Hello.
I've forced myself to sit at the computer and write because it's been a while, but I'm not really sure what to write about. This reflects my mood lately - I'm now close enough to the end of my term here to be starting to think about the going home process, but not quite close enough to actually do anything about it. This has also left me in a strange place at work. Most of my long-term projects are now completed, and I'm just doing the everyday little things which, whilst important, aren't new or exciting any more. I've no doubt that if I were staying longer, thing would still seem interesting and exciting, but the knowledge that it's all nearly over is skewing the way I see things.
We have just finished an event - Celebrate Our Centenary. Aha! This is actually something exciting to write about, but it hadn't occurred to me until this very second! For those of you not in the know, World Thinking Day is celebrated on 22nd February by all guides and scouts across the world. 22 Feb was the birthday of both Lord and Lady Baden Powell - the founders of the scouting and guiding movements - and on this day, we celebrate what the movement has achieved, and think about our brothers and sisters all over the world. For this event, we had 23 participants who were from England (mainly Northants - where I live!), Scotland, Canada, Australia and Ireland. They were a bunch of lovely ladies, a couple of whom kept trying to encourage me to become a trainer with GGUK when I get home. I've promised them I'll think about it, but it'll have to wait a while as I'm going to be very busy in the next year!
Anyway, back to the event. At the beginning, we had a lot of trips out. I didn't sit at a computer for 3 whole days which is unheard of at work here! The first day was pretty standard - tour of Sangam and the local neighbourhood etc, followed by the welcome ceremony in the evening. The second day featured the Laxmi road tour, which I hadn't done for ages because of a combination of off and sick days, so it was nice to go again and help all the ladies choose their sari and punjabi suit materials. I then sat in on Mina's 'Explore Indian Culture' session - in which she answers questions from the participants and informs them about Indian customs, politics, current practices etc. The session after that found me running a 'match the uniforms' game that Jessica had created as part of a round robin of historical activities, and then we ended the day early so that everyone could rest!
The next day found us on another trip out - to our community partner Ishwari, and to Tulapur which is a historical and religious site of importance, at a real Sangam (meeting of rivers).I went before but stayed on the bus with a participant who wasn't feeling well, so I enjoyed being able to discover and enjoy the rivers for myself this time. Ishwari was as excellent as ever; we visited the workshop where women learn to sew, and where the classroom that our recent DYP participants painted is located, before heading to the main site to meet Sister Rosalia. She'd organised for a sweetcorn soup to be made for us all which was delicious, and then we broke into the picnic lunch (rice, dal, potatoes, chappatti and grapes) that the ladies at Sangam had sent us out with. It was a long hot day, but on the way home we also stopped at Alandi ghat so that we could see the multiple uses of the special river.
The NEXT day, we were out again! It was community partner visit day. This time, because the thinking day theme for the year is the environment, we visited eco-friendly sites. I went with Christa and some of the participants to see how refuse collection works in the local neighbourhood (a woman with a pushcart collects rubbish from each house, roughly sorts it, then leaves it at a designated spot on the pavement for the corporation truck to collect it), and then went to an anaerobic digester plant! Here, they turned all the 'wet waste' (compostable) into biogas, which was in turn converted to electricity which power the plant and the streetlights for the whole road outside. It was really interesting, and very different from our usual CP visits, which was nice because after 5 months, it does sometimes feel like there's nothing new to experience here, and I was proved wrong! I ran a debrief session because Bron wasn't feeling well - luckily we'd planned it together - and then put on the 'MDG7 film', which was Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth. I was quite glad to have to sit in the hall and watch - serving cold fizzy drinks and popcorn halfway through - as it was a nice break, but I had to leave and give a tour to some visitors who'd turned up unexpectedly!
After all that, I was exceedingly glad to have a day off!
A day at Sangam followed my break, but it was a busy day for me, with meal duty, shop duty, reception duty and being on call! I also ran our reflection session in the morning, and the Leave your Mark session which gives participants the chance, funnily enough, to leave their mark on Sangam, by recording their event, or helping us out by painting trees or making paper bags etc. The guests all went out for dinner with local guiding or scouting families, and while I was waiting for their return, I attempted to make scotch pancakes in the kitchen ready for Shrove Tuesday so everyone could have them for breakfast. They didn't look anything like any pancakes I've ever seen, but tasted ok, and some people were brave enough to try them the next morning!
After our pancake breakfast, we had ANOTHER trip out; this time to the headquarters of Pune Bharat Scouts and Guides. Again, it was somewhere that I hadn't visited yet, so made a nice change. Mr Lagu, the secretary, told us all about the history of scouts and of the land there, and then we had a tour followed by coffee and biscuits, before returning to Sangam clutching a couple of patches.
The 22nd was the important day - World Thinking Day. We had an early breakfast, and then headed down to the campsite. Sangam and BS&G alternate hosting the ceremony, and this year was our turn, so we had 350 scouts and guides come to visit us! After ceremonial garlanding of photographs of Lord and Lady B-P, and a couple of short speeches, our participants and Tare all split into groups and took a school (or 2 or 3) group of scouts/guides to a spot in the campground to run games, songs, and activities that they'd planned the day before.
After they'd left, and we'd cleared up, had another session about the environment, and munched a 'soup and sandwiches' dinner of leftovers, we started to get ready for the evening ceremony. My role during the ceremony was to film it so Em could make a film, so I saw most of it through the camera screen, but it was very lovely, and it was exciting that we livestreamed it and lots of people I knew - Ellen, Net and Saga eg - were logged in and sharing the moment with us.
Em's video of the day is excellent, and you should also read Jessica's write-up on our website.It was a really great day; a girl guide's dream come true to celebrate World Thinking Day at a World Centre.
(The event finished as usual with an Indian Afternoon and then closing activities. IT was a great event, but we then launched straight into prep for the current event!)
TTFN
I've forced myself to sit at the computer and write because it's been a while, but I'm not really sure what to write about. This reflects my mood lately - I'm now close enough to the end of my term here to be starting to think about the going home process, but not quite close enough to actually do anything about it. This has also left me in a strange place at work. Most of my long-term projects are now completed, and I'm just doing the everyday little things which, whilst important, aren't new or exciting any more. I've no doubt that if I were staying longer, thing would still seem interesting and exciting, but the knowledge that it's all nearly over is skewing the way I see things.
We have just finished an event - Celebrate Our Centenary. Aha! This is actually something exciting to write about, but it hadn't occurred to me until this very second! For those of you not in the know, World Thinking Day is celebrated on 22nd February by all guides and scouts across the world. 22 Feb was the birthday of both Lord and Lady Baden Powell - the founders of the scouting and guiding movements - and on this day, we celebrate what the movement has achieved, and think about our brothers and sisters all over the world. For this event, we had 23 participants who were from England (mainly Northants - where I live!), Scotland, Canada, Australia and Ireland. They were a bunch of lovely ladies, a couple of whom kept trying to encourage me to become a trainer with GGUK when I get home. I've promised them I'll think about it, but it'll have to wait a while as I'm going to be very busy in the next year!
Anyway, back to the event. At the beginning, we had a lot of trips out. I didn't sit at a computer for 3 whole days which is unheard of at work here! The first day was pretty standard - tour of Sangam and the local neighbourhood etc, followed by the welcome ceremony in the evening. The second day featured the Laxmi road tour, which I hadn't done for ages because of a combination of off and sick days, so it was nice to go again and help all the ladies choose their sari and punjabi suit materials. I then sat in on Mina's 'Explore Indian Culture' session - in which she answers questions from the participants and informs them about Indian customs, politics, current practices etc. The session after that found me running a 'match the uniforms' game that Jessica had created as part of a round robin of historical activities, and then we ended the day early so that everyone could rest!
The next day found us on another trip out - to our community partner Ishwari, and to Tulapur which is a historical and religious site of importance, at a real Sangam (meeting of rivers).I went before but stayed on the bus with a participant who wasn't feeling well, so I enjoyed being able to discover and enjoy the rivers for myself this time. Ishwari was as excellent as ever; we visited the workshop where women learn to sew, and where the classroom that our recent DYP participants painted is located, before heading to the main site to meet Sister Rosalia. She'd organised for a sweetcorn soup to be made for us all which was delicious, and then we broke into the picnic lunch (rice, dal, potatoes, chappatti and grapes) that the ladies at Sangam had sent us out with. It was a long hot day, but on the way home we also stopped at Alandi ghat so that we could see the multiple uses of the special river.
The NEXT day, we were out again! It was community partner visit day. This time, because the thinking day theme for the year is the environment, we visited eco-friendly sites. I went with Christa and some of the participants to see how refuse collection works in the local neighbourhood (a woman with a pushcart collects rubbish from each house, roughly sorts it, then leaves it at a designated spot on the pavement for the corporation truck to collect it), and then went to an anaerobic digester plant! Here, they turned all the 'wet waste' (compostable) into biogas, which was in turn converted to electricity which power the plant and the streetlights for the whole road outside. It was really interesting, and very different from our usual CP visits, which was nice because after 5 months, it does sometimes feel like there's nothing new to experience here, and I was proved wrong! I ran a debrief session because Bron wasn't feeling well - luckily we'd planned it together - and then put on the 'MDG7 film', which was Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth. I was quite glad to have to sit in the hall and watch - serving cold fizzy drinks and popcorn halfway through - as it was a nice break, but I had to leave and give a tour to some visitors who'd turned up unexpectedly!
After all that, I was exceedingly glad to have a day off!
A day at Sangam followed my break, but it was a busy day for me, with meal duty, shop duty, reception duty and being on call! I also ran our reflection session in the morning, and the Leave your Mark session which gives participants the chance, funnily enough, to leave their mark on Sangam, by recording their event, or helping us out by painting trees or making paper bags etc. The guests all went out for dinner with local guiding or scouting families, and while I was waiting for their return, I attempted to make scotch pancakes in the kitchen ready for Shrove Tuesday so everyone could have them for breakfast. They didn't look anything like any pancakes I've ever seen, but tasted ok, and some people were brave enough to try them the next morning!
After our pancake breakfast, we had ANOTHER trip out; this time to the headquarters of Pune Bharat Scouts and Guides. Again, it was somewhere that I hadn't visited yet, so made a nice change. Mr Lagu, the secretary, told us all about the history of scouts and of the land there, and then we had a tour followed by coffee and biscuits, before returning to Sangam clutching a couple of patches.
The 22nd was the important day - World Thinking Day. We had an early breakfast, and then headed down to the campsite. Sangam and BS&G alternate hosting the ceremony, and this year was our turn, so we had 350 scouts and guides come to visit us! After ceremonial garlanding of photographs of Lord and Lady B-P, and a couple of short speeches, our participants and Tare all split into groups and took a school (or 2 or 3) group of scouts/guides to a spot in the campground to run games, songs, and activities that they'd planned the day before.
Our Thinking Day Tree:
BS&G on the campsite:
Group activities:
Guides demonstrating their cheerleading:
Scouts from the school for the blind performing a dance:
Another performance:
And another:
Games:
After they'd left, and we'd cleared up, had another session about the environment, and munched a 'soup and sandwiches' dinner of leftovers, we started to get ready for the evening ceremony. My role during the ceremony was to film it so Em could make a film, so I saw most of it through the camera screen, but it was very lovely, and it was exciting that we livestreamed it and lots of people I knew - Ellen, Net and Saga eg - were logged in and sharing the moment with us.
Em's video of the day is excellent, and you should also read Jessica's write-up on our website.It was a really great day; a girl guide's dream come true to celebrate World Thinking Day at a World Centre.
(The event finished as usual with an Indian Afternoon and then closing activities. IT was a great event, but we then launched straight into prep for the current event!)
TTFN
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