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!