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
Moni Team Malawi. Wow - sounds like a typical GOLD project, nothing ever goes to plan. Pleased to hear you had a chicken experience on the bus - wouldn't have been a complete experience without it! Glad to hear you are experiencing Malawian culture (African timmings) everything starts when they are ready and not when planned! Hope that you are expericing lots of nsima and enjoying the markets, barter hard (when they see white people all they see is kwacha!) send my love to everyone, sounds like you are doing a super job, keep it up! Love Lorelei xxx
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