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.

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.

    

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.

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!