In Pixels

I wrote this so long ago that my biography lists me as having a job. It was before I joined in with Guiding in Torbay too.

But I did write it! From The F-Word about Guiding and being girl only.

"Starting Guiding at the rather late age of 20, I was admittedly being a hypocrite. All of the benefits I claim to get out of it now were far from my mind and I did not like the idea of a single-sex organisation. After all, that is why I was never a Guide growing up."

Now go read the rest!

So where have I been...

I had a busy vegan MoFo that involved badly spraining my ankle, then I got so sick I couldn't stand, travelled to see my Dad and Gran, got sick again, travelled down to London, lost my train tickets home* and came back to Torquay.

Luck wise and health wise I haven't had the best year really. But one more month - in which will probably loose my debit card and my house keys - and we can start again.

However it hasn't all been bad. I'm now a trained In4mer and I'm hoping to be able to start running sessions in the area some time after Christmas. I'm on the list to do PR for a district event which sets to be all sort of fun. I got to see some of my Family (last minute trip so I didn't make it around even half of the people I wanted to see!)

Oh yeah, and I got to go to Edinburgh! This is me (shock!) on top of the Camera Obscura with the 11th Torquay Brownie Mascots. It was a great weekend and big thanks go to my Guiding community, family and friends who made it possible.

To quickly recap the weekend we had a Castle visit where I got to look at the crown jewels, an open top bus ride which was freezing but very entertaining, a ball with less than brilliant food but an excellent band and a great deal of dancing and I got to verify that one man wore his kilt in the traditional manor. As you can probably tell by the picture it was cold and overcast but the city was brilliant and the company even better.

*The current leading theory is that they were taken out of my coat pocket so if you are the person who got a free trip to Torquay two weekends ago then I apologise. If you had just asked me I could have told you that it isn't worth it.

World Issues 1/4

EDIT: Health issues and other things stopped me from writing the follow up posts. I'm afraid their is no resolution for this one. We had fun though.

For the next three weeks I’m helping with Brownies. Brown Owl (the woman in charge) is also an assistant at guides with me and she needed a bit of help.

I said I’d come in to do a badge. Being a visitor like this helped me decide on what to do. I like talking about world issues with our girls but the added respect and detachment I get from being just a visitor was a big help in bringing up more difficult problems.

So I have the chance to do the World Issues badge. And – as it’s the centenary year – I’m going to be asking the girls to identify an issue they feel strongly about and have them work to make thing better.

This week we took on children’s rights. Not the easiest of issues to explain. Teaching about hurt and pain and the horrible things people do to each other is difficult for them and me. Add to that children who are being treated like crap by the people who are supposed to protect them the most – parents, teachers, governments – and yeah. Hard.

But we got there. To explain the concept of children’s rights with them we started with a game. They chose the game and started playing. It was All Brownies for those who know it (I didn’t!) and I walked over and announced that the winner would get a prize. They played the game and the winner stepped forwards.

I told her I didn’t much like the idea of giving my prize away, that I was going to keep it and she had no say.

After the complaining settled down I asked them if they thought it was fair? No. I asked them if they thought it was right? No. Then I asked them how it felt to be ignored and treated unfairly.

Then we used an Oxfam produced activity to introduce the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. We discussed what we thought was important and why.

I pulled my map out and attacked it with sticky notes. ‘Does anyone know where Sierra Leone is?’ We talked about war, drought, and access to medicine. All with real life examples.

Then we went back to playing games. Right before we finished for the night we held the big vote. What issue do the girls want to work on in the next three weeks? What do they want to change?

All hands went up for stopping Animal Cruelty. Check back next week when we’ll have more of that plus talking about the work of international charities.

You can see the World Issues badge here, sign your daughter up for Brownies here, or become a leader yourself here.

Home grown

I'm busy getting ready to fund raise for Edinburgh tonight and I'm planning four weeks of discussing important world issues with girls age 7-9.

More on those when they have happened. All I have for you now is some hand stitched flowers out of leftover materials that I'm hoping to get a few pennies for later.

Rules are Rules

I just got my Ultimate Edinburgh confirmation which is making me very happy right now.

So I thought I would use the opportunity to share with you our new unit guidelines. The girls thought up the rules, we vetted them and then held a vote.

1. Respect each other
2. Have fun but be sensible
3. Listen to others when they are talking
4. Tell a leader when you can't attend

All of them, especially number three, will be forgotten about before the next meeting but it did manage to buy us a bit of peace. I'm working on activities centred around Children's Rights, Independent Living and World Food Day at the moment. Any ideas?

A little round up

Because things don't happen to you unless you blog about them I'm going to do a quick round up of the things in my life that don't let me waffle for long enough to get a full blog post out of them but are nevertheless really exciting.

1. I've been selected to be on staff for Fusion! It's the Fourth of next August and is set to be spectacular. From the website 'Fusion will feature over a thousand of the best outdoor performers from across Europe, with everything from music and dance to circus acts, buskers and theatre performers'. If you are a little girly Guide (girly Guide!) you can start booking places on the 4th January.
2. If you used to be a little girly Guide (girly Guide!) you can chat with former and current members on Guides Reconnected. I'm on there.
3. I've got a reviewers copy of Seahorses are Real on it's way. It's 'a haunting tale of love and tragedy'.
4. I own three copies of The Picture of Dorian Gray already. But I want this one.
5. One of our Bookcrossing books made it all the way to Italy!