Visiting Groups and Finding The Best Use For a Blue IKEA Bag...

The final Saturday of our project was a marathon day with scheduled visits to five unit meetings all over the island: Dakota, San Nicolas, Santa Cruz, Savaneta and Noord. Each meets for two hours staggered throughout the day on a Saturday with all age groups meeting at the same time. There are currently Kabouters (7-11) and Padvindsters (12-16) at all the groups we went to, with Beyisimas (4-6) and Pioneers (17-18) at about half.

Thanks to a very generous donation from Ormskirk District we were able to bring three parachutes for Aruban units to share, so parachute games were a major feature of the activities we ran with the girls. Many had never played these games before or even seen a parachute.

Here's just a few of the games we played and their instructions:

• Cat and Mouse

Pick one (or two) cat(s) and one (or two) mouse (mice). Cats are on top of the parachute and the mouse is underneath. The cat is aiming to catch a mouse and the mouse to escape the cat. Everyone else around the outside is kneeling/sitting down and creating waves to help hide the mice.

• Sharks

Pick a shark to go under parachute and 2 lifeguards to run around the outside of the circle. Everyone sits with legs out long under the parachute making waves. The shark pulls people under and the lifeguards can save them if they get to them in time.

• Me too

Everyone stands holding parachute, on the count of 3 lift the parachute high into the air. On '3' announce a fact e.g. wearing something blue and everyone who that applies to must run under the parachute and find a new space before it comes back down.

• Mushroom

On the count of 3 everyone lift the parachute up over head and bring it down behind them to sit on the edge of it. Everyone should be inside the mushroom. If it’s a good one you could play 'Telephone' or other similar games.

• Parachute volleyball

Divide the parachute in half into two teams. Each team is aiming to get the ball off the side of the other team by working together to waft it in that direction meanwhile defending their own side.

Being a girl guide or girl scout is a really great opportunity to have fun and play games, but also stresses the importance of community action. The news over the past week or so has been filled with stories of Hurricanes Irma, Jose and Katia which have been severely impacting other parts of the Caribbean during our project. During our session with the girls in San Nicolas we found out about and got involved in their contribution to providing relief to inhabitants of sister islands. 

San Nicolas is home to a specialist medical facility and the girls and leaders in the district told us about 65 residents from St Martin with long term health conditions who had been transferred here to escape the hurricanes. A local church building had been transformed into a collection centre for supplies for these displaced people and others affected, and the girls had messaged each other ahead of their first meeting back after the summer break and made arrangements to collect toiletries and supplies that were needed. We accompanied the group to deliver these to the donation centre during our session. 

The co-ordinator told us what they need more of: we'll collect some toiletries and other items over the next few days, but whilst we were there we were able to contribute some of the bags we've been using to transport resources during our project. Before we left the UK we were tasked to find the best use for a large blue IKEA bag: what better use could there possibly be than transporting donations for communities in need!

Tomorrow is our last day of training and the end of the project has come around all too fast. We will be evaluating the project on Monday with APG board members, but it's already clear from our interactions with the girls and leaders today that we have definitely been able to leave some lasting impressions from our time in Aruba.