The Conversation Continues

Tuesday and Wednesday this week saw us run two sessions for other community organisations: The Women's Club of Aruba and the Organisation of Public Pensioner's of Aruba (OPPA). We found out a little bit more about each of these other organisations and began a conversation about how they and the APG could work together in the future.

  

The Women's Club of Aruba is a charitable organisation who work on a wide variety of projects include 'Dress a Child' which takes place at Christmas time and taking action to address domestic violence. They're similar to the Soroptimists, Rotary and Lions organisations in the UK (who supported us with our fundraising efforts for our travel to Aruba). In the session we talked about some of the projects that the APG and the Women's Club have done together in the past such as 'Plant a Tree' and discussed ways that the two organisations could work together in the future: supporting each other with fundraising, volunteer recruitment, and developing the skills and career aspirations of girls and young women.

The OPPA are a group of retired professionals who gather for social activities and entertainments. One of the representatives from OPPA is also a member of the Tai Chi Association, and in our a discussion we talked about the possibilities of Padvindsters attending the Tai Chi centre, as well as how the APG could work together with OPPA on intergenerational activities.

Both sessions allowed us to showcase what guiding is about locally and internationally and allowed us to demonstrate some of the games and activities we use with our units in the UK. There was much laughing during our games of Zip Zap Boing and our rendition of Alice the Camel, and a beautiful moment when we closed the meetings with songs from each of our organisations (including 'Jazzy taps').

We hope others left as inspired as we did and these conversations continue so that the local communities can benefit from these collaborative projects!

Team GOLD Songbook

In each of our sessions we’ve been sharing some games and songs with leaders and girls. They can be hard to remember so here we’ve made a little songbook of the ones we’ve shared so far and some others we’ll be bringing to camp this weekend.

Alice the Camel

See a video here for actions. 

“Alice the camel has 10 humps, Alice the camel has 10 humps, Alice the camel has 10 humps, so go Alice go, boom boom boom.

Alice the camel has 9 humps etc…

Alice the camel has no humps, Alice the camel has no humps, Alice the camel has no humps, so Alice is a horse.”

Ride My Pony

Sing the first line as someone gallops around the inside of the circle and they stop at the end of the song line.

“Ride, Ride, Ride My Pony, Ride, Ride, Ride My Pony, Ride, Ride, Ride My Pony, This is how I ride it.”

The person in the middle shimmies with the person in the circle they are now standing in front of, first to the front, then the side, then the back.

“To the front, to the front, to the front, my pony, To the side, to the side, to the side, my pony, To the back, to the back, to the back my pony, this is how I ride it.”

The person who joined the shimmying now joins the other and gallops around the circle and also selects a new person with each verse.

REPEAT

Get Loose

This is a repeat after me song lead by one person.

“Get Loose. Get Loose. Get Funky. Get Funky. Get Down to the Beat. Get Down to the Beat. Get you whole body moving. Get your whole body moving. Starting with your feet. Starting with your feet. Oh your feet. Oh your feet.”

REPEAT and add a body part each time e.g. “And our knees”, “And your hips” etc.

Bungalow

One person starts the call, passes it to another to demonstrate and action, who then passes on the call to someone else.

“Hey [name of person], Hey [name of person], Let me see your bungalow. Let me see your bungalow.”

“My hands are high, My feet are low, and this is how I bungalow.” (Demonstrates an action of her choosing)

“Her hands are high, her feet are low, and this is how she bungalows.” (Copies action)

"Bungalow, bung-bung-a-low, bungalow, bung-bung-a-low." (Clapping the beat)
REPEAT

Guide Taps 

Traditionally used to close a guide meeting in the UK.

"Day is done, Gone the sun, From the sea, from the hills, from the sky, All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh."

(Recruiting More) Leaders of Aruba

Aruba has so many amazing volunteers working to support the work of the APG, and during our three weeks here we want to introduce you to some of them. So we will be taking portraits of some of the inspiring leaders we meet and telling you their stories. First up we have:

Angela, 18. Angela met us at the airport when we first arrived, helped to orientate us to the island and then participated in both days of our training for leaders this weekend. She has been involved in the APG for 13 years and is now a confident young woman preparing to vote in the elections for the first time. She now uses the skills she learnt as a Padvindster in her role as a Pioneer and leader with younger girls.

In order for APG to grow and for more girls to benefit from what guiding and scouting can offer, the organisation are looking to recruit more volunteers. We explored some of the ways we might do this in our second day of leader training and here we’ve created a list five of the ways we use in the UK that we talked about with links to useful resources.

1. Flyers, posters and postcards. In the training we talked about the value of talking to people face to face about guiding, but then being able to give them a business card or a flyer so they could get in touch again and find out more. In the UK, our guiding shop make posters, flyers and postcards that can be ordered for the cost of postage so that local units can use them to recruit more girls and adults. A selection of these can be viewed here
2. Presence at events. Having a presence at events is a great way to be seen. In the training we talked about national days and annual holidays like Mothers’ Day when APG members wear their smart uniforms and are visible in the community.
3. Social media and videos. We also discussed how we can use video in particular (through social media) to enable more people to see what guiding is all about. We showed two videos from Girlguiding UK (this one and this one) as inspiration, and Angela made this awesome one of our training session.
4. Involving students. Rachel talked about how her county in the UK work with the local university to encourage students to volunteer and Girlguiding UK have published this advice. Leaders were keen on this idea and thought it might also work well at the university in Aruba. 
5. Building a website. We find, in the UK, that its really useful to have a website where you can keep information about who to contact about joining guiding, what it’s all about and upcoming events. There’s some easy to use free hosts on the internet like this blogger site that our blog is hosted on, or www.weebly.com have some free packages.

Do you have any top tips on recruitment? What’s worked for you? Add them in the comments on here, Facebook or tweet us! 

Everyone Loves a Game of Elephant Football!

Two days of project delivery down and we’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with 21 leaders from Het Arubaanse Padvindsters Gilde so far: on Friday night we met the board and on Saturday we’ve delivered our first day of training for leaders on the island.

Saturday’s training took place at the APG clubhouse in Dakota with 17 leaders in attendance, representing a wide spread of ages and different units from across Aruba. Our activities focus on guiding principles, WAGGGS and promoting the opportunities offered by guiding, and our energisers in particular went down really well. Here’s a run down of some of the most highly rated (in smiles and laughter) of those energisers:

• Elephant Football: Standing in a circle everyone spreads their legs wide so their feet are touching their neighbours. Using your arms as a trunk you have to block the ball as it is knocked across the circle. If it goes through your legs you’re out and the circle gets smaller.
• Get Loose: This repeat after me song. This repeat after me song. Is Mirtha’s favourite. Is Mirtha’s favourite. And she lead it for us during the session to much applause.
• Me too: An icebreaker where someone in the centre of the circle shouts out a fact about themselves. If the fact also applies to you, you try and swap places with someone else and not get left as the last one in the middle.
• Human knot: Everyone holds hands with two other people across the circle (not those standing next to you) and then try and untangle yourselves back into a circle. This one needs problem solving and good communication skills.

During the session we also used some resources to introduce WAGGGS – including a card sort activity we first learnt at one of our briefing weekends. You can download that cards for this activity from here. We had some great feedback about how much had been learnt about WAGGGS during the session, but these are two of our favourite comments:

  

On Sunday we hope to see lots of familiar faces again and a few new ones for day two of leader training!

Live in Aruba and not currently involved in guiding? We have two sessions that are open to all where you can come along and find out more about the organisations. Both are 6-9pm, and we are at YMCA Dakota on the 6^th September and YMCA San Nicolas on the 7^th September. 

P.S. We've been making headway with our trip challenges: today Pippa met Rose-Ann who attended the World Scout Jamboree in the Netherlands in 1995 as a young member, we all did some yoga in the pool for Bridget's challenge, and Helen has been practising her hand-stand in the (relative) safety of the pool. 

What makes a good training?

Having spent Thursday acclimatising to the 30 degree heat and getting over our jet lag, Friday was time to get down to work. This weekend we will be running a total of 10 hours of training for existing Aruban leaders, so ahead of our meeting with the Board in the evening we took time during the day to plan out what activities we would include in the sessions.

 

We have been given a steer from last year’s team and the evaluation at the end of their project that leaders want us to cover guiding topics and some generic skills. With two days of training (we think with the same group at each) we split these into a Saturday session about guiding principles and WAGGGS, and followed this with Sunday’s session exploring communication and leadership skills.

It’s important to maintain energy and focus with such a long training session, so there’s many things you need to think about in terms of order and variety of activities. Here’s our top tips for training session planning:

1. Include ice-breakers. Not everyone will know each other before the session, so an ice-breaker is a great way to get people talking.
2. And make sure you introduce yourself as the trainers.
3. Mix it up with an energiser at least every hour or two – especially after a very serious or focused activity. Energisers are active games that encourage you to get up and move, sing, or start talking.
4. Plan more content that you need, but always be prepared that some activities will over run. Timings depend on the group so you need to be flexible in your approach and prepared for whatever may happen.
5. Include breaks. In a five hour training session everyone will need time for loo breaks, to get drinks and snacks or lunch. These might also be a chance for people to informally ask questions that they don’t want to ask in front of the whole group.
6. Be confident. We were selected for GOLD based on our potential to help develop another guiding organisation and have had a chance to practice our training skills during our briefings. Think about how fabulous the training will be and what all the participants will get out of it and avoid any worries about things going wrong. 

Arriving on One Happy Island

The 23^rd August was a very long day, but one that ended with our arrival in Aruba: ‘One Happy Island’ as the carpet at the airport proclaimed. Our journey, summed up in facts and figures looked a little bit like this:

Arriving after dark last night, the island sparkled with all the lights and looked like a firework with the illuminated cruise ships heading out into the Caribbean Sea from Oranjestad. We went met at the airport by a fantastically warm welcome from a local leader (Anneline) and two pioneers (Anna and Angela) who helped us navigate the island and find our accommodation.

As we drove to our apartments, Anna and Angela tried to orientate us to the island: the airport’s sort of in the middle on the south coast, we’re staying further east in Pos Chiquito, Noord is in the north of the island and Santa Cruz is right in the middle. Along Route 1 from the airport, we saw the ‘Green Corridor’ works on this main road and past the desalination plant which provides the islands drinking water and Balashi Brewery (we’ve been recommended to sample their wares while we’re here). We were humbled by the young women’s language skills (they speak four languages) especially when we were so tired we were struggling with English ourselves. Having got up at 6am UK time (1am Aruban time), it was 22 hours later when we finally went to bed.

We’ll meet with the board soon to confirm plans for the next three weeks of project, but we anticipate that we will be going to group meetings for Padvinsters and Pioneers in Dakota, San Nicolas, Pos Chiquito and Saveneta, running activities at a camp on our second weekend, and working with community groups in the same districts to encourage them to become leaders! 

Final Preparations and a Few Home Comforts

It's finally here. The last weekend and penultimate opportunity for packing before our departure for Aruba. The team are very excited as we fill out suitcases, holdalls and rucksacks with lots of important items. Each team member has a special role to fulfil and each will need equipment to help them in that task. But at the same time we will be away for three weeks and everyone will need a few home comforts from time to time. Here we have an update from each of us on the priority items we're packing:

Helen - Team Leader

As Team Leader, Helen will need to have all the essential bits and pieces to ensure we are a well co-ordinated unit. And if you're going to carry a lot of stuff then you need a suitable rucksack. Inspired by her GOLD team leader last year, Helen has invested in a special new day sack for this trip with lots of pockets! Her home comfort (provided he fits in) is 'Polo' her teddy.

Bridget - First Aider

Bridget is our team first aider, and having heard about the climate in Aruba we think sun and heat might be the biggest change from the UK. As such Bridget is packing a battery powered fan to keep us cool. Doubling up on home comforts, she's packing some favourite teas and her teddy 'Athabasca'.

Amy - Treasurer

As our treasurer, Amy will need to keep track of our budget and so she's downloaded a special app to record all of our receipts and manage our spending. Amy's currently packing, so we'll add in her home comfort when she's been able to decide what'll fit within the weight limit for our flights!

Rachel - Training and Resources Co-ordinator

Ready for all our training sessions, Rachel is coming prepared with a trusty pencils case full of useful writing implements. Similarly, her home comfort is also cuddly - 'Simba' will also be coming along for the ride.

Laura - Photo and Video Co-ordinator

Laura is in charge of capturing our experience on film, so her top priority to pack is her new camera. Laura's a fan of all things sheep, so 'Shaun' is one of her home comforts, along with some sweet treats for the journey and marshmallows for a BBQ one night during our stay.

Pippa - Written Documenter

As written documenter, I'll be co-ordinating our blog entries, social media reports and making sure we write stuff down to use in our final reports. I'm packing a laptop to help us with task (as well as for keeping track of the budget and looking up any last minute ideas for our sessions). Like Laura, I want to take a bar of Bournville dark chocolate as my home comfort - but I haven't bought it yet so I better head to the shop and make sure it gets in the bag!

Our next update will come after we've set out on our project - stay tuned to our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates!

2 Weeks to Go And We’re All Ready For a Challenge

One week ago today our team were completing our 4^th briefing weekend, and two weeks on Tuesday we’ll be heading down to Heathrow ready to fly out to Aruba – it’s all come around so quickly! Read on to find out more about our final preparations.

On Sunday 30^th July, each member of the team logged onto their computer to finalise our session plans and materials for the training we’ll be delivering in Aruba. But unlike our previous briefings this one didn’t involve any train travel – our 4^th briefing was held remotely with us each working on activities from the comfort of our own homes (and in my case, my own bed). Having talked through our ‘To Do’ list in the morning, we took the rest of the day to each work individually to get things done and regrouped at 4pm to talk through our next steps (lots of printing for Rachel!).

Now we’re starting to gather up resources, stock up on bug spray, and pack our bags ahead of our departure. This year’s other GOLD projects have begun to set out for the Maldives, Mexico, Oman, Rwanda, Zambia and more and as we wish our fellow teams the best of luck for their projects, the anticipation and excitement is building for our own adventure.

Our three weeks in Aruba will give us the chance to deliver training and intercultural exchanges with the aim of supporting the development and growth of guiding on the island, but it will also be a chance for each member of the team to take on personal challenges and to grow and develop ourselves. With this in mind, each team member has identified one particular (very serious) challenge they want to accomplish during our project:

•          Helen (Team leader) will concentrate on perfecting her handstand (potentially using a swimming pool as a good location to practice).
•          Laura (Photo and Video Co-ordinator) on the back of her marathon challenge is going to tackle another similarly lengthy challenge of reading an entire book.
•         Rachel (Training and Resources Co-ordinator) has been researching the local flora and fauna and will be in pursuit of a selfie with a donkey.
•         Amy (Treasurer) is stocking up on the sun cream in preparation for her challenge of NOT getting sunburnt whilst we’re in the Caribbean.
•      Pippa (Social Media Co-ordinator) has been tasked, by a guide leader who supporter her fundraising, to find an Aruban leader who attended the World Scout Jamboree in 1995 in the Netherlands.
•      And Bridget (First Aider)…has been challenged to learn some beach yoga moves with photographic evidence!

If you want to see how we get on facing up to these challenges and more, check back here after the 22^nd August when we’ll be keeping you up to date with what we get up to in Aruba.

Pippa