The All Important Question...

OK OK I couldn't resist one last post. 

Some of you may have spotted the cryptic message in last weeks blog, and in case you didn't it was here: "Alice was asked the all important question - were we the best GOLD team ever? - She said yes!!" ... In case you didn't guess, the question that Alice was asked was NOT were we the best GOLD team ever*... It was...

Team Latvia are pleased to announce that she said YES, and that Alice can now spend the time she was spending doing GOLD stuff planning her wedding! 

Massive Congratulations to Alice - we're all so excited for you!! 

GOLD Love,

Team Latvia 2014 xx

*although this is still true! 

So long, farewell...

So, here's our last blog post about our time in Latvia - sorry it's a few days late, real life seemed to take over!!

Monday found us packing, last minute shopping, repacking to fit everything into our bags, and then finally in a place called The Hedgehog In the Fog (named after a very bizarre Latvian cartoon!) for a final meal and catch up with our friends. Thank you to everybody who turned up to say goodbye, and a special thank you for our gifts - you should have heard the squeal when we were presented with Latvian neckers!! We were all sad to say goodbye to our new friends but we know we'll see you again :-)

Tuesday, we milled about in the hostel for the morning, along with some REALLY last minute shopping (who can resist a hat scarf?!) and then headed to the airport.

At 4.33pm GMT Tuesday, Team Latvia landed on UK soil. We're pretty confident we can say that we had one of the best arrivals a GOLD team has ever had - landing early, collecting baggage smoothly, and well, let's just say it was all pretty perfect! Alice was asked the all important question - were we the best GOLD team ever? - She said yes!!

That's all for now - we have reports to write, and our debrief in December, but mostly, that is our GOLD project over. Thank you all once again for your support throughout the last year, whether that was emotional, physical or financial - we couldn't have done it without you, and whilst there is nothing of substance to view from our efforts, we feel positive about our project! We want to wish next years team all the luck in the world, and to LSGCO, you have so much potential, keep working to become whatever you want to become!

GOLD Love,
Team Latvia 2014 x

What a busy weekend...

Our last weekend in Latvia has been hectic!! After meeting with 1st Riga on Friday night, we jumped on a train and headed to Juanogre, where Liga's sister and grandma live. They very kindly let us take over their living room and kitchen for the weekend! After cooking up some fajitas, we headed to bed ready for a busy day on Saturday.

We were up at 8, had pancakes and cleared up a bit, and out the door by 9.15. Alice, Laura and Net headed to Kegums, a town nearby. In Kegums they have a unit already but had been into the school to do a bit of recruiting. We were heading to the event they had set up for potential new kids! Although there went many there we had a great time telling them about WAGGGS and WOSM and all sorts of good stuff!! Afterwards, we headed back to Ogre via the hydroelectric dam - apparently the highlight of Kegums!

In the meantime, Toni, Lizzie and Sarah went back to Liga's unit for the second time. They played some more get to know you games for the new ones, as well as a couple of wide games. It was awesome to see some familiar faces and Liga told us that all the new cubs, brownies, scouts and guides had kept coming back after our first meeting with them two weeks ago - Yay!

Lunch time saw us munching more Latvian food in Ogre, followed by a chat with a Rover and older Guide in a fabulous little tea room whilst Liga had a parents meeting. Then back to Juanogre for last minute prep before the Rangers appeared!

With the Rangers, we ran some body confidence activities, which was really interesting - particularly comparing the differences between the UK and Latvia. After the serious stuff, we let them loose in the kitchen with all of our leftover food from the last three weeks. 50 minutes later, they were serving a yummy 3 course meal, including garlic bread and tuna salad starter, vegetable and bean casserole with chicken mince for the non-vegetarians, with tortillas and pitta breads on the side, followed by ice cream, baked apple and chocolate for dessert! We were all very satisfied after! The Rangers kindly left us a mountain of washing up to do before we went to bed - pretty sure they used every item of crockery in the house - thanks girls!

More pancakes followed on Sunday morning (the Rangers hadn't managed to use all the flour and eggs - what a shame!) and back to Riga we went. During the afternoon we planned for our evaluation and this evening found us in a restaurant surrounded by paper, burgers, pens, chips, post-it-notes, and dips! The evaluation went really well and we all found positives in things we hadn't even considered before! Both the UK and the Latvian members came away with some plans for future projects - whether that's GOLD, on a national level or just simple things they can do in their units!

One more full day in Riga and lots to do, so it's off to bed now in preparation!!

GOLD love,
Team Latvia x

An interview with Emily!

Today we visited the 1st Riga Cubs and Brownies. Whilst we were sitting outside finishing off our final prep, we were spotted by three of the members, who chatted happily away to us!

During the meeting, I pulled one of the girls away for a quick interview - paparazzi style!

How long have you been a brownie?
About 10 months. I've been on 5 camps and made my promise on my second camp.

Where you happy to make your promise?
Really happy. The promise makes you happy and you can be a brownie a lot better.

What do you normally do in meetings?
Play games and think about things that we need to do like what to take on camps and why drugs are bad and things like that.

How many knots do you know?
About 5

Do your friends know you're in brownies?
Yes. My best friend thinks I talk about it too much, but other friends think it's cool.

Do you want to be in guiding forever?
Yeah! I'll go to camps and when I grow bigger I will be a leader.

What's the best thing about guiding?
All of it. Being a better person.

Why do you think being a brownie has made you a better person?
Now I have a law that I should follow and when I'm a brownie it makes me feel like I'm a better person and it makes me a better person.

After that, Emily ran off to join in our game of scout, scout, guide (also known as duck, duck, goose!). At the end of the meeting, Emily stayed behind to personally thank us for the meeting, saying she'd learnt a lot about scouting and guiding and she'd had lots of fun, so we were all really happy with that!!

Now we're off to stay at Liga's grandma's house for the weekend - we're not sure on our Internet access for the weekend so this might be it until Sunday night!

GOLD Love,
Team Latvia x

Latvia's Golden Autumn

Whilst being in Latvia, we've been asked several times if we had been or were going to Sigulda... Every time we responded no, we hadn't been and were told we 'should go, it's very beautiful this time of year.'

Today, we found ourselves with an almost free day (just a meeting with Liga this evening that we didn't need to plan for) so after a bit of investigation, we decided to head to Sigulda. We also invited along Liene, who has been fabulous at translating for us, and we wanted to spend a bit more time with her!

An early start found all 7 of us on the bus at 815am, and heading out of Riga listening to the quality radio, playing tunes such as Faith and Hips Don't Lie. At Sigulda, we found the tourist information and headed out to see the sights! Whilst we were there we visited two castles, two highly graffiti-ed caves (carving dating back to 1667, not just casual graffiti!), at least two churches, climbed two towers, went on a cable car across the valley, walked up and down a couple of hills (Latvian mountains!), saw the walking stick park, and the folk statues park. We also found time for a wander around some stalls and some of us bought tiny walking sticks!

I think we were there a few weeks too late to see the autumn colours in full swing, but there were some incredible views all the same, especially from the top of the towers... The Latvians are right - You SHOULD visit Sigulda!

When we got back to Riga, we had half an hour chill out in the hostel before the best text ever 'hey girls, are you hungry? Do you fancy dinner?' yes Liga, we were hungry!! Up and out again, off to a Latvian buffet place with very good food! While we were eating we discussed plans for our final few days in Latvia (we're cramming four meetings into 24 hours!) and some more programme stuff and had a bit of chat about GOLD as a whole. It was a really useful (and yummy) dinner meeting!

Now we're back for an early-ish night before packing and repacking again and planning tomorrow!!

Back into the swing of it...

Monday, luckily, was a free day. We were all fairly exhausted post-camp, so it was lovely to have the day to potter around the hostel, sort our washing, and do a bit of casual sightseeing for those interested. We found a lovely little tea room with comfy floor seats, and a nice view over the canal - a great place to catch up with diaries and write postcards! 

Tuesday (today), we were back to work with a bit of planning and a fantastic visit to the Sea Cubs we saw last time. We started with a rendition of I'm Being Eaten By A Boa Constrictor, which was very funny and then began the main meeting... After they had shown us morse code last week, we got them playing our semaphore game that we'd done with a previous unit. They really enjoyed it, and Valdis even took home our resources so he can use them again!

After semaphore, we brought out the parachute and played fruit salad and sharks, which kept them entertained! As this was the last time we are seeing them, we decided to donate the parachute to them as well! It's the perfect size for their unit and I'm sure they'll have lots of future fun playing with it!

Apparently after the Latvia 2013 team visited the group, the boys spent the rest of the year asking when 'the English girls are coming back?' so hopefully they'll be asking it again this year...

GOLD Love,

Team Latvia

Camping in the Forest

In Latvia, being a Ranger (same with Rovers) is much different to being in the UK - you have to be selected in order to make your promise. Until the time you are selected, you are a Ranger/Rover Candidate. Each year there are two Rover/Ranger camps, and these are the main opportunities to make those selections. The selection process is a very thoughtful one, with lots of personal conversations and deep discussions regarding the Scout/Guide laws and other areas. These discussions usually take place in the evenings around campfires, with other activities during the day (of the fun variety, of the thought-provoking variety, and sometimes mixing the two).

We were lucky enough to be invited along to one of their camps, and take part in their activities, and run our own sessions for them too. It was a fantastic weekend, action-packed, and as such, it's taken a while to work out the best way to blog about it without it turning into a 45 page essay. Finally - I drew out this map for you all so you can see what we did!

Map of the camp - click for full picture!

For us, one of our highlights was definitely our diversity training. Coming from the UK, we have a highly diverse society, but here in Latvia, it's not discussed much at all. We split the group in two (alphas and betas), provided each "culture" with different rules, and then sent "scientists" from each culture to the other to see what they could discover. Amongst other rules, the alphas really liked personal contact, but the betas didn't, and covered their ears shouting "wakka, wakka" every time someone touched them, creating some very funny scenes for all involved! The Rangers, Rovers and Candidates all really got into this, and everyone (including the GOLD team) learnt a lot from the process. 

Other highlights include: the food, learning new games to share with girls back in the UK, the mosquito in Net's ear (named Cliffords), learning more about the Rangers and Rovers, the beautiful forest, the fact that Sarah didn't fall over in the bog, watching Scouts get stuck in the swamp and digging shoes out, as well as attempting to swim through a very cold lake, the tick that came along as a joyrider back to Riga... amongst a lot of other fabulous moments. 

A massive thank you to LSGCO for letting us stay on camp with them and get involved in their activities and for getting fully involved in our activities! It was good, it was good, it was very very good!

Programme discussion and team building...

Since the last update, we've been busy! Yesterday we met with some of the programme team to discuss how they can continue to develop their programme. We told them in more detail how ours runs (from rainbow, brownie, guide and senior section), including the world famous chocolate go for it! We also discussed how they could take bits of our programme and create their own, taking into consideration the varying age groups and different roles within the organisations (for instance, there is currently no young leader programme within Latvia).
After that discussion (which conveniently happened over dinner), we also discussed some of the challenges the association is facing as they continue to develop, and how to work around these.  
We were also told more details about Ranger/Rover camp, which is super exciting!!

Today was spent planning, creating resources, packing and more discussion! We also visited 66th scouts and guides and ran some team building activities as well as some scouting/guiding activities (and sometimes mixed!). It was a fab evening for us, and hopefully for the participants too!! Fun fact of the day: no Latvian words start with the letter w - cue some very confused scouts/guides when the words WAGGGS and WOSM appeared in one of our games

Over the next few days, we are heading out to Ranger/Rover camp. We're really excited about it, and we've been told our tent has a heated element :-D we're currently collapsed on some bean bags in a chill out room in the hostel throwing out some extra ideas for things we can do on camp. Off to bed soon ready for our early start!

A day in the life...

Today's blog takes you step by step through... I was going to say "an average day" but on GOLD, there is no such thing!  But here's today anyway...

8.18am - wake up in the hostel, it's not quite time to get up yet so most of us are still dozing. I'm trying to work out whether it's raining outside for the first time this trip...

8.39am - alarm clocks have gone off and people are starting to move, after a couple of compulsory snoozes obviously! Oh and good news - it's not raining!! 

9.11am - we're all up, dressed and sorting bags/breakfast, whilst dancing to cheesy tunes! C'est la vie!

9.43am - an intense game of Finland versus Sweden broke out on the ice hockey table - Finland came out on top with a 3-0 victory. 

10.01am - breakfast has arrived!! Tuck in :-D

10.46am - we're off to see some sea scouts this evening, and we thought as we'd be by the sea, it would be worth a visit. Because of this, we did all our planning and resource buying yesterday (organised!). After much debate, and a look on Google maps, we decided we could leave around 3 and still have fun at the beach. We are in the Baltics after all. 

11am - Leaving later means we have plenty of time to do the boring chores like... sorting out washing! Whoop!

11.27am - the team have split into a wandering through the market team, a shopping for dinner team and a getting extra sleep team - we'll leave you to guess who's in which team!!

1.26pm - the sleeping team have finally woken up (I admit, I was team leader!) to find a couple of people cooking and everyone else doing journal-y stuff. It's good to have these relaxing times in amongst the planning, running sessions and doing stuff!

2pm - lunch time. Today we have a spread of ham, salami, cheese (variety), lettuce, rolls, bread, mayo, crisps, yoghurt, fruit and cakey biscuit things, with iced tea and squash to drink. 

3.02pm - we've just left the hostel, and heading to the train station... Some people are in swimming costumes ready for a quick dip, some of us are more sensible!

3.22pm - on the train. The best thing about Latvian trains is that we can sit in a little booth together, all six of us! The bad news is there's no room for our feet!!

3.47pm - we're in Lielupe! After a brief glance at the map, we head towards the sea down a leafy road - very pretty!

3.58pm - stop for bon bon.

4.08pm - BEACH!!!! 

5.08pm - one hour on the beach, including swimming in the Baltic Sea, paddling, posing for photos, drawing in the sand, and then wrapping up warm again!! Almost sea scout time...

6.21pm - we've found the school we're meant to be running the meeting in, but not the cubs. We're currently wandering around the school attempting to find them but instead we've found some random Latvian boys fighting with sticks in the woodwork classroom! Potential cub scouts! 

6.50pm - the cubs have prepared a track through the woods - we're following the tracks... Easier to do when they've pointed them in the right direction in the first place!! 

7.10pm - we've found the chocolate at the end of the trail and we're started on our international activities - one from Mexico (hello our cabana!) and one from Japan (hello scout jamboree!)!

7.30pm - we're heading back to the train station now, following Philips, a cub scout who was asked to show us the way!

8.53pm - we're back in the hostel, some of us in PJs, waiting for food to be ready! Toni (our unofficial group cook) has made chilli tonight :D Tonight the plan is to sort out photos, back them up, and have a discussion about tomorrow... we're meeting a couple of the board members to talk about programme ideas for the Guides and Scouts tomorrow evening! Exciting. 

That's all for now - we'll update again soon!

Riddles, hikes and counting in Latvian...

Yesterday saw us out hiking with the brownies and guides. We met at central station, jumped on a train, and travelled to Smãrde. Along the way, we were given some riddles to figure out. We've listed them at the bottom - if you can get all five, we'll send you a postcard! When we got off the train, we played a couple of get-to-know-you games, and then set off on our adventure.

After about 10 minutes, the brownies were already asking how far we'd walked, and how long was left! It's good to know it's not just British brownies and guides who are like that!! The walk gave us a great chance to find out more from the leaders about Latvian Scouts and Guides, their international experiences, and what they wanted to do in the future. It was also a brilliant chance for the brownies to attempt to teach us Latvian - we're not so good at the minute! Maybe we'll get to 20 by the end of the trip!

After a while, we ended up at a random 'castle', where the brownies, guides, leaders and GOLDies took part in traditional castle games, including archery, dominoes, hoopla, and skittles. After that, we cooked hot dogs on a bbq, as well as bananas and chocolates, before heading to a different train station at Milzkalne.

We had a fabulous day, and we learnt lots and the brownies certainly enjoyed the novelty of us being there!! Before we disappear for the night, don't forget the riddles...

Riddles:
1) two heads, six legs
2) you can see a pile but you can't see the thrower
3) landlord sings without a book
4) beautiful flower in the lake, in the day it blooms white in the morning and evening red
5) red man in a sauna, green beard outside

Comment your answers!!
GOLD Love,
Team Latvia!

The Great Egg Drop...

Today was our first day with Brownies and Guides, and, as it's a joint organisation, Cubs and Scouts! We travelled to Ogre, a city about 45 minutes from Riga, to meet up with Liga and her unit. We were met at the station by a lovely scout called Mareks, who showed us the way to the Scout and Guide Museum where they hold their meetings. After a short introduction from Liga, we got on with our activities... 

Starting with some name games in the two ages groups...

Then joining together for getting into alphabetical order, in limited space!

Then into smaller teams. Each team was given an egg...

To decorate and name, and cherish forever...

Then we had small activities, including moving a ball from one tree to another, down paper tubes...

And standing on a very small bit of paper singing a song...

To earn resources to create something to protect their egg...

As the egg was dropped from the window...

They all survived!

At the end of the meeting, we did an evaluation - pretty successful! And then went into Ogre with Liga, Davis (one of the Rovers), Anate (one of the older guides who is hoping to make her Ranger promise this weekend), and two of the younger scouts. We had some fabulous Latvian food (chicken and pork, and mushroom sauce, or cheese...), and then headed back to the station, with the two younger Scouts leading the way (and occasionally shouting "come on, only 9 minutes!"). We made it back to Riga, and Lizzie, Toni, Alice and Laura headed out to get ice cream, whilst Net and Sarah collapsed in the hostel!

We're off for a hike tomorrow, with a Guide unit, and potentially some Brownies, as they are hoping to start up a new Brownie unit there -it'll be great to talk tactics with the leaders whilst we're walking!

Early night tonight though!
GOLD love,
Team Latvia

5 things we've learnt in Latvia

We've been in Latvia for over 24 hours now, and we've learnt some important things already!

1. Groceries are cheap here in Latvia!
We bought a LOT of food, and it came to a surprisingly cheap amount of €27!

2. St Peter's church was rebuilt after the second world war to include a baroque style tower.
We have been cultured, you see! We had a small wander through Old Town, Riga and saw a few of the buildings. We're going on a walking tour tomorrow to visit more places :-)

3. Riga has lots of Japanese restaurants!
We're not sure why either!

4. Latvian scouts and guides run meetings all over the world!
During the second world war when Latvians got displaced to Germany, they carried on running Latvian Scout meetings in the displaced person camps. Then when the war ended and they moved to USA, Canada and various other locations, they carried on still and now they meet up every four years. At the latest meet up, 30 Scouts and Guides from Latvia made it to New York, which in an organisation of only 500 is quite impressive!!

5. You spend more time waiting at traffic lights than you'd think!
Latvia has pedestrian crossings that count down how many seconds you have left until you can cross. We have spent approximately 8 minutes 20 seconds waiting at traffic lights today!

So there you go! Also, important things to note that didn't quite make the cut of the top 5 are that you can cook pasta in a microwave and that greeny bananas can taste yellowy!

More tomorrow!
GOLD love,
Team Latvia x

The adventure begins...

Today, we woke up raring to go! The taxi arrived at 8am, with a really helpful driver. After much debate, the bags were loaded, along with Net and Sarah, and the rest of the team walked to the station! After a short train journey, we arrived at Gatwick, checked our bags in, and after minor watch related disaster, we found breakfast and eventually our plane! The flight was uneventful, and we slept and read. At the other end, we were met by Liene, who got us on a bus and took us to our hostel. Then we decided to have a wander around Riga - we'd been walking for about two minutes before Martins, one of the Latvian board, caught up with us!

At 6pm, we met Liga, Martins and Eduards for a meeting about our project. It was really interesting to get to know more details of what we'll be getting up to and also to find out more about the background of the organisation, and to be able to see how the work that GOLD is doing is impacting the association. The 3 Latvians, particularly Liga, were really enthusiastic about Guiding and Scouting and were really passionate about growing the movement in Latvia!

After our meeting, we had a fabulous meal out, and wandered back to our hostel. We're now curled up on a sofa in the hostel discussing all that we've found out and the differences between LSGCO and Girlguding in the UK. It'll be bed time soon!!

Tomorrow will be a chilled day, planning, exploring and buying new watches, and generally getting ready for the adventure ahead!

More updates soon...

GOLD love,
Team Latvia x

Tomorrow we fly!

The first night of our GOLD project finds us at Radcliffe guide centre in East Croydon (a lovely guide hut if anyone is wanting to stay in the area - lots of toilets!)! 5 of us are here, waiting for Lizzie to arrive. We have been entertaining ourselves with the indoor croquet kit, frisbee, and general balls and games. We've also had a look through the fabulous old guide annuals and log books (one guide company in 1983 were disgusted at having to eat off dog bowls... We're just as confused as you!)

We're all ready and raring to get going, and excited with our team uniform! Keep posted for more excitement over the next couple of days!

GOLD love,
Team Latvia 2014

4 weeks to go!

Today is exactly four weeks before we fly to Latvia! We're having a teleconference as I type this blog, and we're all very excited (with a few nerves mixed in) about the trip! 

We are steadily getting there with planning and session plans - ideas, resources and games are being thrown backwards and forwards via phone calls, facebook, e-mail, dropbox, text, carrier pigeon, and semaphore. Medical forms are being filled in, and emergency contacts decided. Alice has finally had her EHIC card sent to her, and we've all (I hope) got our passports at the ready. 

As usual with Team Latvia 2014, we're not getting any less busy - Toni is working every day up until we fly, Lizzie is planning her next international trip for next year as well as Latvia, Laura has night shifts coming up soon, Net has 3 different guiding events slotted in between her 6 day working weeks, and we've all been talking too much for Sarah and Alice to get a word in edgeways, but I'm sure they're pretty jam-packed too! I'm amazed we're finding time to fit everything in, but you know what they always say - if you want something done, ask someone busy! 

More updates soon!

GOLD Love,

Team Latvia 2014

Getting closer...

Well. Third Briefing is coming to an end. At the start of the weekend, Alice had put our to do list on post-it notes stuck around the Union Flag. As we ticked off jobs, we moved the post-it over to the Latvian flag (although maybe not quite as neatly!)

The start of the weekend

The end of the weekend

By 11am on the Sunday morning, everything was off the Union Flag and onto the Latvian - whoop! We're all quite amazed at how much work we've actually got through in these three days. AND to add to our excitement mid-Saturday, we received an e-mail from Liga, our Latvian contact!! She managed to answer a lot of our questions, without us actually asking them, which was brilliant :)

The next time we see each other now will be the night before we fly out, so we're in line for a lot of teleconferences, facebook chats and e-mail conversations to finish off our planning so time for a quick Q&A with the team... 

How are you feeling about Latvia now then guys?!  

Laura: "I'm feeling good! Looking forward to it :)" 

Sarah: "Very excited!"

Ton: "Intrigued!"

Alice: "Excited!"

Lizzie: "lots of planning ahead, but we've achieved a lot this weekend so I think we're on track." 

Net: "Can't wait to get going!" 

We also found time to play a bit of aeroball - basically basketball on a trampoline! 

And we also got very excited about booking our "reunion" event in 2016 - at least three of us are off to Sangam for their 50th birthday event! There's nothing like a bit of forward planning... See you there right?! 

Third Briefing

Well hello from Third Briefing - this weekend finds us in sunny Lincolnshire at PGL Caythorpe Court. We all arrived Thursday night (Net had a long way to travel - all of about a minute walk and Lizzie only had to come from Glasgow!) and after a bit of a catch up, we had a relatively early night so that we were all bright and chipper for our busy days ahead. 

Friday morning saw us (after a hearty breakfast) set up in the classroom, and after a brief game of two truths and a lie, we started smashing through our list of things we had to discuss throughout the weekend - ranging from emergency contacts, to a giant kit list, to free time games, to finalising our clothing order (FINALLY!). Mostly importantly, we discussed the name for our mascot, which we opened up to the internet and had a wide variety of responses - the naming ceremony will happen on Sunday! We also stayed fed and hydrated with snacks and plenty of squash (Team Latvia loves squash) along the way, and a break for lunch (pizza and wedges!). We worked solidly through the day and by the time it got to dinner (18.05 precisely), we had finished 14 different tasks and pretty much melted our brains. 

The Team :D 

Our to do list - on the flag! 

Hard at work!

Meet the Mascot

After dinner, we had a wander around PGL, including seeing the seesaw where Net broke her thumb, and a beautiful sunset, and eventually ended up back in our rooms where we basically all collapsed in an exhausted heap! 

We'll fill you in more tomorrow - including the official name of the bear! 

GOOD LUCK!

We'd all just like to wish a massive GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN to the Summer GOLD Teams - Cambodia, Malawi, Guyana, and Peru! Team Cambodia are flying out as I type this and I am SO EXCITED FOR THEM! I hope all the projects go as smoothly as possible and that both the host organisations and the teams themselves get as much from the projects as humanly possible! 

It's still 74 days until Team Latvia fly out, which seems like forever and tomorrow all at the same time. Things are ticking along - we've had a little bit more information from Latvia which is exciting! It sounds like we're going on camp, and to some Ranger meetings as well as talking directly to leaders and board members, all of which will be fantastic experiences and we're so excited! 

It's really not long now until our Third Briefing, and we all have things to be getting on with in preparation for that weekend to make sure that we can cram as much in as possible!

So once again - good luck to the summer teams! If you want to find out more about what they're doing, links to their blogs are on the side over there <---. 

GOLD Love,

Team Latvia 2014

Teleconferences

So teleconferences, if you've never experienced them, are possibly the strangest communication method, barring smoke signals. First of all, there's the arranging them. Now, if everyone in your team has a similar lifestyle, for example all students, or all working 9-5 jobs, it's not too bad, although there's always the exciting addition of working around everyone's Guiding nights, or gym nights, or whatever else everyone does, but generally you can settle into a routine - Wednesday's 8.30pm for instances. 

Now. Try figuring out the best time for Team Latvia. Well. Lets just break this down. We have Alice, who works a (boring) admin office job - generally 9-5 (ish). We have Lizzie who works in some Lawyer type job - day times again, although often late in the evenings (I get told off if I say 9-5!). Then there's Laura - a nurse on shifts (lets not even start with the complications there). Then there's Net (Me!), who works bizarre hours - sometimes 8.30 - 5.30 with a 12-2 lunch break, sometimes Breakfast-9, 12-2, 5-9pm (and I don't find out until the Wednesday before the week starts...). Sarah works weekend nights and sometimes other times as well. And finally Toni works freelance, whenever she can, whatever time she can, and often out of phone signal. Yeah. Now add in all the guiding times, the roller derby games, general holidays, and everything else going on in our lives... Go figure that one out!

So far we've managed a couple of lunch time calls, and one late night (9pm) evening call. We've got another next week. 

Now the calls themselves - everyone beeps in, but Guiding's conference call system doesn't tell you who's beeped in, so the first 5 minutes consists of everyone saying their names A LOT. "Hello, this is Net, who else is here?" "Oh it's just Alice right now..." *beep* "Hello, this is Laura, who else is here?" "Net" "Alice" "Hello!" ... and so it continues until everyone has arrived and introduced themselves. We have a quick catch up, find out whether Alice's boyfriend has done any washing up recently (honestly, we have this update every single time we meet/talk! Last time, he'd bought a counter-top dishwasher!). Then we get down to business. Trying to say everything you feel you need/want to say, but not say so much that other people can't talk - it's quite a fine line to walk down, and often hard for a group of Leaders who are used to being in charge! 

Just one of our phone conferences - almost an hour!

Then, once we've all said our piece and organised everything that we need to, there's the end of the conversation, where we have a bit more of a catch up and eventually, the call fizzles out and people start disappearing, normally so that we can catch up on sleep to continue our crazy lives... 

In other news... OUR FLIGHTS ARE BOOKED!!! We're super excited! 1st October - 21st October :) 

More updates soon!

Latvian Love,

Team Latvia 2014

Previously on GOLD Latvia 2014...

So. Here it is. The official blog for the 2014 GOLD trip to Latvia. It's taken a while, so here's a short synopsis of what's happened so far, and hopefully the updates will be more regular from now on! 

September 2013 - INTOPS

September saw 85 (ish) participants meeting up just outside a chilly Edinburgh for an action packed INTOPS (INTernational OPportunitieS) weekend. We had a fabulous time cooking and crafting and learning and doing all the usual, and often not so usual Guiding activities. We can't say too much because, well, what happens at INTOPS stays at INTOPS. However, we did learn lots about all the international opportunities that Girlguiding here in the UK has to offer, and if you'd like to get involved then we can't recommend INTOPS enough - it was BRILLIANT. To apply for this years INTOPS, click here. 

November 2013 - Selection

Part of what they do at INTOPS is to decide who would work well as a team. They put the 6 of us together, and we all found out in November - Alice (Team Leader) found out a little bit earlier than the rest! We all bounced excitedly and accepted our places. 

February 2014 - First Briefing

This was the first time we really got to know each other. We spent a full and intense weekend in each others company, learning about each other, about GOLD, about fundraising and much more. The other GOLD teams were there too, and we all had a fabulous time, including Saturday evening Winter Olympic themed activities! For more details, you can read Net's blog here.

April 2014 - Phone Conferences and Second Briefing

At the end of the first briefing, we were told that we had to prepare two things for second briefing... 1. a presentation about Latvia itself, or our project, or something that we would do on project, AND 2. an activity for Saturday evening entertainment - Big Brownie Birthday themed! To do this, we chatted on facebook and had two phone conferences. These are very difficult for us to organise (due to work and guiding commitments) and have to be concise and to the point (because the best time for us is lunch time, which is fairly restricted!). Luckily, we're very good as a team at being both of these things! Net has a blog about second briefing as well... it's here!

May 2014 - Yet more phone conferences...

This is pretty much where we're up to now. We're having another phone conference tomorrow night - hopefully the dates have been finalised and we can get excited about that! We're also going to be planning the third briefing and talking about our badge and uniform... Hopefully there'll be an update for you soon! 

How was that for an update?! If you have any questions - please see the FAQs at the top of the page, and if there are any more questions, just leave them in the comments section! Any other comments are also appreciated! 

Latvian Love,

Team Latvia 2014