we went over the Demerara bridge which was quite cool as it is a floating bridge.

Sara had warned up the journey was likely to take anywhere between 3 and 6 hours so we had books, cards and things to do. The ferry journey across the river was really pretty, we passed quite a lot of islands (there are 365 islands, although not all are habited). It was a good journey and we chatted with the girls, most of whom were experiencing this for the first time too.

Our journey was at the quicker end of Sara’s estimation, and we then had a little wait until we were picked up. We weren’t sure how long we had to wait but to keep the girls and ourselves amused we sang a lot of campfire songs. Favourites included, Funky Chicken, Get loose, Princess Pat, Crazy Moose and many many more. We were finally picked up and made the journey to Charity at night, The sky was absolutely beautiful and filled with stars. Arriving at the school in Charity just after 9, we had to unpack, eat and make the beds, quite a busy day. We are staying in a dorm room at a school which had a few more mozzy’s and other wildlife than our flat.

Our first day in Charity started with organising patrols and chores, which were done before breakfast. After breakfast we met we some local health inspectors and workers who showed us around Charity. We met up with some local Guides/Rangers who were joining us everyday to do some research about the area for the environmental project. We chatted to some locals, about the problems and what can be done about it. Most of the locals were really positive and it was interesting to see the effect that the various littering problems. One man we spoke to who worked on a boat on the river had spent quite a lot of money repairing his motor on the boat due to rubbish getting caught in it. In the afternoon we ran sessions back at the school (it is too hot to spend more than a morning outside in the sun). We planned in a little more detail what we wanted to do and then made posters to display around the town. When the sun had gone in a little we played some games with the girls before dinner and bed.

Old style chalk boards