Thinking Day

Thinking Day was actually yesterday, 22 February, when Guides and Scouts all over the world think of each other and send greetings to each other.   Since it fell on a Guide meeting day, I had gone to some extra trouble to organise a cooking meeting.   I had organised with Ikhya Lomusa to use their kitchen and a large pot and the plan was to cook Spaghetti Bolognaise as an Italian dish.   I would send two of the senior Guides across to the kitchen and the rest of them would earn cheese, grater, tomato and onion as well as tin opener by answering questions about Guide history, Thinking day and, as usual, the Guide Laws.   We would also practice the Mauri Stick Game that I had taught them last week, in preparation for visiting the Old Age home later in the term.
Guides starts at 3.30.   By 4 when they had not come, I made some phone calls and found out they were on their way.   Meanwhile I switched on the urn in the kitchen so we could have boiling water to start cooking the spaghetti.   At 4.10 they arrived.   Three of them.   The two youngest and a new comer.   Well, what could I do?   I was a Guider, I had three girls and I had ingredients.   So the four of us started cooking spaghetti, opening tins and grating cheese.
When the spaghetti was almost cooked, Laiza came.  (She lives at the orphanage and had walked home from school)   Not long after her, another 5 came – 3 of my seniors in uniform, another newcomer and an 8 year old sister.  I left Laiza with the young ones to finish the meal while the rest came back with me to our meeting place across the road where they coloured in Italian Guide pictures   No sign of the three new girls from last week although I had received an SMS from Khosi to say that she was waiting for transport.   She never came.
In the end we had 10.   Maria came about 5.15.   The Spaghetti Bolognaise was delicious but we didn’t have time for flag breaking or practice of our stick game.


Today was much more successful.   The region was having a Thinking Day teaspoon tasting lunch.   I had got permission from the principal of Roseact, the Saturday school that the Rays of Hope girls were obliged to attend, for three of the girls to miss school today.   I went to fetch 5 of my senior Guides to take them to Trefoil Park.   Our district was given the country of Jordan to highlight.   I found a photo of some Jordanian Guides on the internet and made head punjabs for the girls.   I was only going to take 4 and identified the 4 before Maria had come but couldn’t leave her out as she was one of the founding guides so one of the punjabs was in another colour.
The girls had a wonderful time and other Guiders from our region had provided the most amazing food so that was a very successful day.  There were games from other countries, as well as wonderful meals.   Everybody had gone to so much trouble and the costumes were great. Happy thinking day to all.