To Camp and Back Again 🏕

Yesterday was the day for camp! You may have seen on our instagram post that our bags were lost on our flight, probably in Istanbul somewhere. 36 hours later our bags were at the airport and ready for collection. We were so super excited to finally get our things! Luckily we had packed everything with spares in our hand luggage. A top tip for anyone travelling abroad, especially GOLD teams that haven’t left yet, pack spares of everything in your hand luggage.

The driver arrived a little early to take us on the 45 minute journey to camp – we had to ask a few of the locals where to go on the way and everytime the answer and directions were ‘straight on’! Once we arrived, two hours later, we were welcomed by the GOLD team from Rwanda (six girls of a similar age to us) and off we went to the camps official closing ceremony. Unfortunately, due to the lost baggage we weren’t able to attend more of camp but they were so pleased to see us.

The hall was filled with over 725 girls chanting their camp songs. It was overwhelming to hear such a fantastic and happy noise! There were lots of speeches, awards and examples of what they had been learning whilst on camp. It was brilliant to see the confidence that the girls had, what they take away from Guiding and share with their local community.

We enjoyed food hosted by the Guides and then it was time to join the party. Non-stop dancing, singing and fashion shows with a very late night! As our ‘talent’, we decided to share with them the ‘Macarena’ and ‘Cha Cha Slide’ to really get the party started!

Time for bed, we had some very wobbly bunk beds and put our mosquito nets up in time for a lovely sleep before an early start!

Breakfast consisted of African Tea (very sweet and gingery) and a Rwandan style donut – Mandazi. We decided to play Happy Families (the traditional card game) whilst waiting for our bus home. The journey was very bumpy with Francesca and Hannah almost flying out of their seats at one point!

Due to our early start we spent the rest of the day relaxing, picking up food and water, making a fashion show with make shift clothes following the inspiration from last night and prepping for our first official meeting with the Guides at their HQ tomorrow.

GOLD love

🌍🗺🌍