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!