Week 1 of trainings

Wow, that went quickly, can't believe we have finished our first week of trainings. It was been
a good week, we are all settling in, adjusting to the heat, getting used to the Mozzy bites but are all having a fantastic time.

The first couple of days we did sessions on the Environment, preparing for our trip to Charity next week. We had been asked to do some environmental trainings in Charity but we were able to plan the details with the girls going. There were some good ideas so our trip to Charity should be fab. We are leaving on Tuesday (Monday is a National Holiday) and having a bus and ferry ride (Sara laughs when she tells us we're going by ferry so not sure what it entitles!)

The last couple of days we have been working on the handbook, Working with the girls and looking at what needs to go into it. We have a good basis for the chapters and the questions they would like to be asked so when we are back from Charity we will continue to work with the Guyanese GOLD team to start writing. This week we have been working with the GOLD team, the Environmental team and the Environmental field team so have been working with about 20 girls every day which has been fab, everyone seems to be having fun learning new activities and games and yesterday we were taught us some Guyanese games. The designs and plans for the handbook are also coming along nicely. Quite exciting to know we will have helped make that happen along with all the girls over the last week.

Outside trainings we have visited the Cathedral (St George's) so was a little strange to see the St. George's/English flag up. Hannah was particularly excited as the Cathedral is a timber construction. The interior of the Cathedral had a very Tudor feel to it. We also visited the Guyanese National Museum which has quite an eclectic mix of exhibits. As it is being renovated we weren't able to see it all but the geography and maps section was quite cool.

We have tried Gnipes, similar to lychee but not prickly, some of the team members have tried Plantane and Claire has tried Pumpkin. All seemed to have positive results and are back on the shopping list. It has been requested that we include some of our recipes in our blog so we will create a post for our recipes.

Last night we were invited with Annie (one of the Guyanese Young Leaders) to join her at steel band practice. It was a lot of fun, we were all able to have a go, varying degrees of success. Think we can all play a rolling C major scale though :). We then joined the group for some food afterwards, it was fab to go out and chat. The band were very welcoming.

Annie with Charity

Claire at Steel Band

 Today is our only Saturday off so tour guide Lizzy has organised a trip to the swimming pool centre which sounds fun, although sat here writing this there is quite heavy rain outside, although it is still hot so welcome trip to the pool.

Arrived in Guyana

What a very busy but exciting couple of days and as we now have access to some internet we can tell you about it.

We met up at Gatwick on Saturday afternoon to ensure we were all present and ready for our Sunday morning flight. Sunday we made it through check in and then breakfast before boarding the plane. Journey went as planned and all of us and Charity (our bear mascot, complete with matching hoodie (thanks Hannah's mum) and passport (fab Lizzy)) arrived in Barbados. The heat was quite a shock but very excited for the start of our GOLD adventure. We had a quick trip to the beach, some food and then an early nights sleep as we have to be up at 5am to head to the plane.
This wasn't much of a problem as we are partly on UK time so were up in plenty of time.

The plane to Guyana was tiny, and made it through check-in to find Berle (deputy chief commissioner of Guyanese Girlguiding) waiting for us. Fantastic :) Bus trip to the flat, quick look around before heading to the bank to change money and then off to Guiding HQ. Here we met with Sarah (the chief commissioner) and sat down to work out the plan and schedule for our project. Very exciting having a plan and some aims. For the next couple of days we are meeting the Guyanese team and planning the sessions for the environmental part of the project in Charity.

Lizzy and Elizabeth cooked our first meal, Eggplant and Plantane fritters, very tasty. We then did some session planning before bed.

Today we have met some of the Guyanese team. They are lovely, very enthusiastic, it's going to be fun working with them. We have planned some of what we plan to do in Charity. The main goals are awareness and education of the guides regarding the environment. Tomorrow we will look in more detail at the session plans.

It is incredibly hot here, but Guide HQ has a nice breeze running through it. Will take a little while getting used to this heat. We haven't had much chance to explore Georgetown but have experienced the Market and the buses, both quite crazy experiences. Fab.


Right off to do some session planning and dinner preparation. We will try and get some pictures up tomorrow but things have started and are going well :)

All packing done, on our way to Gatwick

We have finished the organising, the preparations and now the packing (some a lot earlier than others!) and all we have left to do is travel. We are meeting at Gatwick this afternoon and flying tomorrow morning. Very exciting!

We will try and update this blog as often as possible, internet and facilities dependent to update on what we are doing on project.

Other GOLD teams are also leaving/have left this weekend so we wish all GOLD teams good luck, have a safe journey and have fun on your projects. See you at debrief.

We hope you enjoy reading and wish you a good summer and see you all in Guyana :)