This is Goodnight and not Goodbye

Post by Net

So as our project draws to a close, we found ourselves at a story telling evening amongst our Latvian Scout and Guide friends. Although originally planned to be held around a campfire, they wisely decided to move it inside when the temperatures dropped to below zero! So instead, we all gathered together in the school assembly hall, by the light of candles at the front. Old friends sat amongst new friends, and 5 of the experienced Leaders, Rangers and Rovers stood up to tell one of their (many) Guiding or Scouting stories.

We were huddled at the back of the room, the 5 of us lying on the floor, shoulders touching, heads into the centre of our little semi circle, with Liga (or Martins when Liga was talking) lying in front of us, translating to us in whispers.

We heard stories of going on hikes with not enough food, and scouts sharing and staying enthusiastic despite this. We heard stories of travelling to Japan and experiencing new cultures. We heard stories of being bullied at school because of being in scouts. The storytellers answered questions: 'Have you ever regretted being in this organisation?' 'What's the most extreme thing you've done in Scouting?' 'Whats the most important bit of being a Scout?'

As I lay there in the quiet glow of the candlelight, listening first to the Latvian, and then to the English translation, I realised that I had heard all these stories before, and yet I hadn't. I realised that these stories are stories of scouts and guides everywhere, and yet they are still unique to the individual.

I thought back to our training from Thursday night where we discussed the WAGGGS 5 essentials, including 'sharing a commitment to a common standard' and I saw it in action. Everyone in this room has made the same promise and lives by the same basic laws, and here we were, listening to stories of how it had affected people's lives.

And not for the first time, and not for the last, I was reminded of the worldwide family I am lucky enough to be a part of. I thought of the friends I have around the world from past adventures. I thought of the Latvian Scouts and Guides that I have been lucky enough to work with over the last two years.

But mostly I thought about my GOLD sisters, lying around me, connected by more than just our shoulders. We've worked hard (and played hard) over the last three weeks, we've run activities for almost 200 members - and that doesn't include this camp. We've run trainings, meetings and activities based on teamwork, leadership, communication and international experiences. We've planned, changed plans, and then done things that completely weren't on the plan in the first place. We've laughed, we've cried, we've played games, we've done puzzles, we've eaten far too much food, but whatever we were doing, we did it together, and I'm proud of all of us.

This is good night and not goodbye.

To the woods and beyond....

Post by Katie

Friday morning saw us up early to catch a bus to Pure, where Autumn Camp would be held. We were excited to meet old friends and make new ones, but also sad that this would be our last activity on GOLD.

We found the campsite hidden behind the trees, and with temperatures below freezing we were glad to be sleeping indoors, although it would have been fun to sleep in the bell tents with a fire stove in the middle.

Soon after we got there, coach loads of Brownies and Cubs began to arrive. After marching to watch the flag being raised while listening to the Latvian national anthem, our first task was to keep around 100 Brownies and Cubs entertained. We did a 'Clap and shout if you agree with...' game as an icebreaker, and another game where everyone was given an animal and then had to find other people with the same animal without talking. We've never tried it with so many people and there was much hilarity. We finished by playing a team relay game with balloons.

After this, we played a wide game with them, which involved sending them out into the forests, and half of them being Zombies, while the others tried to escape! It was great fun, and the Cubs and Brownies really enjoyed it - they were still talking about it the next day!

Sarah's best zombie impression

In the evening we played Capture the flag (or candle in a jar) outside. We discovered that the most effective way to avoid capture is to team up and act like a crab, and the most effective way to get caught is to stargaze. I'll leave it to you to guess which team member did which strategy. Later on, Storytime was held, where leaders tell the Scouts and Guides about times when they were proud to be in Scouting or Guiding, or an interesting adventure they had.

Saturday morning we were woken up with words that would get anyone moving. "In 15 minutes, this room will have all the Cubs and Brownies in it." If that won't wake you up, nothing will! After breakfast and flag raising, we pitched in to help with one of the activity stations being run by our friend Liga, which was Kim's game. Sarah K & Net surpassed the rest of us in memorising the objects hidden under the cloth. We also played what has become a firm favourite for us, chaos tag.

The Scout and Guide campsite

Unfortunately we had to leave at midday, in order to go back to Riga to do our project analysis and to pack for our morning flight the next day. It was great to see some of the friends we'd made over the past weeks, and to meet new friends, though bittersweet as our project approached it's end.

In true Team Latvia style, our final official meeting was conducted in the Tea House with the Chief Guide Agnija and cake, biscuits and tea. We discussed what we've achieved, the many units we've met and worked with, and aims for the future.

Later that evening, Agnija came by our flat to say a final goodbye, and to our surprise and delight we were given gifts of Latvian tea, chocolate and Latvian neckers which we proudly wore on our journey home.

On Sunday, with heavy hearts and heavy bags (I may have bought quite a lot of chocolate.....) we hopped in the taxi to the airport, arriving in time to have a quick breakfast before boarding the flight. We all arrived safely home and are now readjusting to non-GOLD life, though we're looking forward to our De-brief weekend at the start of December.

Cake, Culture and Glow Sticks...

Post by Net and Sarah K 

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we were lucky enough to have three free days, before our final weekend of project. We took the opportunity to be tourists, to soak up the culture, and generally explore Latvia more! 

Monday found us at the Occupation Museum in Riga, learning more about the last hundred years in Latvia, and the turbulent past that the country has been through. After an hour or so wandering through, reading and learning how little we actually know about the wars (Who knew the Berlin wall went ALL the way around West Berlin?! Maybe we should have paid more attention in History lessons!), we headed back into the cold of Riga, and straight to a cafe (of course!). This was followed by a wander around the Russian Orthodox church, with it's ornate images and decorations, and a second trip to the Radisson hotel skyline bar - for the sunset views, honestly! The evening was a little bizarre to say the least - we ended up playing Uno and Bananagrams by the light of glow sticks. GOLD is a strange world to live in. 

Monday also brought the news that Sarah K's sister-in-law had gone into labour, but by the time we went to bed, there was STILL NO BABY! Sarah and Net went to sleep with the phone on loud in between their pillows so that when the phone did eventually ring (2am!!), we were both woken up with exciting news - Lauren Elizabeth had arrived :D (We're all a little confused when Lauren's birthday actually is now, as she was born on 26th UK time, but 27th Latvia time!!) Laura also popped her head in to celebrate at 2am - turns out none of Team Latvia had much sleep on Monday night. 

Tuesday, we headed out to the Ethnographic museum of Latvia - lots of old buildings in a rather large forest. We had a great time wandering around the buildings, and running up and down hills, as well as playing some frisbee, and making a congratulations video for Alice - the team leader from Latvia 2014 who got married on Tuesday! We headed back to Riga, making a detour via a memorial for the victims of the Latvian holocaust that we had learnt about the day before. 

Just as you thought Team Latvia couldn't get more bizarre than glow in the dark Uno, we ended up having a glow in the dark Baby shower for Lauren - we had light up balloons, glow sticks and bubbles, and ended up dancing the evening away with YMCA, Macarena and the Cha Cha Slide all looking particularly good in glow form! 

Today has been very relaxing, starting with Sarah cooking scotch pancakes for breakfast, and Net cooking a fry up for brunch. In the afternoon, the team split, with Sarah S and Laura heading for some spa time relaxation, and Net, Katie and Sarah K heading for the shops! 

Tomorrow, we are back to project with our Ranger/Rover evening, and also packing for camp on Friday :) 

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo!

Post by Laura

Unfortunately, our leaders' training day on Saturday had to be cancelled...so instead....we went to the zoo.  We got on the tram slightly unsure of where to get off, but quickly realised there were several families with young children that would clearly lead the way.

On arrival, the first animals we encountered were goats and sheep labelled as chickens - it was going to be a good day.  Other highlights included: a ridiculous amount of time looking at and filming the giraffes, Net filming a climbing tortoise for over 2 minutes, the huge crocodile in the reptile house as well as our favourite little lizard, the gecko and the sting rays in the aquarium.

After the 16 hectares we covered at the zoo and to celebrate our project so far, we headed out to a traditional Latvian restaurant and folk club for dinner.  The food and atmosphere was soaked up and enjoyed by all.  We even managed to cheer up our waiter who was clearly rushed off his feet.

An early-ish start on Sunday found us at the train station where we met some Scouts in time for the 9.50 train to Jurmala to go sailing with the Sea Scouts we had seen twice in the last two weeks.  After a 4 km walk from the station, we arrived at the Sea Scout jetty and were greeted by the leader Valdis. The Scouts got out some little sailing boats, a larger sailing boat and several canoes and kayaks.  

Then before activities on the water began, we had a small parade and flag ceremony involving raising the Latvian Scout and Guide Sailing Team flag next to the Latvian flag and the Union Jack which we had brought with us.  We then led some games with the group to warm up a little before taking to the water.  The Scouts paired themselves off and took a member of Team Latvia with them out on the canoes while the remaining scouts were taken out on the sailing boats.

When the Scouts had returned Team Latvia to dry ground, Katie decided she'd had enough of canoeing for the day but the rest of Team Latvia went back out on the Kayaks on their own.  Meanwhile, on shore a fire was started where the Scouts sat around to keep warm, eat their lunch, cook sausages and toast marshmallows.  Some were also still being shown the ropes on the sailing boats.  

After the rest of Team Latvia had returned to shore and eaten their own lunch and warmed up by the fire, Valdis and Agija offered to take us out on the larger sailing boat for a go.  So we all jumped in the boat and Sarah S, Sarah K and myself took it in turns to be the captain in charge, accompanied by our inflatable parrot prop we had also brought for sailing, named Carruthers earlier in the day when out on the kayaks.  Sarah S and myself had never been sailing before and really enjoyed it.  Sarah K had done it before and got us stuck on a sand bank.

On return to shore, it was time to pack up and there was another parade and lowering of flags ceremony to finish the day.  We said our goodbyes and decided to give Carruthers to Agija as her new mascot when representing Latvia and set off on the long walk back to the station.

    

GOLD...go to visit the Rock

Post by Sarah K

Thursday turned out to be our most random and therefore most 'GOLD' day yet!  It was an early start for us, as we had to get the train at 7.40am to a little village in Southern Latvia called Vabole.

After three and a half long hours on possibly the worlds most uncomfortable train (most of us did attempt to sleep all the way there!), we arrived in what can only be described as the middle of no where.  As we jumped off the train we were greeted by not only the leader of Vabole Guides (Ingrida) and our interpreter for the day (Olga), but also by the entire Guide unit who had been allowed to take the day off school to join us on an excursion.  The Guides were really excited and had their cameras at the ready to start taking pictures and selfies with all of us.....we sort of felt like celebrities for the day!

We were quickly whisked off into a waiting mini-bus with all the Guides and driven to a near-by nature park which contained lots of locally crafted wooden sculptures, a few massive stork nests (also locally crafted by the storks) and in typical team Latvia style we found the playground.  We enjoyed the playground and the Guides joined in which doubled our fun!  Sarah S also managed to rip a hole in her leggings while on the see-saw and only noticed on the train on the way home!!!

Following the nature park, we were back on the bus and taken to the local church where the Guides sang us a song they had been practising when they were at church.  As they sang it in Latvian, it took us a while to work out what is was, but once we got to the chorus we realised that it was Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, and we have all been humming this ever since!

Back on the bus we were told that we were being taken to the regions most popular tourist attraction - Latvia's largest Rock.  There was a great deal of debate (and there still is...) as to whether it was a rock, boulder, or stone.  When we arrived, it turned out that it was a large rock (~170m3), along with everyone else we jumped onto the rock and had many photos taken, then got back on the bus.

After a 20min bus ride we arrived at the local Kindergarten and primary school where we were given lunch of chicken, mashed potato, salad, melon and Kvass (which is a Latvian drink). We were then rushed off to the local secondary school which was where our meeting was to be held in the afternoon.

As we arrived and set ourselves up in the classroom, we started off by playing a name game.  We had already spent a bit of time with the Guides in the morning, and therefore it was easier to get to grips with their names (most of them anyway).  We decided that most of the activities today would be craft based and we had designed one for each of the World Centres again.  For Pax Lodge we made UK mobiles, for Our Chalet we made snowflakes, for Our Cabana we made God's Eyes, and for Sangam we did some Warli Art.  To finish off with for Kusifiri we played Elephant football, which as always got very competitive and was very funny.

For the final 30mins of our meeting the Guides had planned a couple of activities to show us what they like to do.  The first activity was matching pictures to their countries....in Latvian.  We were pretty good at it, with a bit of help from our teams of Guides.  The next activity was to make an origami windmill.  For the crafty amongst us this was great but Net and Sarah S, who are not fans of craft, required a tiny bit of help :)  The final activity involved a team member being blindfolded and having to find all the pegs placed on another team member.  Both the Sarah's were pegged, and Net, Laura and Katie had been blindfolded and had to find the pegs - this was very funny!

As we rounded off our meeting we gave everyone one of our badges, which the girls were really pleased with and they told us that they really enjoyed their day.  A few of them then walked us back to the train station in time to catch our train home, another three and a half hours back to Riga!!  We managed to fill our train time by writing diaries, postcards and doing puzzles, and by the time we got home we were all happy but shattered!!  Thankfully we've got a rest day on Friday to recuperate before our big training day on Saturday.

It's not planning unless there's cake!

Post by Sarah K

Tuesday started off at a fairly leisurely pace, as we rested in the apartment and Net cooked us lunch :) We wandered down to Riga train station and got a train to Lielupe, which is at the Eastern end of Jurmala, and headed to the beach.  It was a bit colder today than it was last week so Laura and I decided not to go for a swim, but we had an hour or so relaxing as a team on the beach, running, doing yoga, playing frisbee and eating our sandwiches.

Sarah S, Laura and Sarah K doing some beach yoga

We left the beach and aimed to take the most direct route to the school to meet the Sea Scouts.  Laura decided that the best way to get there was to walk straight through the forest (without using a map!), but thankfully we arrived in plenty of time and didn't get lost!

We started the meeting by playing Granny Tag, while narrowly avoiding running into trees, and then went inside for woggle making.  We had only managed to figure this out this morning, and therefore it was a bit of a challenge trying to teach them!  Valdis (the Sea Scouts leader) supplied us with some leather to use for the woggles, and Laura and myself set about trying to explain what to do.  We found that it was actually easier doing a practical demonstration in smaller groups and therefore split the group, so there was one of us to 3 or 4 scouts.  They all eventually managed to make a woggle (some more successful than others), but they seemed to enjoy the activity and will be trying it again!

Once again, our trek back to the train station was through the pitch black forest....but this time we managed to actually find a lit path and was not as scary as last week!

Wednesday was a day filled with planning....and planning we only do when there is cake.  So after lunch with Laura's friend Karlis, we found a new coffee shop called Kuu'ka which does amazing cheesecake and gluten free chocolate cake (which made me really happy!!!!!) and settled down to plan our meeting for Vabole on Thursday.  We were told by the leader that we could do anything we liked, and therefore threw a few ideas around before agreeing that it should be all about international Guiding.  We settled on doing a craft to represent each of the WAGGGS World Centres (more on those in tomorrows blog!), and decided that we would need to spend the evening making prototypes in order to be prepared - think Blue Peter with 'here's one I made earlier'.  Once planning was complete we jumped on a tram and headed back to Riga Unit 66.  However, this evening we were meeting with the Cubs and Brownies, rather than the Scouts and Guides as we did last Thursday.

Planning in Kuu'Ka cafe

We had decided on a bit of an international Guiding and Scouting theme for the meeting this evening.  We began by playing a zombie name game, followed by a sitting down game which caused much laughter as it involved sitting on other people.  Then we played an international version of Connect.  We then moved on to complete a couple of crafts to represent two of the World Centres.  We made St George's cross flag badges for Pax Lodge in the UK, and Festival Snowflakes for Our Cabana in Mexico.  For all the other World Centres we played some games - for Our Chalet (Switzerland) we played the Moo game, for Sangam (India) we played Gecko (fast becoming the teams favourite game!), and for Kusifiri (Africa) we played Elephant football.  We rounded off our evening of fun playing Kung Fu jungle, which the Cubs and Brownies were very good at :)

The Moo game...

Once we made it back home we started prepping our crafts for our day with the Guides in Vabole - but more on that in the next blog post!

The GOLDen Autumn

Post written by Net and Sarah K 

After the craziness of the day trip to Valmiera, we were lucky enough to have 2 days off to recover before the next week of training and meetings. We had met up with Laura's friend Karlis a few days before and he had suggested taking us to Sigulda - a town next to Gauja National Park, which is very picturesque. Karlis recruited one of his friends, and we jumped into their two cars and off we went! I slept for the entire journey, but I'm sure it was beautiful on the way... 

We arrived at Sigulda and our first stop was Turaida castle (although we got distracted by a church and a couple of other things on the way.) At the castle, we climbed the rather large tower, up some very narrow staircases - not great with rucksacks and a large amount of tourists! We spent a considerable amount of time discussing how we would convert it into our house - there's going to be a balcony all the way around, and a campfire room! After a difficult route down, we continued to investigate the rest of the castle, and found some buttons to play with. 

Next we had a walk around the sculpture park, and other exhibits, and found a big pile of leaves to jump in (yay for GOLDen autumns :) ) and then headed to find some lunch - proper Latvian food - meat and potatoes! We were then taken to the bobsleigh track which unfortunately was being used for actual bobsleighing, so we couldn't have a go (we're not sure if our insurance would have covered it anyway!) but it was fun to have a look around. After this, we headed back home, and I slept again - it was dark this time, so I don't think I missed as much! 

Back in the apartment, and we decided it was time for some pampering - facemasks, nail varnish and smores were all in order :D A few more of the bubbles that I bought the team were blown as well - not just any bubbles though, these ones don't pop! (it's Tuesday now, and there are still some stuck to the wall...) 

Monday found us in our favourite teahouse, curled up on the floor cushions - we were actually there to plan! We spent just under 3 hours there, planning for the rest of the week, particularly for the Training Day we have on Saturday. It was very productive, and the proximity to cheesecake definitely helped! 

In the evening, we were lucky enough to have an evening with Liga, and she took us out kayaking!! We headed off down the River Daugava, and then along the canal, and back out to the river. We didn't quite manage to see a beaver, but there were loads of ducks, and the bridges were lit up along the canal and were awesome to float underneath. Thanks Liga! 

Afterwards, we were all pretty exhausted, so it was time for bed. 

Today we're off to Jurmala again, and we're teaching them how to make woggles, so we've spent the morning teaching OURSELVES how to make woggles! We'll let you know how it goes in the next blog post.

Apartment of the rising sun (or not)

Post by Katie and Net

On Friday we ventured over the river to explore the other side of Riga, visiting a Russian monument, the National Library, which is quite an impressive piece of architecture, and a cat cafe.

We also planned our session for the next day, where we would be visiting a unit in Valmiera. To get there in time, we set off in darkness to catch the 7.30am coach for our 2 hour journey.

This was our biggest group yet, with around 40 Scouts and Guides for the 1st session. We started off with the inflatable globe throwing name game and then played zip zap being, where you send the 'zip' around the circle in various directions. We had planned to have 4 activities that groups could rotate around, and were able to quickly adapt this to 5 activities with so many participants. I ran an activity where the group has to balance a stick on their fingers, and then lower it to the ground without anyone letting go. It's deceptively tricky. Net played Robot, where one person is blindfolded, one person can't speak and another can't hear, and they then have to guide the blindfolded person to a destination. Sarah K ran Paper Islands, challenging groups to get from one side of the room to the other using a few pieces of paper to avoid touching the floor. Sarah S's groups had to work together to move a string hoop round while they were all holding hands. For Laura's activity, each member of the group acted as a different part of a body, and worked together to blow up a balloon and walk together before popping the balloon.

 About 30 Cubs and Brownies showed up for our 2nd session. We started with the globe name game again and followed with Make me a...shape. This time one group made a fully moving bus and almost disappeared down the corridor entirely. Our next activity was the True or False WAGGGS and WOSM game to learn facts about the two World Organisations that the Latvian Scouts and Guides are a part of, and the World Centres corners game. We finally sang Get Loose and Alice The Camel and exchanged badges.

Afterwards we went out to lunch with two of the Scout leaders, Martins and Artis, who also showed us around Valmiera including a great view of the surrounding countryside from the top of a church spire, a BMX track and a forest with a treehouse and playground! 

We eventually got back to our apartment 14 hours after leaving, having travelled 210km, and had a very busy day! Our next couple of days are relatively relaxed so we've got some well earnt recovery time... 

Marupe Brownies and Unit 66

Post by Katie

Mary Poppins would be proud of us, as on Wednesday we got round to some flat-cleaning, washing clothes and stocking up our fridge and cupboards. We also planned for our first Brownie meeting, which was held in a school in Marupe, only a short bus ride from Riga.

We held an international themed evening for the girls, their Leader and a couple of Young Leaders, to help them learn about the World Association of Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting and the fact that Guiding happens all around the world. 

We first played 'Name someone and throw them a ball' but this time with our inflatable globes, and then an international version of 'Connect' (My name is.... and I want to visit....a country) to link us all together. We then went outside to play corners, where the girls had to run and choose a corner, and then sit out if their corner was called. We made each corner into a World Centre, and were also able to include the 5th World Centre, newly named as Kusafiri, which roams around Africa.

Finally, we played the WAGGGS world badge beetle drive, complete with a die made by Net. (Mum, I used maths!-Net) The girls really enjoyed drawing the badge and learning what the different parts of the badge mean.

On Thursday we travelled by tram to the outskirts of Riga, where Unit 66 meets in a Youth Centre. We met the Guides and Scouts and started off with a different name game, where you have to say someone's name before the person in the middle of the circle slaps your hand. Next we played True or False? for facts about the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM) and WAGGGS. For the main activity, we asked the Guides and Scouts to plan a 2 night trip away, thinking about budget, the aim of the trip and the logistics of going away. We shared our experiences of preparing for trips such as our GOLD trip, and were happy to hear them say it had been useful afterwards. To finish, we played stomp, where everyone takes one step at a time, all at the same time and tries to stand on someone else's foot. There was much laughter and some competitiveness (including from myself). 

Tomorrow is a day off before Saturday, when we will be getting up very early for a day's training in Valmeira.

By the Baltic seaside

Post by Katie

After our hectic but fun Saturday, Sunday and Monday were more relaxed. We explored the centre of Riga, met the Chief Guide Agnija to discuss what would be happening on the rest of our GOLD project and also met up with Liga to help her plan a future overnight hike for Rovers and Rangers, with activities to help them get to know each other and get them interested in coming to future meetings.

We also had the chance to go to an ice hockey match, which was great fun and a must if you're ever in Riga.

Sarah K helping one of the tiny cubs! 

On Tuesday we took the train to Jurmala, a popular historic resort town and also the home of the Jurmala Sea Cubs and Brownies. We played some getting to know you games, Chaos tag where everyone is on, Make me a...shape out of yourselves and some relay games. It was great to talk to the kids and we will be going back there to run more activities next Tuesday.

On the non-project side, Laura and Sarah K have been in the Baltic sea and out for a run. The rest of us are more sensible!

At the beach

We've arrived!

Post by Katie

We're in Latvia! After going to INTOPS 13 months ago, finding out we'd been selected for Latvia 10 months ago and all the planning, our project has begun.

And in true GOLD style, it's been a whirlwind so far.

We successfully made it to Riga and up the 3 flights of stairs to our flat late Thursday night. We stocked up on food the next morning and had a wander through the Old Town of Riga before meeting up with Liga to talk about GOLD in Latvia.

We helped Liga to plan her first meetings of the year, one for each age range, for the next day, and 1 hour before the train was due to leave, decided to travel to Ogre, where the meeting was, so that we were there ready for the morning. Cue some quick packing and travelling to the train station, but we made it.

Saturday was spent at Liga's unit. We ran games for Brownies and Cubs to get them excited about Guiding and Scouting, and for the Guides and Scouts we ran activities to make them think about how they treat others both at their meetings and outside of them.

Finally we ran a Look Wider taster session for the Rovers and Rangers to demonstrate what we'd do at a Senior Section meeting in the UK. We first covered Leadership where the Rovers and Rangers had to lead an activity; they came up with teaching us a traditional Latvian folk song by making us listen and write down what we heard phonetically. We next did the Fit for Life Octane, for which we played Newspaper Hockey, and finally International, which involved talking about what you'd pack in a rucksack to travel with. 

And did I mention that this all took place at the Latvian Scout and Guide museum? There were exhibits from the very start of the organisations and the museum also covered the Soviet Union occupation, when Scouting and Guiding were banned and those Latvian Scouts and Guides that had managed to escape were scattered across the globe; impressively they continued Latvian Scouting and Guiding, for example there's a Latvian unit in Nottingham.

So now we're back in Riga, ready to recharge and prepare for our next adventure!

GOLD Team Roles

Blog post by everyone!

Net - Leader

My role is pretty simple - to make sure everything is done right! This means supporting the rest of the team in their roles, writing risk assessments, sorting out accommodation, liaising with both the LSGCO and Girlguiding here in the UK and generally keeping on top of everything. I've probably done some other stuff too but it's been a bit of a blur! It's a big job, but I'm enjoying the challenge! 

Sarah S – First Aid

My main role as First Aider is providing first aid (whilst making sure that anyone else involved is safe and that the situation doesn’t become worse) and pastoral support overseas on project for GOLD Team Latvia.  At second briefing we had individual role training and Toni from Team Latvia 2014 ran the First Aid training, demonstrating effective wound cleaning and explaining the signs and symptoms of temperature related conditions.  Hopefully, I won’t have to use my training whilst out on project and everyone says safe and well!  

Laura – Resource co-ordinator

The training and resources co-ordinator role involves ensuring we have all the resources we need to run our training sessions whilst on project. This includes co-ordinating and sourcing what we need to bring with us from the UK and what we will likely be able to buy in country to save money and weight in luggage.

Sarah K - Treasurer

While the rest of the team were off at their individual role trainings, Net and I went to the treasurer training.  I’m in charge of the money and making sure we stick to our budget in Latvia….apparently I’m the responsible one…..  At the treasurer training we ran through a mock budget and went through how to use all the different spreadsheets.  I’ve basically got to make sure that we have a budget worked out before we leave the UK, and keep track of everything while in Latvia.  Therefore I’ll be collecting and numbering receipts, be in charge of the team bank account and make sure that the books add up after we get back!  I’ll be constantly armed with a mini calculator, conversion chart and my treasurer notebook J I’d better get started practicing some mental arithmetic!            

Katie – Photo & Video Co-ordinator

I’m responsible for making sure we’re taking photos of our work throughout the project, making sure we've got the photos we need for social media, and taking photos & video that follow Girlguiding guidelines. After the project, it’s my job to select our best 50 photos and send these to Girlguiding. I know that’s going to be hard, as there’ll be so many moments I’ll want to select (And, in the age of digital cameras, we take a lot of photos. I took hundreds on my last trip, so times that by 5 and that’s a lot of photos to go through! )

My training involved sorting through previous GOLD photos to determine what were good and bad qualities in the photos, and discussing our handy how-to booklet with Girlguiding’s PR team.

Written Documenter (written by Katie)

As there’s only 5 of us, this role will be shared between all of us, with a co-ordinator for each social media role. For example, for this post we each wrote about our own roles. We’ll share things such as writing minutes from our team conference calls, and the reports about our trip.

Sarah S is our twitter queen (follow us @GOLDLatvia_2015), our Facebook page is in Sarah K’s capable hands and I (Katie) am the blog co-ordinator. 

4th (and last!) Briefing Weekend, 4th - 6th September

Blog post by Katie

Our 4^th Briefing weekend took place up on the North Welsh coast in my county Clwyd, at the Rhyl Guide Headquarters. Once everyone had arrived, including our spare pigeon from 3^rd Briefing, we were presented with mysterious presents by Net and told to open them at the same time; it turned out these were our uniforms! We’re now kitted out in matching polos, rugby shirts & hoodies, and we look very smart even if I do say so myself.

Sarah in our lovely Latvian-red hoodie. And a pigeon (spot the developing theme...)

On Saturday morning, after a traditional camp breakfast of eggy bread, we knuckled down to setting an agenda for the weekend and doing some planning for when we’re out in Latvia. One of the lists we're making is songs, ice breakers and general games we can play with the leaders and kids. If you know any songs or games, let us know in the comments below.

Rhyl Guide Headquarters is only 5 minutes walk from the beach, so in the afternoon we headed down for a stroll and to get some team photos wearing our uniform.

Synchronised jumping in all our varieties of uniform.

These rugby shirts will keep us warm in the chilly October weather.

Our alternate life as a band. Album due out soon....

On the Sunday we were able to decamp to Sue’s house due to needing to be out of the headquarters (thank you Sue!) where we took over the dining room for the last few hours of planning and discussing before we went our separate ways.

It’s strange to think that in 13 days we will be coming together the night before our project starts, but we can’t wait to get to Riga and start meeting the Scouts and Guides we’re going to be working with.

Roll on Latvia!

Did everyone remember their spare pigeon..?! Third briefing weekend 24-26th July

Blog post by Sarah K

Third briefing began on a VERY wet Friday at the end of July. We all travelled up (or across) to PGL Caythorpe, which for most of us took much longer than planned due to rain, traffic etc – generally your typical English summer day!  Sarah S was being dropped off in Grantham a little later in the evening than the rest of us, so we went on a road trip in Katie’s car to pick her up!  Katie doesn’t have the biggest car and had never driven it with so many people in it, so squashing us all in was quite amusing – I’m not sure she’ll volunteer to drive next time!  We turned up in ASDA car park in typical Team Latvia style…with a picture of a pigeon attached to a pole to help Sarah find us (for those of you not in on the joke, Anna (GOLD co-ordinator) suggested to the leaders that they could communicate via carrier pigeon….we took this very literally and managed to send her one at the World Scout Jamboree!!).

Anna with the 'pigeon' we sent her at the World Scout Jamboree in Japan!

Once back at PGL, we set about our first very important task for the weekend – celebrating Net’s birthday! We got her a variety of silly presents, including a bubble gun/fan (very handy for Latvia!) and of course ate some cake (made by Sarah K).  This was a bit of a late night with everyone so full of sugar so we sat up chatting and catching up ready to get to work in the morning.

Presents, cakes & pigeons

Saturday started on a slightly sad note.  Unfortunately Ellen has decided that she is unable to continue with the project and come to Latvia, due to personal commitments.  We are going to miss her very much, but wish her all the best!!  That leaves us as a team of five moving forwards, and so we set about discussing the rest of the project and how to work as a five.

Net had created a list of 18 things we needed to discuss over the weekend – not much really!! We began by doing the easy bit….writing the kit list.  An hour later we had filled a massive white board with all sorts of things we need to remember.  We were excited to receive an email from the Chief Guide in Latvia telling us more about the project, and began to discuss what we need to plan.  A lot of our work is going to be with the Rangers and Rovers so we looked at what resources were available in the UK already and made a list of things we need to collect.  We are also going to be doing a whole international based training day….more info on this will come from 4^th briefing!  We also discussed ways of reviewing things on project, including having a worry box and a memory box, and debated what gifts to get our hosts.

Creating the kit list

Laura's excited!!

After lunch we decided it was time for some team building so Net took us up on the high ropes course.  Sarah, Sarah and Katie took a bit of convincing to do it, but Laura thought it was great.  Needless to say we all made it round – Laura and Sarah K even had another go!  After we had all recovered from the adrenaline rush we got back to doing more planning and had almost finished our to do list by the end of the day.  After dinner we headed down the road to the local pub for a drink, where we sat at a table next to a parrot not in a cage (much to Sarah K’s horror!), and Laura tried to teach us a new version of I-spy.  This took us a loooooonnnngggg time to figure out, and I for one am still slightly confused, hopefully I’ll understand by the end of project!  We spent most of the evening relaxing, eating more cake and getting very competitive over Uno and Dobble.

We survived!!

Sunday was Katie’s birthday! We had more presents, more cake, and more planning time!  We discussed how we all deal with different emotions (a hug seems appropriate in most situations!) as well as discussed when our next teleconference will be.  We finished off the morning by taking a few pictures before having lunch and played a few more games of Dobble and ninjas before loading into cars and going our separate ways ready for 4^th briefing in just less than 6 weeks time!

Katie's birthday cake

GOLD love

Sarah K and Team Latvia xx

2nd Briefing Weekend

Blog post by Katie

The Charade Ghost

2 months after our 1^st Briefing, with chatting and planning in between, team Latvia reunited at Scout

Park in London. The first evening involved catching up with everyone, a side excursion to buy a tin opener and 100 bread rolls, and Guiding charades with a twist, where a member of each team had to communicate the word whilst inside a bed sheet!

Saturday was jam packed with team activities and training sessions. We started with our team activities which had to tell the other teams something about our country or our project aims, and we had to plan it without our leader’s involvement. Team Latvia came up with a code breakers game set in the Latvia forest. Each team had to decode a message in Morse code to find out which tree had their flag puzzle (each Latvian team member was a tree; for example I was a Maple tree and Net was a ‘Qualti’tree, so had Quality Street sweets stuck on her). It was then a race to see who could put their flag back together correctly first. We picked this activity because during the occupation of the Soviet Union when Guiding and Scouting was banned, groups met in secret in the woods. A few of the other teams’ activities included a Guinea Pig festival from Team Peru and Dragons Den from Team Malawi where we had to pitch one of the 5 Essentials of Guiding.

The Trees of Latvia (Qualitree, Palm, Maple, Redwood, Beech & Oak)

We learnt about facilitating sessions and how to deal with different types of participants in the afternoon, and then we split up to have a training session about our specific team role. This year, the roles in the GOLD team have changed slightly. My role, the Photo & Video Coordinator, is new. You can read a bit more about our roles in an upcoming blog post.

Team Rwanda's creation is judged by 'Paul' and 'Mary'

Challenged to write the promise using dry spaghetti 

Our evening entertainment was TV-themed activities, which led to much fun and a lot of great costumes. I and Sarah are quite keen bakers, so we selected the Great British Bake Off. Each team had to make an object which represented their country out of marshmallow rice krispie mix and icing. Other teams ran games such as relay races, and the Poddington Peas put in an appearance as well.

Sunday brought on more training; we first had a choice between Translation training and Recruitment & Retention training. Most Latvians can speak excellent English, and for the youngest kids who might still be learning English, the adult leaders can help them out, so we as a team went to Recruitment & Retention. 

Playing 'Guess the WAGGGS resource'

Our final activity was a session about the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). For many of the teams, one of the main aims is to promote international Guiding, so this activity was really useful in teaching us more about WAGGGS and learning about the resources, such as activity packs & board games that we can take with us.

And with that, all that was left was the traditional camp lunch of leftovers (I can report that naan bread and peach yoghurt go very well together) before saying our goodbyes and walking to the station. This was the very last time that all the GOLDies of 2015 would be together, as we all have our future briefing weekends separately, then the summer teams have a debrief together, and the winter teams (plus Malawi) have their debrief together. On a happier note, team Latvia has two more briefing weekends to look forward to, as we don’t go on project until October! 

Team Latvia at the 2nd Briefing Weekend