Imagining More

Major thanks to those who have written comments and tweeted.  I am gently reassured that real live people, apart from me and others on the trip, are reading it.  Thanks too for the tweets - I'm @Helen_B_B if you're into all that.

We have had another action-packed day here at Our Cabaña, in sweltering heat.  Each day, a patrol takes responsibility for Colours, whereby the World Flag is raised.  My patrol consists of all the people I am sharing a dorm with - there are 9 of us in the dorm, most of whom claim that they don't snore.  Our dorm is called Tulipanes, which means hibiscus in Spanish, apparently.

One of the dorm members, Maureen, has a small bear called Baxter, who keeps mysteriously disappearing.  Today he was located on top of the lockers, out of the reach of Maureen, as most places are.  A dramatic rescue attempt ensued, whereby a human pyramid was created, enabling his immediate release (and a few broken bones that we won't mention here).  Later in the day, Baxter was found sun-bathing by the pool, wearing his sombrero.  He has disappeared again.  No-one can possibly imagine how he keeps ending up in such a dynamic range of places.

We had a fantastic morning today, with the Guias de Mexico, who live locally in Cuernavaca.  They came along and we enjoyed songs, team games, and badge swapping.  Our team, imaginatively called 'Quatros Guias Y Amigos' came first, thanks to a superb combination of stealth, stamina and team-work, (apart from the disastrous three-legged race, which resulted in an unfortunate pile of legs).  We had a great time with the Guias, laughing and chatting, in Spanish, with various degrees of proficiency.

After lunch, we headed to downtown Cuernavaca for the afternoon.  I have drunk about 24 litres of water today.  It is sweltering here and you have to keep hydrating to avoid passing out.

We had an informative tour of the beautiful Cathedral in Cuernavaca; it is a huge space, but strangely without pillars.  There was an enormous font by the door.  I like that font, but I prefer Trebuchet. 

I spent some quality time on roof terraces, munching ice-cream, and thinking.

This evening, we enjoyed a session called 'Imagine More', where we were thinking about what Guiding gives to us, how it helps us to develop as individuals and leaders.  WAGGGS is now looking forward to the next one-hundred years of Guiding, having celebrated the Centenary recently.  We thought about what we will be doing in Guiding, in the next 5 years and were encouraged to write a little pledge about how we were going to take the learning from this session forward. 

I am so keen to get more people involved in international Guiding.  The opportunities which Guiding provides to girls and young women are incredible, and I really want Leaders to encourage their girls to apply for these opportunities as they are life-changing.  If you are a Leader, find out who your local International Adviser is.  E-mail her and ask her about the opportunities which are available to girls in your County and beyond.  Ask her about what opportunities are available to you as an Adult Leader (if that's what you are). If there aren't any opportunities currently, create some! Sign yourself up for the next Travelling Abroad Training, go along, and find out more! If you are aged 18 - 35, get yourself into the Global Opportunities Pool.

If you are not able to take your unit abroad, then bring the world to your unit.  Use international resources to educate your girls about WAGGGS and the wider world.  Encourage girls to work on the various interest badges which relate to the world. 

Am signing out now, as we're losing an hour's sleep tonight, apparently, then leading Colours in the morning, which I will tell you all about tomorrow.  Night night.