Hard at work with the Malawi Challenge!

Well Team Malawi have been hard at work preparing for our trip, but as far as we hear it, so have you! Badge orders have been racing in from all over the country and so have a few photos of people completing the challenge:

1st Hanham Rainbows have had fun making snake pencil toppers and people snowflakes:

4th Durham City St John's Brownies have been making cheesy snakes and milk bottle elephants:

We love to hear from you as you complete our challenge, so please do send us any photos you have to goldmalawi2015@outlook.com or send us a tweet @GOLDMalawi2015 

If you haven't ordered your badges yet, get in touch now whilst we are in good supply.

GOLD love,

Alice and Team Malawi x

Badges, Bookings and Briefing!!

Since second briefing, whilst being away from the social media for a while, Team Malawi have still been buzzing with activity. Several phone conferences and a lot of emails and texts have seen a lot of work covered and progress made. The big news of the week - we have been given dates for project! We are still finalising the details but it is so exciting to be able to actually write it properly on a calendar at last. Let the flight bookings commence...

Whilst we are most excited to know the dates of our project, we have many things to be pleased about this month. Our badges have finally arrived, so if you have ordered badges they should be with you soon. If you haven't ordered any yet, get in touch as you will want to get your hands on them - they look really great! If you know a team member personally, contact them directly, otherwise you can always reach us at goldmalawi2015@outlook.com

We have also been away on third briefing this weekend - busy times for Team Malawi! After a rather long journey down to Hampshire (a lot longer for some of us than others) including an eventful road trip in Ruth's car, we made it to Andreah's house to begin the weekend. Once we had completely filled the house with resources and luggage for the weekend, we began with the third briefing tradition of GOLD Malawi teams - tie dying our pants! This is a tradition set up by the first GOLD Malawi team and has been done at the third briefing of every following team.

We began Saturday morning bright and early, setting our aims for the weekend as we had so much to get through, with it being our last physical meeting together before we go to the airport. Ruth started us off by updating us on the contact we have had from Malawi so far and helping us to work out what we think the key themes of our trainings will be: Recruitment and Retention training; PR and marketing training; Leadership and Advocacy training; and training the Malawian GOLD teams. MAGGA have set up their own 'GOLD' teams since last years UK team went; we are going to help train their teams so that they can go on and train new leaders around the country after we leave.

After a lengthy discussion between the teachers and the non-teachers of our team defining activity plans, training plans and session plans, making sure we all understood what we meant by each of them, we started to fill out training plans for each of our main themes. We spent most of Saturday hard at work with our training plans trying to fill out as much of the details as we could to make the best resource we can for on project.

With much hilarity, we managed to unravel our tie dyed pants and see the wonderful patterns and bright colours we had made. In the evening, we headed out bowling for a break and had some very close rounds. Louise was worrying more than just our team with her violent back-swing!

Team Malawi doesn't rest however, and after we had got back from bowling and had enormous amounts of curry for tea, we started to discuss the kit list again to work out what people still needed to buy in the few weeks we have remaining before we fly out.

On Sunday morning we spent a lot of time reading through our health forms and risk assessments - a paperwork heavy morning! After a lot of clearing up, last minute questions and writing to-do-lists for the coming weeks, it was time for us to get on the road again, or rather all pile into Ruth's car for the drop off home.

One more addition to the team this weekend, was a mouse each! Alice made everyone a mouse mascot to take on project with them as a travel companion.

We have just over four weeks left now until we leave for project, so keep checking back for updates as we prepare to go on project. There is so much to do!

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter: @GOLDMalawi2015  and like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/GOLDMalawi2015

GOLD love,

Alice and Team Malawi x

Second Briefing at Scout Park, North London

Our second briefing took place on 24th - 26th April at Scout Park in North London. It was a great chance to catch up with all of the other teams as well as physically spend some time together and talk without a time limit on the conversation (unlike our phone conferences which seem to like to cut us off before we are finished).

Friday night was just a good chance to talk to everyone and get prepared for the weekend of trainings, but it wouldn't be a GOLD briefing without great hilarity in the evening entertainment. Playing charades with guiding names and places seemed a little too easy to start with, but by round 4 we had Ruth in a duvet cover trying to act out some of the words (I can't tell you what they were - I still don't know!)

When the alarm clocks went off on Saturday morning, we were probably one of the most reluctant teams to get out of bed, but once breakfast was over we were fired up and ready to start the day of trainings. The big event of the morning was our interactive sessions run by each country team. We had been told to prepare a 15 minute session based on either our country or our project aims. Team Malawi decided to run a 'Dragons Den' style session based on the Five Essentials of guiding, asking each team to pitch guiding to us based on one of these essentials. It involved a lot of time keeping and a few TV voice-over impressions, but we got good feedback from the other teams and along with the other teams sessions, it gave us some good ideas to use on project.

Our group time over the weekend was so busy - Ruth had a lot to fill us in on from MAGGA, we managed to come to a decision over what colour of hoodie to have (very important), as well as making lots of other important decisions about onward travel, kit and trainings.

Ruth is ready to go during group time!

For the Saturday afternoon's trainings, we had some very helpful visitors from CHQ firstly giving us a training and facilitating workshop and then doing separate trainings for our individual roles (Treasurer, First Aider, Written Documentor, Resources, Photo & Video). It was really useful to have their input as to how to make the best of our roles.

In true GOLD style, the Saturday evening entertainment involved fancy dress, competition and a lot of team effort. Each team came dressed as a TV show and ran an activity based on that show. We decided to go as Scooby Doo and run a treasure hunt. Andreah certainly had the best costume as the Mystery Machine!

The team trying to make a mouse out of melted marshmallows and rice krispies

Andreah balancing some chocolate digestives

Louise trying to get the After Eight into her mouth without using her hands

M eating doughnuts on a string

Emily about to do a fashion show in her outfit crafted by the team

Alice writing the promise in chocolate sauce

Our final effort of the promise written in chocolate sauce (and a few strawberry laces when the sauce ran out)

Team Malawi in our Scooby Doo costumes

Andreah's amazing Mystery Machine costume

We managed to fit in some more group time on the Sunday morning before being led in a WAGGGS workshop which taught us a lot about the resources available from WAGGGS and how we might be able to use them on project.

All too soon, it was time for us to all leave again. We can't believe how fast the time is going and that we only have third briefing as the next time we will meet before we head to Malawi!

Thank you to Anna, Carly, Rachel, our brilliant team leaders, wonderful cooks and all of the trainers who came in to support us over the weekend. We can't wait to see you again after project!

Don't forget you can keep up to date with Team Malawi and our GOLD journey by subscribing to this blog by email, liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/GOLDMalawi2015  and following us on Twitter @GOLDMalawi2015

GOLD love,

Alice and Team Malawi x

Introducing.... Ruth

Hello. My name is Ruth I am the GOLD Leader for Malawi 2015. I was lucky enough to go to Malawi on the GOLD project last summer in 2014 and I am now busy planning for this years project. I am looking forward to the challenge of returning to Malawi as the leader and being able to see first hand how MAGGA has developed over the last year.

I have been a member of Girlguiding since the age of 5 and have progressed through the guiding sections including gaining my Queen Guide Award. I am currently the assistant ranger leader with 1st Quorn Rangers in Leicestershire. We have a thriving unit of 30 rangers, which keeps me busy! I am also a Girlguiding Media Spokesperson and a Prospective Trainer.

As a member of guiding I have been lucky enough to travel to Australia, France, India, The Falkland Islands and Chile as well as to Malawi in 2014. I have a love for international travel and following on from project last year chose to visit a friend in Cape Town, South Africa before exploring Madagascar.

My favorite foods are pizza and chocolate! My favorite animal is a penguin and I have a vast collection of penguin items at home.

Introducing.... Louise

Hello, I’m Louise – after dithering about these past few years, I decided in 2014 to stop ‘just thinking about doing it’, so I attended INTOPS and applied for GOLD. It worked out well, as here I am, a member of the fabulous GOLD Team Malawi 2015 and buzzing with anticipation and excitement for our forthcoming project in the summer. I’ve been very lucky to have been away with Guiding before, however I have a sneaky suspicion that this is going to be completely different.  Apart from a brief stop on the continent of Africa, this part of the world is going to be a brand new experience for me, which adds to the excitement – I love a good adventure, eek, I can’t wait!

I’ve been in Guiding a while; I joined as a Brownie back in the early ‘90s (the era of culottes and sweatshirt) and haven’t left.  Now I’m a Brownie Leader and have been Brown Owl in Caddington (near Luton) since 2007. I’m trying to avoid creating expectations for my GOLD experience, so it’s all about being open-minded and prepared for anything.

Can someone tell me the difference between Turquoise Surf and Hawaiian Blue?

Last weekend Team Malawi had our second phone conference. It was really great to catch up with everyone - once again everyone has been working really hard with fundraising, preparing for second briefing and spreading the word about GOLD!

Our biggest accomplishment since our last phone conference was the completion of our challenge badge pack (now available from any team member or by emailing goldmalawi2015@outlook.com). The badges that go with the challenge are taking longer to be produced than we were anticipating, but we can take any pre-orders so just contact a member of the team or email the group directly to order yours. The challenge badge has been a real team effort and has four sections: Culture, World Guiding, Songs & Games and Animals and the Environment, plus a PR challenge for all sections at the end. We can't wait for people to start our challenge, so send us pictures and updates as you work through it on Facebook: www.facebook.com/GOLDMalawi2015 and Twitter: @GOLDMalawi2015

A lot of our time was also spent finalising details for second briefing, but more on that later!

Perhaps the biggest decision of the evening was what colour kit to go for. The choice of hoodie colour in particular was so vast and the difference between 'Turquoise Surf' and 'Hawaiian Blue' was a little too trivial for some of us. Despite our best efforts, we only managed to narrow the colours down to two choices, so will have to make the final decision at second briefing.

It wasn't long before our 2 hours was up and we had to leave the catching up until the next time. Luckily for us, that isn't far away as we are heading off on second briefing this weekend!

Keep an eye on our social media accounts over the weekend as we try to keep you updated with our briefing. Also please take a look at our challenge pack which at the moment is available from the team members directly or from our team email: goldmalawi2015@outlook.com

GOLD love,

Alice and Team Malawi x

Introducing.... Alice

Hello! My name is Alice, I am 20 and I live in Shropshire. I am in my second year at Durham University studying Biology. I hope to work in medical research when I graduate. I have been a member of Girlguiding since I joined Rainbows at 5; I am now a Brownie leader with 4^th Durham City St Johns Brownies and a peer educator with Shropshire and Durham South counties. I have recently been presented with my Queen’s Guide Award in September 2014 which was so much fun to do. As a young adult member of Girlguiding, I really love being involved in big events with other senior section members and it is often these times where I have amazing experiences as well as making some of my best friends. My only travel experience is through guiding – I was lucky enough to sail across the North Sea twice in the Tall Ships Races with members of the senior section from Shropshire and West Mercia.

I am looking forward to so many things about GOLD but in particular just embracing the culture, which I know will be very different to what I have experienced before. I am the Written Documenter, so will be keeping you all up to date with our activities via the blog and social media – make sure you follow them all!

Random fact about me: I made my promise in senior section half way down an abseiling tower!

If I were an animal I would be: A giraffe

One food I cannot live without: It has to be Cheese

GOLD love,

Alice