End of 2015 Highlights and Lowlights

We had an eventful end to 2015.

Highlights included visiting Gandi's House.

He made his own clothes from cotton that he spung

The girls climbed up to the small attic bedroom where he slept on the floor

Outside was a small table and chairs near the vegetable garden where he grew his own vegetables and herbs.

ladder leading to the attic room.

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The visit was an eye-opener to both the girls and the adults

Another Highlight was making bird treats.

Smearing peanut butter on pine cones

And covering them with birdseed

Then hanging them in tree

And scattering the leftover birdseed around our newly planted tree.

Lowlights

Five of the girls are going to High School, three of them definitely not coming again (except the two who have virtually achieved their Chief's Challenge  awards and are coming back to receive them) and two not sure if they will continue. That will leave us with two or three Guides.

On the positive side, a very enthusiastic lady has come forward to start a Brownie Pack at the Guide Hall. A Ranger with lots of experience will be assisting her.We are changing the meeting day from a Thursday to a Friday. Let's see what the new year holds.

Earth, Air, Fire and Water

Two of our Guides needed to organise a ceremony for their Chief’s Challenge.

We started with Air. Kristen had organised a ceremony of hope and peace. Everybody got a piece of paper to write a message on and attach it to a helium balloon (biodegradable).

We all took our balloons outside to release them (except for two that escaped and stayed on the roof of the hall).

 

 

 

Next we moved on to Earth, with a tree-planting ceremony.

The tree was a September Tree.  Samantha read a poem about trees and then the work of planting began.

 

 

We only had half an hour to complete Fire and Water.  First the girls used candles to make an invisible message appear.

The message involved water balloons and throwing them to each other, with predictable results.

All in all, a memorable evening.

Cookafun

Yesterday was our region’s Cookafun. For Guides and Rangers this meant an outdoor cooking competition, for Teddies and Brownies, it just meant fun.  the Brownies made buddy burners and then later ice-cream.  Teddies made pigs in a blanket and then a chocolate banana pudding.

 

Four Guides from 1st Waverley attended and I left them to decide their own menu and ring their own ingredients and equipment. they had to set up a kitchen, make a woodpile, make and light a fire, cook a two course mean and then present it to the judges.  The girls chose funky chicken wraps with salad and backpackers crepes for pudding. The judges were impressed that they had chosen to cook both courses.

 

The girls even made a gadget to help turn the pancakes on a hot fire.

The girls had a great time and produced a very tasty meal.  Tidy up was also scored, of course.

Our team came 2nd out of 5 and I am very proud of them. Most importantly I think, they had fun, learned new skills and worked well as a team.  I am encouraged by the great turnout and the overwhelming support of parents.

After the competition there was a cup-cake decorating demonstration for the Brownies and Guides and a lot of creativity was displayed.

 

Santa’s Shoe box and Women’s rights

A big thank you to all the parents who sent contributions for the Santa Shoe Box Project. Our box was bulging and I had to remove the wrappins of some of the stationary to get it to fit in.  The girls did a great job of decorating the box with decoupage using material and modge podge and I hope it will make some little girl really happy.

 

This week we tackled women’s rights and why we celebrate Women’s Day in August. The girls had done some research and presented a play for us.

We decided that women had the right to feel beautiful so we played a game using nail polish to paint toe nails according to the spin of a marker.

Finally we ended with a team building game where one sighted player leads a train of blindfolded players around a course. Although there were only 4 Guides and one visiting Brownie, everybody had a lot of fun.

Masidlale Games

Every year the Gauteng Region holds a fun day of competitive games. It used to be called Splish Splash and involved water games but now it is called the Masidlale Games and this year water was omitted. It is also a fundraising event so a jumping castle, tea garden, food stalls and other marked stalls are organised.  Each district has to organise a base. I organised the Wilds base which involved making an emergency stretcher from blankets and gum poles and carrying one member across the course and then changing the patient.

Contestants ranged from Teddies

 

to Brownies,

to young leaders

 

Two of the Waverley Guides attended and joined up with the 3rd Randburg Guides to make a team of five.

Games included tying spaghetti in knots,

the stretcher base,

 

There was also picking up marbles with toes and then hopping across the course to deposit them into a bowl, throwing bean bags, rolling balls through tubes and joining the team’s tubes and others. Although we only had two Guides attending, those two had great fun.

Visit to the Sandton Fire Station.

Last week Brown Bear and Honey Bear took the Guides to the Sandton Fire Station. They learned how firemen operate and were given a tour by a very friendly Platoon Commander.
The Guides were impressed by the speed at which firemen work. They have to be donned in their protective clothing in under a minute and in the truck and rolling in two minutes flat.
The girls learned how to help someone on fire, how to make a bucket chain, emergency number to call for all emergencies and how to recognise fire hydrants. They had a wonderful time and the Guiders enjoyed it too.

Sweet First Aid

To make first aid more interesting, we added a sweet ingredient. The Guides had to complete certain challenges to earn ingredients for coconut ice. For the bowl and icing sugar they had to all demonstrate and arm sling. For the condensed mild they had to make a stretcher out of a blanket and two poles and carry a member of their patrol. for the coconut they made skits about tetanus and rabies.

What happens when you get bitten by a rabid dog

The reward was worth it. The girls made coconut ice as a patrol and each girl got to take home a container-full.

This week we are doing CPR. Probably won't be as fattening!

Family Hike

Government schools had broken up and I was on holiday. It is the middle of winter and I had been following the weather app on my Nokia phone as the forecast moved from 14 degrees C and 60% rain to 13 degrees max and 70% rain to 60% to 40% and on the Saturday in question to 17 degrees and 20% rain. Nevertheless 2 intrepid families and 2 Guiders and family members assembled as arranged at 10am at the Phalandingwe Adventures reception.

After filling in the appropriate indemnity forms our instructions were to follow the yellow arrows until we had gone through the gorge and then not to go left, but to go right and to follow the orange arrows. The group before us had got lost:- claimed they hadn’t seen the orange arrows and had ended up in the target area of the bow hunting competition teams.

We set off with great enthusiasm and soon were rewarded by our first look out point.

We walked along the river a while and then, at what appeared to be the end, there was a fork. Yellow arrows to the right, no sign of any arrows to the left.   Was this the end of the gorge? Our group was divided.  Two or three energetic hikers  went along the left route but saw no sign of any orange arrows. So we continued to follow the yellow arrows with half the group convinced we had taken the wrong path.

It was quite a while later that we actually walked through the gorge and before we started up and out, we stopped for lunch.

We did find the orange arrows but nevertheless we saw some targets to the right.  In the back of our minds we were thinking of arrows whizzing past our ears.

I am not sure exactly where we went wrong.  Again a fork with no indication of which way to go.  Half the group had gone on ahead to the left when one of the remaining hikers phoned and for once got through to the reception.  The right path was apparently correct.  By now we were definitely in bow hunters territory with target etc. set up on the left of the road.  We even came to a meeting of the bow hunters in their very official camouflage.  I was again in the back with the other stragglers while the front group got instructions from base camp again.  I asked a friendly looking bow hunter if she knew how far we still had to go. She said, not far – about five kilometres at which point I asked if there was a kind person with a big car who could take us. So we back four got into the car and phoned the front group. We would come back for them.  As it happened, the bow hunter misunderstood where our end point was and we only arrive about five minutes before the rest of the group who made it on foot.

Well done to all.  The girls did very well. I am proud of them.  Thanks to all the families who joined us.  We had a great adventure. I might need to send an e mail to Phalandingwe about their trail markings.