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.