Our first week of training is over already and we've struggled to find a spare minute to keep you all updated on what we've been up to, so I will catch you all up while we're waiting for our dinner (they're on 'Africa Time' so it'll be a while yet....)
We didn't have long to recover from our somewhat epic flight before we had to don our neckers once more and head to our first training session with rangers and leaders from all across Lilongwe. The training took place at a local primary school which was great for us as it meant the girls had desks to sit at, and we had chalk boards to write on and lots of outside space for songs, games and energisers.
The first day was daunting, none of us really knew what to expect (although Rhiannon had a bit of a better idea having done this before) and when we got there there was a distinct lack of girls. However we started with a song in true GOLD style and they started trickling in until we ended up with around 40 girls. Training for the day focused on their Guiding promise and laws, what makes a good Girl Guide, fundraising techniques and some self esteem workshops which saw all the girls writing compliments on their handprints. The compliment hands were a great success and we stuck them all onto a drawing of a tree at the front of the class. Alannah made a lot of new friends with her willingness to pose for an unending parade of camera phones and her game 'Fishy, Fishy, Fishy' which became a firm favourite of the girls. 'Get Loose' also went down well, with the girls leading their own version by the end of the day albeit with some questionable lyrics - 'Get Dunky' anyone? This was also the day we discovered nshima, pineapple Fanta and hole in the floor loos...
By day 2 we were feeling a lot more confident and turned up armed with newly rewritten session plans to account for the late arrival of the majority of the girls. Sure enough we started with a handful of girls which gradually swelled into a classroom full by our second training session of the day. Alicia taught the girls 'Camarussa' a song/dance combo no one had ever heard of but the girls adored. We ran through some of the 'Free Being Me' activities focusing on self esteem, the image myth and beauty standards around the world (fun fact: some of the girls told us they knew about false tan as they'd seen it on SpongeBob. Weird). We also created some posters for the girls to take away and use to promote MAGGA in their communities. The girls taught us a few of their songs and games in which we made up for lack of pronunciation with effort and awesome dance moves.
Day 3 turned out to be a half day which meant some hasty reshuffling but we did some more work on how to fundraise for their units and a session on role models and how they could be role models in their communities. We ended the day by teaching the girls 'Make New Friends' and singing 'Thunderation' again which the girls love!
After posing for approximately 42,544 photographs, the Malawi GOLD team took us into town into some of the local markets which was definitely an experience! We squeezed through some tiny spaces surrounded by swaths of gorgeous fabrics and left with purses slightly lighter! The markets are like mazes and we were grateful that the Lilongwe girls were there or we may still have been wandering in there now!
It's been a crazy busy few days interspersed with moments of hilarity such as Clare becoming the Hulk and snapping the door handle in two, Clare following a waitress around a restaurant for a considerable length of time while trying the track down a taxi, the powercut in ShopRite (Malawi's answer to Asda) and freezing cold showers (shortly followed by a total lack of water at the lodge).
Tomorrow we have a rare day off and the girls from Malawi's own GOLD team will be taking us out to see the sights of Lilongwe! We're very excited and off to bed early ready for another early start.
More to follow soon.
Much GOLD love,
Team Malawi.
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