British Guides in Foreign CountriesLaunch parties
Dubai
Jumeirah (Dubai) District Centenary Launch Party took place at The Ritz Carlton Hotel on 20th October. The girls had a ball! - although service for the afternoon tea left something to be desired and in the end Sam helped negotiate a 50% refund!. Anyway our Ambassador for Guiding came - Karen Warrington - The Consul General's wife
All Dubai Districts have managed to come together for a sparkly party for all 5 Rainbow units one Thursday - all in sparkly clothes - Guiders had to wear pink feather boas and tiaras! Apparently DCs to be extra large - probably glad you are not in Dubai!
I had a meeting with Dubai 1 - local television station about a televised charity project they are trying to co-ordinate with local community groups. They are having a lot of red tape with the government over the charities. The idea is, Guiding will feature in a programme on its own. Jane came too and had the idea of linking it in with Adventure 100 which most of us are doing and the Whacky 100 challenges. I will let you know if anything comes of it.
Toulouse
Toulouse kicked off their centenary year with a huge Widegame which covered 100 years and 100 people attended. The girls were given passports which were stamped as they visited each year. They had the opportunity to try their hands at semaphore, learning the Charlston, First Aid during the Blitz, 'attending' the Coronation, visiting the World Centres, It's a knock-out, Peace Symbols, making bird-feeders, recycling bits and pieces into art and recognising the leaders when they were children.
At each base the leaders had dressed up in the clothes of the time which the girls thought was very funny. A huge camp fire ended the day which was enjoyed by all.
Fuengirola
Fuengirola Guides and Brownies joined together with friends and family to celebrate our Centenary with a great disco and fun filled evening.
Commemorating an event as special as a Centenary calls for more than just cakes and balloons. In true Guiding style it calls for a challenge. The local Brownies undertook to create a huge mural over 1.5 m wide, recycled from scrap materials and lots of sequins! This underwater scene is now hanging in the children’s room at the Cudeca Hospice in Benalmádena. The children also took part in the annual sponsored walk for the charity and now have a good idea about the work that goes on there.
Kuwait
We are all busy finishing Unit choices for our Adventure 100. There are a lot of parties underway - disco music, 1950 and 1960s, visits to climb up high somewhere and several 'X-factor' style evenings.
1st Salmiya Brownies sold off their remaining Ubuntu books at a recent Xmas bazaar and their total collected for their Book Aid project soared to 600 pounds. In total the District has collected in the region of 1,560 pounds for their Changing the World projects. The 14th Dromedary Guides have voted to continue their Unicef project and will be fundraising for an Ethiopian Orphanage - they are planning a Guide fundraising meeting.
Singapore Launch
Ladies, we had a highly successful party on Saturday at the British High Commissioner's house in the presence of the President of Singapore's wife, Mrs. Nathan, who is Patron of Girl Guiding Singapore. We had a massive thunder storm and it poured with rain and we did think that we might get washed away at one point but all 300 of us crowded in to the house and just got on with our activities! Three Guides also made their Promise so it was an eventful day. We managed to get outside right at the end for some singing. We had invited a 100 Singaporean Brownies and Guides, along with their leaders, (they don't have Rainbows) and it was highly successful with lots of enthusiasm for doing more joint events in the future.
BGIFC Launch at Hope 09
The Launch Party for BGIFC was the first to be held in UK and, as such, WE featured as the front cover of “Guiding” in August.
The afternoon, during which time we were delighted to be joined by many Friends of BGIFC who always support us so well, included wonderful circus skills, the launch CD with a mini-quiz, bouncy castles etc. The formal part was held in the marquee in the walled garden and we presented Foxlease with a monkey puzzle tree to commemorate our special event.
The afternoon concluded with cake (of course!) and drinks, followed by a display by the circus team.
Changing the world
1st Mirdif Brownies in Dubai
We just wanted to let you know what we've been up to and what we have planned over the next few weeks at 1st Mirdif Brownies in Dubai with regards to our Changing the World challenge.
We have made a pledge to have our own Monthly Earth Hour. We have also covered the Throw Away section of the challenge and the girls made posters (photos are attached) using their rubbish from the Unwrapped game we played and some paper cuttings we had from a previous activity.
They also did the Unwrapped game and the plastic bags hide and seek (both from the website) and then had a discussion about unnecessary packaging. We also explained how important it is to re-use items and keep them for an activity or craft that we could do at Brownies in the future.
We had a Swap It on Thursday 7th May at our Brownie meeting and the girls brought in their toys/books no longer being used, in the hope that another girl will enjoy it
