Last week of Training

We all had a fantastic last week of trainings, everyone was really enthusiastic. The adults were really keen to learn what we were teaching the girls.  It was a similar format to the previous weeks with activities including, First Aid, treasure hunts and a closing Olympics ceremony.  We also enjoyed sigma and some tasty chicken! After training we got a bus to Nkhata bay for a couple of days holiday together.

Nykarta Bay

 We stayed at Mayoka Village in little beach lodges.  It was extremely fun and we had lizards in the bathroom that kept on multiplying every time we went in!  It was great to relax with a cold beer and a couple of cheeky sambucas and time to look back on the fun we had over the project.  We enjoyed a lazy day by the lake and some of us took a rowing boat out.  The fun all stopped when everyone saw a 3ft long water lizard swimming in the lake! Didn’t stop us for long a couple of hours later we were back in the boat.  It was an early start the next day getting the bus back to Mzuzu then on to Lilongwe, just normal bus fun.  We were met by the same taxi driver Alex that we had the week before and booked a night at Mufasa lodge.  We went for tea at Don Brioni’s bistro, were we saw the ‘Girlguiding UK GOLD 2010’ plaque on the wall!

Parting Ways!!!!

In the morning we all went to the market to get our last minute gifts from Malawi.  After that we had to say our goodbyes to Ruth and Charity.  After 5 minutes of them leaving we were already missing them and felt weird as a four.

We prepared ourselves for the 30hr bus journey to Tanzania by stocking up with food.  We arrived At the bus station ready to leave for 7pm, We had Alex the taxi driver who said the others  got to airport fine and had made up a nickname for Ruth ‘mamma chicken’ he said she was upset parting from her chicks!!!!  The coach was quite roomy compared to other bus journeys we have experienced before but we soon discovered we had cockroaches for company!  As the journey continued the bus filled up with people in the aisles and few ended up just about sitting on us.  We got a little worried when we seemed to have broken down in the night. But it gave us a perfect opportunity to go to the toilet.  The journey was surprising not too bad and once we’d gone over the Tanzania border time sped by.  We arrived early hours on Tuesday and found a hotel close by.

Onward Travel

Tuesday - Exploring Dar es Salaam and got our tickets for Zanzibar

Wednesday – Boat trip to Zanzibar, saw a whale on the way! Checked in to Karibu inn in Stone Town and enjoyed doing our own walking tour including a guided tour around the Anglican Cathedral and old slave Market.

Thursday – We went north to Nungwi  bay to the beach, the sea was turquoise and so warm, had a couple of rain showers but nothing compared to back home,  Enjoyed a tasty meals of tuna and swordfish and watched the sun set over the habour

Friday – Caught a Dala Dala to the Jozani Forest were we saw red colobus monkeys we then caught a mini bus to the coast at Paje and enjoyed a quick dip in the sea then headed back to stone town. Explored the famous food market and tried some food including a Zanzibar pizza and sugarcane juice.  We had a really tasty meal at a curry house.

Saturday- Boat back from Zanzibar and on to north beaches of Dar es Salaam

Enjoyed a couple of days of relaxing before heading back to Dar es Salaam on Monday

Tuesday- Dar es Salaam textile markets and enjoying last day of the holiday

Wednesday- Homeward bound

3rd week of training begins...

Our third week of training began on Monday and we were excited to find that this week was really well planned. We arrived at 8.30 and started training at 9. English is the 3rd language in Mzuzu so some of the girls have limited English. They are incredibly enthusiastic though and love to participate, act and sing. We started the day with lots of icebreakers and singing then looked at leadership, communication and teamwork activities. The girls were particularly good at the random object game and were able to come up with amazing games using really strange objects. They are really creative! All of us felt really enthusiastic about the training and left looking forward to a great week ahead.

Sunday was a well deserved day off. Hurrah! We decided to go to Nhakarta Bay. We took a mini bus (after lots of faffing at the bus depot), and headed off to the beach. The drive was beautiful although slightly ruined by how packed the bus was. Some of us had passengers sat on our feet. Mzuzu and Nhakarta Bay are beautiful. The area looks nothing like the rest of Malawi. It is really green and hilly and full of huge trees.

At Nhakarta bay we did lots of walking, sunbathing and spent lots of time avoiding stray dogs. The lake was beautiful but of course none of us swam in it because we understand the importance of health and safety. The day was very relaxing and really felt like a holiday. The area looks almost Mediterranean, it's so green and the water is so crystal clear. Our minibus ride back was on an extremely shoddy vehicle. It stopped a lot to fix engine problems, all part of the fun I say!

Bus to Mzuzu 

We didn't manage to get the national bus and so after a quick goodbye to Tionge and Gloria we jumped on the Axa bus for our 7hr journey to Mzuzu. The bus was incredibly busy and we only just managed to get a seat each. Our journeys' were eventful to say the least. Ranging from babysitting cute kids, sat on a three person seat with five people which happened to be a vomiting family, a crazy preacher thrusting a bible on Sarah or a hairy American peace corp. 

End of Lilongwe training

Thursday's training was all about first aid in the morning with girls trying to make slings, trying out the recovery position and particularly enjoying practising hitting someone 'choking'. At lunchtime we got to go to one of the girls houses and meet her family who were all really friendly. The afternoon was all about the promise, with some Malawian songs thrown in.

Last night we had a power cut whilst making tea, so ended up drawing pictures, playing cards and singing along to the iPod for a while. Our hosts then made us tea when the electric came back on as our food had turned to mush.

Before training on Friday we got to go to the mill to grind some maize which was needed for lunch. Walking through the village we saw loads of market stalls selling everything from tomatoes to coffins. In today's training we had about 45 girls from brownies to rangers, so we played lots of games, sung songs and made a few crafts. The training ended with a lovely closing ceremony where the girls did lots of marching and singing.

After training we were taken to worship at an open air fellowship which was amazing! We were sat in front of the congregation and introduced as special guests. Ruth was given a bible and was really afraid she'd have to choose a passage to read. The service involved lots of singing, clapping and some very unique fast praying. We were given a microphone to introduced ourselves but thankfully no one was made to read anything! This was a very exciting experience and gave us a proper taste of Malawian culture.

We finished off an amazing day with a Chinese - can't complain about that.

Lots of love, team Malawi. X

The last few days...

Hi everyone,

We've had an interesting few days. This started with Sunday's bus journey back from Blantyre - in which Lyndsey got attacked by a chicken (previous GOLD teams had warned us about this to be fair). The bus was pretty quick but much less exciting than on the way down. We arrived in Lilongwe and went to the Golden Peacock hostel before heading in to town for supplies and an exciting trip to the market. The team enjoyed the friendly harrassment of the market guys trying to sell their goods!

On Monday we were expecting to start training but with nothing confirmed, limited communication and lots and lots of waiting around this was sadly not the case. We moved to the MAGGA building though which was nice - and spent the afternoon in the sun. Everyone's highlight of the day was getting in to a MAGGA car which turned out to be full of 100s of cockroaches! There was lots of laughter from the drivers as we screamed and jumped out of the car. Luckily this problem has been fixed.

On Tuesday our second week of training began. Four hours later than planned. We arrived at midday with only about 6 participants, and very little idea of what was going on. Gradually more people arrived and we were able to start with songs and a good old game of splat! By the end of the day we had 30 Brownies, Guides and Rangers. We looked at the general topic of leadership and played get to know you games. The day ended weirdly as there was still no clear plan of what was going on for the girls. They had been expecting to stay over but the necessary food and equipment had not arrived. They therefore went home. We hoped that Wednesday would see an improvement in communication.

Wednesday started with us making eggy bread - such a classic guiding treat! We got to training at around 9am but as people were still arriving we didn't begin until 10. Today we looked at communication and teamwork in the morning and The 5 Essentials in the afternoon. We sang lots of songs and played games as the girls today were a little younger than yesterday. We had 35 girls by the end of the day which was great. Food has now been sorted out for the girls so things are starting to look a little more organised. I am happy to say that the Crazy Elephant song has proved just as popular as last year - and I'm not even sick of it yet!

All the best,

Team Malawi xxx

Day off - Saturday.

Today was our day off, so we took the opportunity to go on Safaria. we saw hippos, elephants, antalopes, crocodiles and lots more. It was fab!

Last of training in Blantyre

Today we decided to do an Olympic themed event, since today was officially the 1st day of the games. We all had a country team each and took part in an opening ceremony with singing and dancing. This was followed by game such as; pencil javelling, ultimate Frisbee, and blind folded obstacle courses.

This evening we were invited to go their camp fire. there was plenty if singing and dancing, little sketches and poems. we also ate roasted sweet potatoes, definitely one were taking back to the UK.

Then game to much dreaded goodbyes. The girls were hysterically crying, it was awful to see but made us realize how much this meant to them. There were some tears from us as well of course. One of the girls even wrote us a letter to say goodbye. To cheer ourselves up we relaxed in the hostel and watched the actual opening ceremony.

3rd day of training - Blantyre

after being rudely awoken by a school group at 5am in the morning, we found that they had used all the hot water. nothing like a cold shower to start the day. today's training began with us all leading a song. then the mornings theme was self esteem and 1st aid. We found out that many of the girls wanted to be bank managers, lawyers, teacher, doctors and one wanted to be a neurosurgeon.

All the girls are now much more chatty and confident, and they love the camera's. We had a fab lunch time with them, skipping and dancing in the playground.

Get Loose song

In the afternoon we did scavenger hunts and games. they are so enthusiastic it makes us more thankful for what we have got, and makes feel like what we are doing is worthwhile.

For tea we had pizza and a walk home in the dark.

2nd day of training - Blantyre

to arrive at training today we had a rather glamorous arrival on the back of a pick up truck, it was hilarious! As we entered the playground the girls gave us an amazing welcome and cheered and hugged us all. It was so sweet. Today's theme was the promise, team work and communication. So our activities included; good turn mice, lend a hand hands and a promise post it note wall. All of them exploring what our promise means to them.

For lunch we had rice, nsima, potatoes, beans and eggs. yummy! The afternoon was filled with communication games including straw towers and a quick visit from the MAGGA president. After training we went and got some bananas from the local stand, they were the smallest bananas we had ever seen, but definitely the tastiest. We headed back to town to try out the Chinese resturant but much to our disappointment, it was in fact, hot dogs, and vegetable samosas. so it was another night in the hostel with uno.

First Day of Training

After a bit of a slow start, we arrived at the school and were greeted at the bus by some of the Guides. When we got the classroom, they all started singing, which was incredible and so welcoming. The girls we are training range from seven years old to about fifteen. After setting the rules and playing a few ice breakers, we split them into two groups. 

Charity, Thea and Sarah worked with the older group of girls. We taught them lots of new songs from the UK, and they taught us some of their songs, which were incredibly fun and involved a lot of dancing. The girls were excited and seemed to really enjoy the trainings.

For lunch we had our first encounter of maize which most of us enjoyed. We also had beef stew, potatoes, rice and cabbage. After lunch we carried on with trainings.

Lucy, Lyndsey and Ruth were with the younger group. They were Brownie age and very enthusiastic with excellent English. They made friendship bracelets in the colours of the Malawi flag and Union jack. 

At the end of the day, we all got back together and sung a few Malawian songs. We got a minibus back to the city, with a chicken of course. Every bus has one!!

Down to Blantyre

We got up early for a bus to Blantyre. The bus station had a great atmosphere because it was so busy. We were lucky to get our own seats as many had to stand. There were lots of cute kids on with us, and near the end, a chicken! The view was incredible all the way and made us forget how tired we were. Half way through the journey we pulled over for what we thought was no reason, however, we got to see the presidents convoy of cars drive past. In Malawi it is an act of respect to do this. Throughout the journey we stopped at various villages where the locals would sell us things through the bus window. We arrived in Blantyre late afternoon and found our hostel for the week. In evening we relaxed, played pool and planned the trainings for the next day.

Traveling to Malawi

We all traveled down to Ruth's house in London on Friday night to stay over before the flight. On the Saturday we did all the last minutes things we needed to do and got to the airport nice and early. The two flights were ok, the long haul flight having plenty of films!
We arrived in Lilongwe on the Sunday afternoon and were picked up by the MAGGA (Malawi Girlguides Association). We went straight to the Golden Peacock hostel and got settled in. We walked into town to get some essential and some of the market locals recognised us as guides. We had a nice meal and got an early night.

3^rd Briefing weekend: 15th - 17th June 

After some train delays, the whole team finally arrived in Leicester at Sarah’s house and we got to meet Charity for the first time. After a curry for dinner, we had a mini campfire outside. We arranged paper and twigs in the chimenea and thought our guiding skills were good enough to light the fire. But we had to concede defeat in the end. However, whilst we played a get to know you game, and we’d forgotten about the fire and had given up hope, it finally ignited.

On Saturday we started with an action plan before heading into town. We split off into pairs and got everything we needed to do really quickly. On the way back we stopped off at Morrisons to stock up on supplies. After lunch we started to plan our training for Malawi and put together lots of ice breakers and energizers. It all started to feel more real.

For dinner we had a chinese takeaway and had a great night trying on our Team Malawi knickers. The weekend got us even more excited about our adventure and we can’t wait now. 

Team Malawi pants!!

Team Malawi news

So team Malawi had some bad news last month. We found out that Becky can’t come to Malawi anymore. She’s definitely going to be missed but we totally understand why she has chosen not to. But so that she’s still part of the Malawi team, we have decided to name our mascot bear Becky.

With all bad news there is a silver lining and ours comes in the form of Charity Nicholls, our new team member. She’s already been on a GOLD trip to Fiji and we met her for the first time at our 3^rd briefing weekend. 

2^nd Briefing Weekend 20th–22nd April, 2012

Our 2^nd briefing weekend was at Tolmers Activity Centre in Cuffley, just outside of London. We started the weekend a man down but looked forward to Lucy’s early arrival on Saturday morning. For the evening entertainment we took part in the ‘Mystery Game’ planned by all the leaders. Each team was given a random object and had to invent a game. We were given three egg boxes and designed a relay race with the boxes between the knees and impersonating a chicken.

The 20^th April was a very special day for team Malawi. It was Thea’s 21^st birthday! What seemed to make her night was the amazing black cab that picked us up from the station. It was another GOLD member’s actual car and decorated with cushions and union jacks.

On the Saturday morning everyone did a presentation about their trip and Lucy arrived!! Saturday and Sunday were full of training for our GOLD journeys; looking at the different roles of the team and how to train. Between each talk there were plenty of energisers that kept us going.

The evening entertainment was brilliant! We had a great mix of entertainment as each group had planned something. There was a puppet show, dances, songs, an art attack, quizzes and more. Team Malawi had planned a surprise party for Thea’s 21^st. We were really sneaky all weekend and made sure she didn’t find out by pretending to do a Disney quiz. This gave us an excuse to dress up, and we looked amazing! By convincing Thea to leave the room, we gave out party poppers, hung banners and lit the candles on her cake. She didn’t have a clue and loved the surprise.

Team Malawi after Thea's surprise party

On Sunday we planned our onwards travel, deciding on Tanzania for two weeks.

Team Malawi xxx

1st Briefing Weekend

Team Malawi at the Stockport Olympics

Team Malawi journey has officially started! We arrived at  Linnet Clough Scout Centre late on the Friday night excited to meet the team we’d be travelling with in the summer. With all the other GOLDies we started to play human bingo, trying our hardest to find someone wearing pink underwear or liked to fish. In the evening we all played a game of charades, and to be honest, team Malawi wasn’t the greatest, especially when the duvet cover was introduced. After eating lots of food and getting way over excited we headed to our room to get to know each other better before bed. We had slyly blagged the biggest room and settled down to play the skittles ‘get to know you’ game.

Saturday was full of talks about various aspects of our GOLD journey. Most of them made us even more excited but the health talk didn’t sound too promising. Although, we did learn some very important rules from our experienced leader Ruth; never eat fruit off the floor and never buy food out of a bus window.

In the evening we all took part in the ‘Stockport Olympics’;  The leaders had dressed up as the London icons and looked incredible. For each event we nominated the best candidate and they took part in diving, pancake tossing, rowing, airplane throwing or an obstacle course, with a deciding quiz to finish. Team Malawi stormed the leader board  early on and were unchallenged for some time. After winning an impressive 4 medals in total, 1 gold, 2 silvers and a bronze medal, we finished 3^rd overall.

Our last day came way too quick; we really gelled as a team and needed a longer weekend. We made the most of the last day and had a laugh at the final talk about adjustment. We had the task of making a drama piece about how we’re going to feel excited about coming home from Malawi. And I’ve got to say, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group of people get so happy about going to the toilet. 

Posing with our 3rd place trophy and Big Ben (Ruth)

Introducing Team Malawi...We are Ruth, Becky, Lucy, Thea, Lyndsey and Sarah.  After surviving the INTOPS selection weekend last September, we were chosen to travel to Malawi this summer for three weeks; spending one week each at Lilongwe, Blantyre and Mzuzu. We are representing Girlguiding UK and will be working with the Malawi Girlguiding organisation, MAGGA, to train adult and young leaders. 

We are all super excited and can't wait! 

Team Malawi xxx