3rd Briefing

Last Friday we all set off on our travels to third briefing in Birmingham. It was great to have the six of us together again, especially after only five of us being at 2nd briefing. By 9pm we were sat down with our fajitas (a GOLD staple from each briefing so far) and having a good catch up. We started our weekend by opening some good luck cards and receiving presents (in the form of badges) from our fellow GOLDies this year – it was lovely to see their kind messages and see their badges ready to be sewn onto our blankets. It was then time to start our activities for the weekend – it certainly promised to be a busy but exciting schedule!

First stop, sharing our information and findings about Rwanda so that we could learn a little bit more about where we were heading on our travels this summer. Did you know…

• Rwanda has the highest percentage of female politicians in the world – over 60%.
• It boasts one of the best healthcare systems in Africa with 500 health centres and four national hospitals.
• Tanzania, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi all border Rwanda.
• You can create your own business in just 48 hours.
• On the last Saturday each month there is a national day for volunteering in the community known as ‘Umuganda’.
• Rwanda is known as the ‘Land of a Thousand Hills’.
• There is a strong ‘no plastic bag’ policy – they are confiscated on arrival at the airport and are not available within the country.

Wake up and shake up on the Saturday morning was a reminder and refresher of ‘Get Loose’. We are all pretty familiar with this now and it’s strange to think that the next time we do this we will be in the middle of Rwanda on project! The day continued onto our role training. We each had our own section to cover so that the whole team was aware of what we would be doing before, during and after project. It was also our opportunity to share our individual sessions from 2nd briefing with lots to learn about finances, forming training plans, first aid and the support we will have whilst we are away.

Next up, training plans! This was our chance to review the aims and objectives for the GOLD project and correlate these to our itinerary so far. It was great to have a better idea of where we will be going in Rwanda, the groups that we will be meeting and what we will be training during the three weeks. We split into pairs and started thinking about what activities we could do for each session and topic area.

After our busy morning we took the opportunity to try on our team kit and visit the Trefoil House shop to stock up on uniform, badges and neckers that some of us needed. We were so pleased with the colours of our kit, brilliantly eye catching and perfect for our adventures, we hope you like it too!

After lunch (another GOLD staple of jacket potatoes) it was our exploring time – off into Birmingham we went. Along the canals, to the top of the library, along New Street, to the largest Primark in the world and back to Trefoil House. We used the time for a quick shopping trip and managed to find a bargain suitcase for our resources to go in.

If any of you follow us on Instagram, you will have seen how much fun we had making boomerangs – luckily we had a couple of hours of sunshine before the rain set in again!

We concluded the afternoon with organising the logistics for our travel, thinking about our onward travel (a couple of days at the end of our trip which we will be spending together after project) and completing 1:1 sessions with Alice. It was great to be able to plan things together now we have a better idea of what we will be doing. Fortunately, we will be staying in one location for the duration of project which is so helpful and certainly makes our logistics easier to manage.

Our evening entertainment this briefing was unfortunately not fancy dress related! We headed out for a game of space themed crazy golf followed by intense and very competitive games of Uno and Dobble – something which we are looking forward to continuing in Rwanda!

Sunday came around too quickly, the weekend was almost over. We reviewed the very long and detailed risk assessment, looked at our emergency planning and chatted about health and wellbeing. It was a lovely morning of growing closer together and being fortunate enough to have a very understanding and supportive team which allowed us to have an air and share related to our trip. We were able to open up about concerns and come up with solutions and support techniques for each other. It was a great way to end our final weekend together as well as coming away a huge to do list in tow!

As always, we hope you have enjoyed reading our updates.

GOLD love. ❤

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