We are a group of 18 Ranger Guides and 3 Leaders from Heron Rangers in East London and we are part of Girlguiding which is the leading charity for girls and young women in the UK. This August we are going on an adventure to South Africa, Zambia and Malawi. We will be partnering with The Book Bus charity to deliver lessons to two schools, one in eastern Zambia and the other in Malawi. Follow our blog to see what we get up to on our adventure.
Tuesday, 20 August 2013
Monday, 19 August 2013
Day 6: We're getting on like a house on fire
We had a great night at Dean's Hill View Campsite, enjoying a tasty meal of spaghetti bolognaise! The next morning we woke up for scrambled eggs, cereal and some much appreciated tea and coffee! AS, IA and PJ went with a leader to get more food supplies from the local supermarket by taxi, while the rest of us began to clean the truck, ready for our first day on the Book Bus. Unfortunately, due to a fire incident, we had to evacuate the campsite earlier than expected. Whilst we were waiting for the shoppers to return and Doc to change the battery, we found we were attracting a bit of attention. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by lots of local children. We decided to use the opportunity to practice games and activities, and really loved playing with the children. After about 2 hours, our truck was sorted and we set off for Croc Valley. To our surprise we were greeted by a family of elephants at the entrance of our campsite, which was definitely a highlight for lots of us, and some giraffe! Another highlight was being treated to spaghetti bolognaise (again), from the restaurant, which we were all so grateful for! We are getting on really well, working well as a team and are enjoying our surroundings at our campsite. In the evening we prepared the lessons for our first day at school and all our training, preparation and practice is paying off.
HK, SL, MHB, IA, EN
Day 5: Travelling through three countries in one day
Our day began at four in the morning!!! After only 5 hours of sleep we were awakened by HC tripping on the way back from her shower. It was a freezing, tiring, hectic hour full of cleaning packing and yawning. We then drove to the airport where we said our final goodbyes to Johannesburg. Before customs we stopped to get a breakfast at Mugg & Bean which is similar to Starbucks. It was very lekka (tasty in Afrikaans)!
The 2hr plane journey was very pleasant, or so we thought before the turbulence! It felt like we were on a roller coaster ride which was made much worse as we had recently eaten lunch. As we all reached for our sick bags, MG got an extremely unpleasant surprise when she found that hers had already been used and put back in the seat pocket.
We soon forgot about the turbulence as we left the airport to be greeted by Kate (our book bus guide), Doc (our driver) and Terence (the book bus truck)! We were all so excited to finally step foot on the truck and begin another adventure.
After border control between Malawi and Zambia we stopped at a supermarket and when we were ready to get going again, Terence didn't quite agree. So we all got out and pushed with ALL our might and eventually he got going again.
30mins later we arrived at our campsite by which time the sun had set and we all had to get out our head torches. We put up the tents, (which was a hard task in the dark), unloaded the truck and prepared dinner.
We can't wait to get to bed as we have had a looooooong day today and have another 4hr drive ahead of us tomorrow! But we are all looking forward to arriving at Croc Valley.
EN, IA and MHB
Sunday, 18 August 2013
Day 5: Farewell to South Africa
We are on board our plane looking forward to the next chapter of our adventures
Saturday, 17 August 2013
Day 4: Our adventure in Northgate Mall, North Riding
Today we were lucky enough to have (an hour) lie-in as we were all so exhausted after a long day and staying up until 11pm. After a late start, we had a quick breakfast and whilst team South Africa washed up, we caught up with diaries, updated the blog and started packing our bags in preparation for our flight tomorrow. We then walked 4km, which took 45 minutes(!!!), up and down steep, rocky terrain to Northgate Mall. Our first challenge of the day... find somewhere to eat. After investigating various possible lunch venues, we decided as a group to eat at Mike's Kitchen (typical SA food) which we all really enjoyed. We then had some free time to explore the mall, but were disappointed with the lack of souvenir shops, and the fact that ALL the banks were closed so some of us were unable to exchange money into Rand so we had to use the bank of SA! After our free time, we met outside Mugg & Bean, which is SA equivalent of Starbucks, and after ARC had an iced coffee (yay!), we speed-walked back in only 35 minutes in the very bright African sun. Two Rangers, Kaelynne and Roxy, and their mum, from the local Ranger unit then joined us - they cooked us a traditional SA evening meal, introduced us to a bright green Cream Soda drink and showed us a video about Guiding in SA. They then spoke to us about SA pop culture and Guiding uniform before leaving, when we ended our day's activities with our group meeting. We are currently packing and preparing to leave at 5:30am tomorrow, which includes eating all the left over food, cleaning our whole accommodation and sharing out the books. At 9pm, Linda Botha, the chief commissioner for the Cape West Region and Michelle February, a board member for WAGGGS, are coming to catch-up as KB and SA last saw Michelle in 2005 at a Christmas Summer Picnic in Kirstenbosch and Linda has brought many Guides and Ranger's to Girlguiding London over the Border over the last 10 years because of the link with Cape West and our county.
ARC, EB and MW
Day 4: Green Day in Gauteng
We enjoyed a visit from local Rangers who treated us to typical Afrikaans fare.
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