Feeling hot hot hot

Talking about advocacy yesterday

We have a had a run of extremely hot days recently and humidity this evening was 94% so we’re feeling quite tired and lacking in energy! The weather forecast is ‘Feels like 47°C’ so we’re really looking forward to that… After the success of yesterday’s advocacy training we were ready for some more and our wish for more girls was accorded, to our delight. When we arrived there were only three girls waiting for us which was a bit worrying but we did some singing and slowly girls turned up until we had a fair number. In the morning we discussed ways to advocate – one suggestion was skywriting – and made postcards inviting people to join Guides, similar to our UK ones. We also did some team building games, just like the ones at INTOPS, and some shouting games. Heather, Hannah and I had to run off to pay for our flight to Kaieteur Falls, but like true Guides made it back just in time for lunch! We quite enjoyed our little trip as it was full of air conditioning but it was a shame to miss chatting to the girls as they did their artwork.

Hannah getting her nails done yesterday!

After lunch we handed over leadership to some of the young leaders and older girls and facilitated them making Problem Trees, where the problem is written along the trunk, causes in the roots and consequences in the branches. Once they had this to go on they wrote speeches and performed them. We sat and heckled in the back row to encourage them to be louder – mainly Laura shouting ‘Ain’t no flies on me!’ The change in the girls from when we first met them was again plain to see, a few in particular have really come out of their shells and are so much more confident! The evaluations from today made us all smile too J

This evening we have been able to relax as tomorrow is a day off for Emancipation Day! We are hoping to go to the National Park and join in some of the celebrations. There are also plans for washing and pancakes so we will let you know how that goes!

The other main event of the evening was to a visit from our downstairs neighbour Lily, who is lovely, and so brave as she has moved here for 9 months! On the subject of neighbours, we tried the Sasparilla (I think) fruits that Mrs P gave us but they weren’t our favourite! We were also given some bananas by Maria from her friend’s garden!

Lots of GOLD love

Team Guyana 2012