Childcare badge

I decided to try a new strategy for badges.   It seems like all the Guides have a younger brother or sister or cousin or neighbour that they regularly look after.   I gave them each a letter to give to the mother of the child outlining the badge requirements with a place to sign if they are capable.   This puts the responsibility on to the girls themselves to get the tester and do the badge.

At Guides on Friday we went through suitable food, toys, routine and safety.   Then we talked about suitable clothes for the different seasons and made paper dolls.   

 

Well, let’s see how the girls do.

Camp!

For most Guides, camping is the highlight of their Guide career.   I had organised with Mandy, who runs the first Waverley Co, that we would have a district camp. She would be the QM and I would run the camp.   I have a colleague who runs the emergency care team at our school (and she also was one of my Guides when I was still with the 3rd Randburg Company) and she agreed to be the first aider then my son,  Chris would help us with security.
My prayer for the camp was that we would have nice weather and that the Guides from such diametrically opposed backgrounds would get on well together.   Rain was forecast for the weekend.
In the end, only 4 of my Guides turned up.   When the crunch came, the parents of the other 3 couldn’t come up with the money.   I had known that the sisters probably wouldn’t be able to make it but I expected 5.   My Guides came very late (predictably) but the 1st Waverley had enough so we could at least put up the tents.
It did rain on Friday night but not enough to flood the tents.   One patrol, however,was inundated by Parktown Prawns and had to be evacuated to the hall in the middle of the night.

On Saturday the girls learned first aid aimed at the first aid badge.



Our supper was planned to be cooking in patrols over open fires.   Although we had had no rain during the day it looked very threatening by about 5pm.   The girls did manage to make some great fires though.




The rain did come, however, and only one patrol managed to get their chicken casserole in foil cooked.   Along with the rain came lightening and we soon relocated the girls into the hall and the foil parcels into the oven.    By the time we had finished our indoor campfire, the lightning had receded and the rain had lessened so we were able to sleep in our tents (except for the Parktown Prawn patrol who were very skittish)
Sunday was badge testing and packing up on a beautiful hot sunny day.


The girls learned a lot.   They learned table etiquette (don’t walk on the table), working together to do duties,   campfire traditions,   How to Manya for lost property, first aid, of course, and in addition they made lots of new friends.






We all left exhausted with the Guiders vowing not to do another camp for at least a year but the Guides wanting to know when the next one would be.

Raining on Guide Sunday

Because the transport is so iffy as far as timing goes, we decided to get to the Waverley Guide Hall early so as to be quite sure that the girls would get there in time for Guide Sunday.   The plan was to all bring a picnic lunch.
So Sunday dawned very rainy and miserable.   Two girls  phoned or left messages to find out if Guide Sunday was still on.   In general it is very difficult to get hold of people in Alex.  A lot of them have cell phones but don’t have airtime or don’t keep them on most of the time so I decided we would just go with the plan and bring a gazebo and groundsheet.
So we had a picnic in the rain.  The girls didn’t mind.   They even went out walking in the rain .


Guide Sunday was a combination of inspiration and celebration.   Waverley Guide Hall was 50 years old.
The colour party acquitted themselves adequately and the girls enjoyed the ceremony.






The best was probably the tea and birthday cake and other eats afterwards.   My Guides have a very positive attitude to Guide Sunday and enjoyed meeting some of the 1st Waverley Guides with whom they would be camping .

Masidlale Games

 

Every year our region organises the Masidlale Games.   It is a series of team games involving water, and each district organises a different activity as well as something for a stall.   Our district, Wilds, organised the cup and saucer game.  This involves teams of 5 lining up between two buckets, one full and one empty.   The girl in front fills a cup with water from the first bucket and places it on the saucer.   Holding only the saucer she passes it over her head to the girl next in line and so the cup of water travels along the line to the last girl who then empties the water into the 2nd bucket.   At the end of 5 minutes the team with the most water in their bucket  gets 3 points, second most, 2 points and third most 1 point.   All the games are scored in a similar way.

Well, our girls had been looking forward to it all term.   I had told them that the first five to bring their R10 for the entry fee would be in our team.   The others would come along and they could enjoy themselves at the various stalls and if we found another company with not enough Guides to make an extra team, they could join up.

We had 100% attendance.   The girls had a wonderful time.   First there was the jumping castle with a slide into a pool of water with plastic balls.

Samkelisiwe and Thumi were the two left out of the team but they made their own arrangements and managed to find a group of three to join for the games.

Our team, the Girls of Hope, tied in second place out of about 24 teams and we have a silver certificate to show for it.

 

A great day out although the Guiders were exhausted and hot and sun burned. (Only my lips and feet).   Next year I plan to take a gazebo.

Folk dancer badge

 

Things are looking up a little.   Rays of Hope said they’d pay our membership if we would just provide them with an invoice and banking details.    This is an answer to prayer and reinforces that I am doing what the Lord wants me to.

This term we have been working on the Folk dancer badge.   It is very easy.   The girls have to take part in 4 traditional folk or ethnic dances.   They must be able to dance in any position in the set and the words and tune must be an integral part of the performance.

To make it more interesting I asked whether they would like to make some costumes.   they wouldn’t be the real thing, of course but it would enable them to learn to use a sewing machine which is part of the Explorer’s challenge.

Well, I was too ambitious.  It is true that they all now have little mini skirts but only three of them can actually use a machine.   I got donated two sewing machines from school.   One is hand operated and after the Guides used them it doesn’t work anymore.   I ended up sewing the last bits myself.  

I was not that happy with the fringed overskirt so we tried again last Friday using plastic bags and straws.   The practice went reasonably.

A Ray of Hope

I was seriously considering closing the Guide Company.   I did pray about it though and it occurred to me to wonder what would happen if missionaries called to another country gave up when things got difficult, when they got despondent, when it seemed that their work seemed to be in vain and was making no difference.

At the end of July our district had a bring and buy morning.   I decided not to overtax the transport system but rather take 3 Guides in my car to help sell what we had made.   The previous day the Guides had made racing cars out of boudoir biscuts, marshmallow baskets and modderkoekies.   (a mix of marie biscuits, melted marg, icing sugar and cocoa)   This enabled them to pass a clause in the discovers badge.

I met up with Jeanette and Blessing at the college on Saturday.   There was no sign of Samkelisiwe and it later turned out that she was sick that day.

The girls were great.   They manned our little stall responsibly and cheerfully.   I bought them each a breakfast roll and later gave them R5 each to spend.   The lady manning the stall next to me, Martine, suggested that they go and play the game outside which seemed like a bob for apples then find sweets in flour with your mouth.

Their delight just cheered me up so much.

Later Martine said she would try to get us sponsorship from the school she is involved with.   She also gave the girls some more money to spend.   They had the most amazing day.   Everybody was so kind to us and accepted us so well.   The girls interacted with some of the other Guides and at least for Jeanette and Blessing, it was a day to remember.   The day brought a ray of hope to my despondency.

Despondency

I have been feeling very despondent about Guides recently.   It started last term when I had to go away for a weekend on school business.   I organised for my assistant, Khosi, to take the meeting.   We had mentioned it to the driver the week before when we went to visit the old age home and I sent an email to Bertha on the Thursday before.   Unbeknown to either of us, Bertha was off work on the Thursday.   I was in Pretoria and got an SMS from Khosi at 4.15 saying the driver had not picked her up and she was still waiting.   So the Guides arrived and there was no one to supervise them.   Apparently they played games together.
To be quite honest, the previous week visit to the old age home was quite successful.   The Guides made their own way there except for the Ikhya Lomusa girls and me.   We were taken by the Rays of Hope transport.   We met a lady, Nicole, who used to be a drug addict and she chatted to the girls about her addiction and warned them of the dangers of drugs.   This fitted in well with the drug play we had done earlier in the term.

The week after the no show we had planned to be patrol dinners.   4 girls were supposed to do their cook’s badge.   Khosi would have finalised arrangements the previous week if she had been there but I had to send as many SMS’s as I could to say that we would first visit the Flamingoes and then the Blue Cranes.   Well, we went to the Flamingoes and shared a tiny piece of boiled boerewors with lots of rice and a soup-gravy.  
The trip through Alexandra to try to find the Blue Cranes was a nightmare.   Tents had mushroomed in the middle of several streets making them impassable.   Apparently this is what people do for funerals.   We did find 20th street but we couldn’t find number 61.   The numbers started at 65.   We went around the same big circle 3 times.   We went back to the Flamingo meeting place, supposing the girls would know where Samkelisiwe’s house was.   By the time we got back there, the girls had gone already.   I phoned one of the drivers who knew where our destination was but couldn’t talk us through how to get there.   I thought of a patrol of girls waiting for us and hoped that they actually ate the supper before the transport came to collect them.   Eventually we had to give up and abandon the Blue Cranes.   I felt awful.   I felt I was unable to keep the first Guide Law.   I had said I would be there and I wasn’t.  
The last week of the term clashed with the party organised by Rays of Hope but I needed to see the girls and apologise so we all attended the party.    I organised for a day outing during the holidays to make it up to the Guides.   Although the Guides enjoyed it, I felt quite despondent because it seems they had learned nothing.   One patrol couldn’t make a woodpile and even though I give them step by step instructions they didn’t seem to understand me.   The other patrol couldn’t remember how to lay a fire.   I got the girls who had done the cook’s badge to follow a recipe, because they hadn’t done that at their dinner.   What was meant to be stuffed eggs turned out to be egg mayonnaise.  
Chris and Kathleen had come along to help with a wide game that involved stalking.   The girls just couldn’t cope.   Halfway through I got a message from Chris saying did we have an ice pack, one of the girls seemed to have sprained her ankle.   So Khosi went to look in the kitchen and we discussed indemnity forms.   I told Chris and Kathleen to lead the girls straight back to base.  
Well, it turned out that they were only pretending.   I guess we reacted how adults always react when they have been worried about children and realize they have just been playing a game.
The worst came, however, when the transport came to collect the girls.   Khosi had come straight from Sowetho with her daughter, Faith, but were planning to go home to Alex with the rest of the girls.   The driver said there wasn’t space for them.   In actual fact there was – it was just a matter of moving some plastic bags off seats.   Hovever Khosi said she was leaving the company and taking her daughter with her.
The following Wednesday, when I went to the Guide shop, we discussed it again.   We came to a compromise that if a certain driver was on duty, I would take them  back to the garage where I picked them up.That leaves 3
Since then, my commissioner told me our company owes R1 200 for membership fees and Khosi and I R360 each.   Well, that was the end for Khosi and I have now lost an assistant.   It seemed to me that the best thing to do would be to close the company.   I am not sure how much difference I am making after all.   Perhaps for Jeanette Guides has made a difference.   Of the original 6 who  were all technically orphans, 2 have left and a third only comes about once a term.  That leaves three.   The rest are friends who have come along.   They are supposed to pay R5 a week but they hardly ever do.   I have ended up funding the company basically myself.  If Guides closed it wouldn’t make all that difference to them