GOLD Guyana 2012

Hello and welcome to our blog! We are a group of 6 Girlguiding UK members aged between 19 and 27, who have been selected to take part in a GOLD project this summer.
GOLD stands for Guiding Overseas Linked with Development, a project run by Girlguiding UK which gives young women aged between 18 and 30 the chance to assist in community action projects in other countries. As well as making a positive impact on the community, we also hope to grow the Guiding Association in the country so that they can participate more fully in WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts). There are 8 projects this year, including our destination Guyana.
We're all very excited for our GOLD journey to begin, and we hope you enjoy reading about how we are preparing and what we are doing when we get there!

Thursday 29 March 2012

The Great Guyana Boat Race!


On Saturday 24th March I held a boat race to help raise funds for our trip to Guyana.
My assistant leader Susanne was the one to suggest it as she had seen and idea in a resource about making paper boats and sailing them as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations as the Queen is having a flotilla of 1000 boats on the Thames. Making and selling 1000 paper boats was a bit ambitious, but I started folding! I found a good instruction video on Youtube and bought some bright paper. I then printed numbers on the sails that would make the winner easy to identify and had a corresponding spread sheet where people could sign up and buy a boat for £1.00. The owner of the first boat over the finishing line would win £100.00.
In the end I sold just over 420 boats. The race took place at Netherurd House, the Scottish training and activity centre in Peebles-shire. I chose a day when people from my county would be attending a training weekend so that I would have their support.
I couldn’t have picked a better day to do it as the sun was shining! Just as well, as the water was still freeing. Some parts of the stream were too deep for wellies, so I had to wear crocs and bear the cold!
With he help of a net (constructed by my brother Graham), two willing guides and a big stick, the boats were launched. Unfortunately  the water was very low because of the good weather and lack of snow over the winter some boats either got stuck on rocks or disintegrated completely. There were still some determined wee boats and in less than 10 minutes we had our winner, a yellow boat owned by Susanne’s friend Clair. She had the last 20 boats on the list and was glad of her last minute purchase!
Thanks to everyone who bought boats or helped on the day including the staff at Netherurd, My parents, Graham, Susanne, Chantelle, Megan,  Division Commissioner  Anne, Karen, Margaret Anne and my County Commissioner Margaret. 

Laura x

Thursday 1 March 2012

1st Briefing

Hello and welcome to our blog!
This is our first post, to tell you about the amazing time we had at the first GOLD 2012 Briefing!
I think its safe to say we were all nervous at our first time meeting each other since we had been announced as a group, and so it was with both excitement and trepidation that Laura and I entered the hall at Linnet Clough Scout Campsite. There was much happiness when we met up with everyone; Nikki, Heather, Hannah and Zoe.We had just been on a mammoth journey from Scotland, so we by rights should have been tired, but the adrenaline kept us going and we had a great night meeting the team, and getting to see all the other teams too. (Probably the highlight was winning Articulate!) We certainly were out like lights when it came time for bed, however. 
After a night's sleep and with most of the team feeling refreshed, we began the business of the day - from talks on GOLD to what we can expect in Guyana, to deciding kit... It was certainly a busy day but a most enjoyable one. Lots of exciting decisions were made, and lots of food for thought too. There was a definite requirement for to do lists, and hopefully some of the things on mine are being ticked off as we speak :) The evening came around with it's 'red, blue and white PE kit' theme, which made for a confusing change of clothes, but we all entered the hall with excitement (and remembering INTOPS, worry!) to a night of Olympics themed entertainment! There was some very impressive costumes from the leaders (especially Nikki's, see the picture!) and we even managed to scrape a gold medal in the last 'game' of the evening, catapulting us from last to 4th place (although I still maintain my dive deserved some sort of medal...). 
Sunday came all too quickly, and once we had concluded our final group time, and had lunch, all that remained was to tidy, clean and pack. Then it was a reminder to share the GOLD love, goodbye, and time to journey back to bonny but far away Scotland for Laura and I, and to the South for the other team members. Only 2 months till the next one!
More news soon
lots of GOLD love
Jess x
P.S. I have had 'Get loose, get funky...' in my head since the weekend...!