Tuesday 31 July 2012

Days 9 and 10


And the cheerful camp saga continues.  Could I get all the GOLDies to smile at once during breakfast?  I could not.  Because they were too busy eating their morning bread and apricot jam. (Just FYI, we haven't fallen out with Jade. It's just that I was sitting in the gap).

We've had lots of lovely food on that wall.  And bread with every meal.  And while it was good bread, it is nice to have something different now that we're off camp.  Of the camp food, mash was popular, as was the coleslaw-without-mayo-but-with-coriander and we've had rice, lentils and buckwheat  We've also been served some lovely soup with pasta in it, along with the bread to soak it up.  Sometimes we have 2 pieces of bread which we manage all at once so we have it later and designate it pudding bread.  Slurp!

So Day 8 dawned in a grey sort of way and was the day that was both our last full day at camp and the day when we would visit the scouts we met earlier in the week.  We just narrowly missed being selected as dancers for the girl scouts' group performance by a huge margin, and went off with some of the Armenian Guides to learn the National Anthem.  In Armenian.  This turned out to be quite complicated.  

The tune I mastered quickly and made up the words out of a collection of Armenian-sounding syllables.  I thought I was getting along quite well except for Tori sniggering in my ear.  She claimed that she was trying to learn the song properly but that all she could hear was me spouting "rubbish" and Jade doing the same from her other side.  Offensive, Tori.  Rubbish?  I ask you.  She was proved wrong though as you shall hear later.

Sadly due to the muffled laughter from certain GOLDies, the Armenians cottoned on to us and helpfully volunteered to teach us the words.  It took us all a while to work out how to accomplish this as we are woefully ignorant of the Armenian alphabet and so a copy of the words didn't really help us.  In the end, a very patient Agnes (a girl who'd been translating for us) sounded out each word of each of the three verses (THREE VERSES!!!!) and we all wrote down a phonetic version.  

And then it rained.


Actually, it rained properly and the thunder that had been rolling ominously around the mountains all morning called in its debt and the heavens opened.  We sighed, donned our waterproofs and headed into an abandoned building.  

While we waited for it to stop, we played some games and taught everyone Boom-Chica-Boom which achieved no small degree of acclaim.  A bit of a camp song cheered every one up and the prospect of lunch and a trip out in the afternoon gave everyone the courage to edge outside.

After lunch, we changed into our posh get-up and played a game with everyone.  Each person had a sheet of paper taped to their backs and we all mingled around and wrote nice comments about each other.  It's lovely memory to take away from camp and we were really touched by some of the comments left by our new friends.  


I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that one of my comments said I was the best at Armenian singing.   See, Tori?  I can do it.  (We did all put in some practice earlier on in the afternoon).  Following this, we had the camp closing ceremony where everyone was awarded a certificate.  Around half a dozen folks received a certificate of active participate.  I was one of the lucky ones.  I've never been presented with a Jungle Dweller Impersonation Award before, but I'd like to thank the hair and make-up team for their sterling work - I wouldn't be standing here today without you -, my parents, Anna and Carrie, my inspirational team leader Jade and all the GOLDies except Rachel whom I still haven't forgiven for videoing it.

Jade passed on our thanks to everyone at the camp for hosting us.  We had a truly wonderful time, made some great new friends, shared lots of Guiding antics and were genuinely sorry to be leaving soon.  We had a badge for everyone and then we all hopped onto the bus to doodle along to the Scout camp.


Upon arrival, we stood in our height-order ranks and marched into the camp.  The scouts began with a band playing and the lighting of a huge bonfire and then they had a series of performances.  The read poems, sang songs, performed dances, gymnastics and acrobatics.  Some of which had to be seen to believed.  I don't think Jade would let us try this - something about a risk assessment.


We performed our dance number and some of the girls from our camp led off a flash-mob that we all jumped up and joined in with.  This was all punctuated by the ever-present thunder and not long after we performed it began to rain again so we took shelter in their hall and snacked on breadsticks.  While inside, we played Boom-Chica-Boom again and had another round of campfire faves.  It seems to help battle the weather.

Everyone was in high spirits on the way home.  We had dinner, washed up and just as we returned to our tents, the rain started again.

And heck, did it rain.  And rain.  It also thundered and lightninged but as the weather was multitasking, the rain continued unabated.  We dived into our tents, burrowed into the inners and sat and waited.  I was tent-buddies with Rachael and Rachel - not in the least confusing - and we watched in despair as water seeped over the outer groundsheet and was slowly absorbed into our bags.  Everyone has their breaking points though and Rachael and I experienced ours at around half eleven when we couldn't take it any more and conducted Opperation Wrap-Everything-in-a-Really-Really-Giant-Tarpaulin.  It was successful and kept our stuff dry for the night.  We could hear some shouting from Tori, Amy and Jade in the other tent and after sticking our heads out the tent and then hastily deeming that a bad idea, we bawled back that we couldn't hear them.  Eventually, after much screaming over the drumming of rain on canvas, we realised they were singing G-O-L-D.  (That's to the tune of YMCA to the uninitiated.)

G-O-L-D, it's fun to go on G-O-L-D.  It's got everything, goes all over the world, you can hang out with all your team.  

Except you can't because half of them are huddled in the other tent.  So we went to sleep.

In the morning, camp was... shall we say, damp.  Some of the girls' tents were completely soaked through as weather like that is bit unexpected in Armenia.  They'd moving into some of the buildings for the night and we spent our last morning on camp literally wringing out sleeping bags, draining tents, taking them down and making sure that everyone would hang them out to dry when they got home.  Fingers crossed.


Everyone was in a good mood though and all the girls got on with task admirably without complaining.  It was good to know we could get back to Yerevan and dry out and the previous evening had been a bit of an adventure.

We all swapped details on the bus on the way back to Yerevan but excited chatter eventually gave way to a sleepy doze.  We were sad to say good-bye to everyone as we've had an amazing time at camp and have been so welcomed by everyone.  But we are looking forward to the next step in our GOLD journey and after a couple of nights in Yerevan, we're setting out again.

GOLD love to all,
Kirsty and Team Armenia xxx

Days 7 and 8


Day 7 dawned - the half way point of camp.  It felt as though camp was zooming past but also as though we'd been there forever.  After all we had our routine down by now.

Day 7 was slightly different however as we didn't wake up until the alarm and our tent hadn't been transformed into a sauna overnight.  I tumbled out from under the canvas and spent some time stood outside like a muppet exclaiming over the clouds.  Where is the sun? It was still warm, but not blazing. 

In a morning we get up, we don't shower, we decide what T-shirt to wear and then we still don't shower.  Then we grab the wetwipes and imagine that a wipe down with a handful of those is the same as a shower.  Once we're all respectable we take it in turns with the bite cream.  We are sadly plagued by small biting insects and while we're not sure what it is that is biting us, we are all delicious.  Plus whatever it is seems to be able to get under our clothes.  That's just not cricket.  Although I don't think it is the crickets as they're quite cute and can jump incredibly far in one hop.  I know this because one of the girls brought me one to look at.

Once we've creamed up, we douse ourselves in liberal amounts of insect repellent, even the maximum Jungle strength of which seems to pose no problem to Armenian insects.  We are just that yummy :D  Still, it gives us something to talk about, and a final layer of suncream completes our morning toilette.  And so we do our morning exercises and we look like this.


We spent more times in our teams that day learning about Scouting in Armenia, some new knots and playing some games.  In the afternoon, each time had to make up and perform an advert and then there followed a relay race.  Each participant had to do something different whether it was run while throwing a ball, running three-legged, apple-and-spoon, balance the pen on your lip or skipping.  Our team managed a respectable third place.  Of three.

Then there followed a series of challenges that each team had to complete in a set amount of time.  Jade and I were a bit nonplussed as were the GOLDies in other teams but the challenges became clearer as time went on.  We had to make a train, we had to spell out the word SCOUT with our bodies, we had to make a human pyramid with 3 floors and we had to perform a dance.  We thought we nailed the dance, but the Armenians looked sceptical.

And there was one more thing.  One of my so-called teammates looked at me and grinned and announced that I was going to be a Jungle lady.  What?  Jade helped them which was mean and they tied me into a groundsheet, stuck weeds to me and mauled me about.  They also put grass in my hair and covered me in charcoal.  *sigh*  The life of a Guider.  This was tolerable and the team seemed pretty pleased with their creation but when it came to judging, apparently the Jungle man or lady from each team had to perform to prove that they were best.

I threw caution to the winds and abandoned myself to the role.  Let's just say that if the people who decide the Oscars were there, I would be bringing home a shiny new trophy.  I was pretty pleased with myself and was crowned the winner.  Yay!


I was less pleased with myself when I found out Rachel had videoed it.

Day 8 was similarly cloudy and it was a momentous occasion.  We had decided to wash our hair.  We got up early and we took it in turns to lean over the river bank with hose and even though the water was cold, it was very refreshing to have cool wet hair and the smell of shampoo around our heads.  

We felt pretty good about ourselves.


After this we took the opportunity to dance along to the music for a bit.


And we kept our hair down for as long as possible.  See?  A big moment.


Today was also the day that we led some trainings on camp.  We each rain the trainings with our groups on the theme of the camp - the environment.  We hid pictures of animals around camp and invited everyone to find them and decide whether they were from the UK or Armenia.  The sheep turned out to be controversial as although we believed them to be UK dwelling sheep, the Armenians thought otherwise.  However, the language barrier getting somewhat in the way, the argument quickly descended into a who-can-baa-the-loudest contest.  Enough said.  We also challenged each team to build a den using a tarp and some string and poured water over it to ensure they were well constructed.  The dens passed with flying colours.  We did various other activities too and when we said it was time for a break our team said they didn't want one.  So we taught them Alice the camel.  Take it away Jade!

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It was great to see the enthusiasm in the Guides and they really enjoyed the sessions.  One piece of feedback said they wanted to do more!  They had a great attitude and all got involved with everything which really made a difference to us.  It's great to have an atmosphere like that on camp and we're really enjoying hanging out with everyone!


In the afternoon, there was some concern that it might rain.  This didn't bother us very much but caused a bit of a frenzy as everything in camp was put under cover.  When it eventually did drizzle a bit, everyone crammed into an abandoned building and we just sat and waited for it to stop.  It was a bit weird but everything dried off very quickly.  In fact, we were quite dismissive - after all, we thought, it rains all the time in the UK and we just put on our waterproofs and carry on.  

Such naivete...

The adventures of Team Armenia will be continued in the third and final and terribly exciting camp instalment: Days 9 and 10.  Coming soon to some internet near you.  Or possibly all around you if you're on Wi-Fi.  Be there.  You know you want to.

Love Kirsty and Team Armenia xxx

Monday 30 July 2012

Days 4, 5 and 6

And lo!  The merry campers have returned from the wilderness and they pursue their GOLD project back to Yerevan.  And I can accurately describe us as merry because we have showered and/or are showering now.    (I even shampooed TWICE.  I know!) Not that we weren't merry before, but it was difficult to tell under the dirt.

But I get ahead of myself.  I should tell the story in the order that it unfolds.  So in order to keep you in suspense over the next couple of days, I shall expand our tale gradually.  But so that there's not too much tension, remember that we are all merry so we must end safely.  So here goes...

We toddled to the Armenian Guiding HQ in couple of taxis and collected all the resources we would need.  There were lots of girls there waiting already and we all chucked our luggage into a van and boarded a bus.  We picked up some other girls on the way and several girls had brought older brothers along so the bus was pretty packed.  We trundled through the mountains and some wonderful scenery, stopping once for cherries, before we arrived at our campsite near Dilijan.


It was quite spectacular!  Armenia is much more green and mountainous than any of us expected I think.  But we didn't pause too long to admire the view as there were tents to put up.  We pitched our own pretty quickly and then set out to assist the others.  There were around 50 of us camping out but we made quite short work of it.  The only difficulty was that the ground was very hard and it was difficult to drive in the pegs more than an inch or two.

However, this problem was neatly solved by one of the boys producing an axe and bashing them in.  We left him to it: health and safety.

We were something of a novelty at camp.  It didn't take long for some of the girls to come over and chat to us.  They were incredibly friendly and really made an effort to include us which definitely helped us to settle in to our new temporary homes.  We did encounter some language issues but after a while discovered there's very little you can't communicate if you gesture wildly enough.  We did learn some Armenian and the Girl Scouts seemed to find our attempts to pronounce the unpronounceable amusing.  But they were quite adamant that we should learn.  Quite right too.


We spent the evening playing games and getting to know each other and we learned some great new ones to take back to our own units.  The ball-egg-and-nicknames game was definitely new to us and later on in the evening we learned the leg game.  Has to be seen to be believed.

By the by, I believe these games have proper names in Armenian but quite what is anybody's guess.  We passed the evening playing games, having dinner and singing round a campfire.  A couple of the boys had brought along guitars and could take requests - was sang a lot of the Beatles and disappointed our new friends with our lack of knowledge of old classic rock songs.

Then an evening cup of tea and bed an midnight and we settled down for the night.

We awoke next morning at around eight, gasping for breath as the sun was already up and rapidly turning our tents into greenhouses.  We got up and sorted and then the sound system sparked into life.  Yes, there was a sound system.  This is the cue for morning exercises.

Morning exercises involves an unreasonable amount of running around the field before breakfast as well as stretches and some aerobics.  But then as a reward, one is allowed breakfast and a cup of tea so all seems fine until the next morning when the devastating saga begins again.


We had an opening ceremony with some songs from both the Armenians and the GOLDies and them we split into groups to begin our activities.  We were preparing for an international night the following evening and Jade and I were in a group which picked India.  This was all fine and dandy until they asked us to learn by heart and sing a song in Hindi while they danced.  Now as everyone knows, a good girl Guide can turn her hand to just about anything, but this stumped us.  Plus we had to prepare for our own UK themed performance.

Once this was settled, we went en masse to collect wood.  The wood seemed to be half way up the mountain behind it and so we spent a couple of hours mooching up and down in the baking sun and dragging approximately 2.6 acres of forest to the campsite.  The hard part was balancing on the stepping stones across the stream.  I may have fallen down but as there is no photographic evidence, I deny it.

We had lunch  - but lunchtime at camp is anywhere between three and five - and spent the rest of the day practising our performances for International Evening.  And before bed we danced along to the music (camp is really like a big disco) and finished off with a cuppa and sing-song around the campfire.

The following morning, we again woke up gasping for air and were unprepared for morning exercises which began 15 minutes early.  We needed a little more time to prepare mentally (i.e. scoff Maoam sweeties) beforehand.  We breakfasted and finished off practising our performances for International Night which was due to start at 5:00 when the Scouts would join us from their camp.  Team Armenia shuffled self-consciously a little way out of camp to rehearse our vigorous Scottish dancing.  I definitely didn't fall down again.  That would be embarrassing.

We changed into our posh shirts and badge tabs for the occasion and when the scouts arrived, they did so in a flurry of chanting and a rhythmic stampede as they swept around our camp in formation.  We established where everyone should sit and we played some ice breaker games.  The scouts represented several countries outside Armenia, including Georgia and Iran, and all were very friendly and we have cheerfully promised to Facebook each other.


There followed an opening performance from the GOLDies and we explained a little bit about the UK, where we were from and some of our traditions and culture.  Then we performed our epic medley: the UK remix featuring Take That, the Beatles, the National Anthem, Land of Hope and Glory, "traditional" Scottish and Irish dancing, some Welsh singing and a rather savvy rendering of the Spice Girls.  Our Girl Scouts then performed their presentations of their countries of choice and the visiting scouts performed traditional Armenian singing and dancing.

We had a break during which there was a mad scramble for watermelon and then spent the remaining time dancing and taking group photos.  Like this!


It was a lovely evening and when the Scouts left, marching to the strain of a whistle, the atmosphere continued and we ended our second full day on camp dancing along to the music and having a cup of tea around the campfire.

Lots of GOLD love from Team Armenia xxx

P.S. Hello teams Malawi and Guyana!  We are reading your blogs (and we are not at all jealous of the swimming pool.  Obvs :D )

Monday 23 July 2012

Day 4 and beyond....


I have escaped the den-of-frantic-packing (which we used to call our room) to bring you a timely reminder that we used to look neat and tidy like this.  Sadly this will not be true for long!

Today we are heading to Armenian Guiding HQ to meet our fellow campers and hop aboard the bus to Armenian National Guide Camp.  We're expecting around 80 people and looking forward to delivering our training sessions.

We are looking forward to not showering somewhat less.

When you think of us, let it be as above: neat, tidy and clean.  But I think we'll be smiling either way :D

Lots of GOLD love from shiny shiny Team Armenia xxx

P.S. I'll not be updating for a while as I'm not sure when we next get internet.  But on the bright side, we may have more to report on than our food and card games.

P.P.S. Although food and card games are important too.

Day Three


We hopped out of bed at the usual hour this morning to take in lunch at the hostel.  This consisted of tomato, cucumber,  cheese, bread and apricot jam.  Yum!  Then we headed out into Yerevan to get our final bits and pieces for camp.  Rachael, Rachel and I went to hunt down card and paint.  We found paper and following some creative miming, the woman in the stationary shop produced card.  Sorted.  Then we took a circuitous route back to the hostel to meet the others who had sorted out the Armenian phone and bought lunch.

We've discovered Armenian flatbread which you buy a giant roll of in a packet.  But it's great for spreading on Nutella or cheese.  Even gerkin flavoured cheese which is unusual but tasty. Chuck in some salami, fruit juice and nectarines and we managed a pretty yummy lunch.

This afternoon we got down to some serious business.  We checked all the plans were in place for camp and then got down to some packing.

Packing our bags has become a minor obsession.  We began our journeys with all our clothes, first aid, washbags, shoes and the like, plus towels, sleeping bags, liners, rolls mats and a third of a tent each. ie. inner,  outer or poles.  Not to mention the extra resources that Rachael managed to cram into her backpack.  This was of necessity as we could only fly with one bag each.

Since then, we have removed the tents and put them back in their bags, removed the things we won't need over the next 2 weeks until we're back in Yerevan, and our bags are inexplicably fuller than ever.  Why does our stuff take up more space in Armenia?

What with our stuff defying the laws of physics, we were pretty tired when we'd finished re-packing.  So we thought we'd have a quick run-through of our camp entertainment.

Anyone passing the door of our room in the hostel and peeping inside to find the source of the racket would have found 6 GOLDies standing in a line facing an iPhone and "singing" the second verse of the National Anthem with varying degrees of success.  Or making a farce out of Irish dancing.  Or Scottish dancing for that matter.  Or even our own dance to Yellow Submarine or the Spice Girls.  And all this in the name of representing all that is truly the UK in musical form.

Let's just say that we have not yet finished practising.


Practice also turned out to be pretty energetic so we chilled by learning our new card game, entitled Backpackers.  The instructions inform us that the best way to learn is to play with a group of people who already know how to play, but for those who are not so fortunate, it instructs you to play three or four preliminary hands of varying degrees of difficulty.  After a hard evening's play, we have now mastered the 'easy' hands (even if Jade does keep playing multiple country cards from the same continent) and are ready to move on to...the full basic version of our game.  However, we are not to be daunted and hope that on camp, we will work our way up to the advanced level.

Actually, it's brilliant!  But it's got more rules than Chess, Monopoly and Bridge combined, so that's why it's taking us a while to learn.  It's not because we're stupid.

Just to clarify.

Anyway, in between all this we made pasta with peppers, sweetcorn, sausage, cheese, tomatoes and the veg at lunchtime that we thought was lettuce but actually to everyone's surprise turned out to be cabbage.  This pleased Jade who has made it her mission to ensure that we all eat at least two portions of fruit or veg every day.  Apparently if we don't, she won't let us sleep and will hit us with a stick.  On the bright side, she won't be able to sleep either, but I suspect that she is not serious.

About the stick, I mean.  She's definitely serious about the fruit.

However, the fruit here is lovely and we've had apricots, nectarines, apples and even a couple of cherries that a chap in the hostel offered us.  Delish!

Finally, to end the evening, we thought we'd go for a health-improving walk, so we went all the way round the corner to the supermarket for an ice cream.

A lovely way to end the day.

And now it's nearly time for bed for...

Kirsty and Team Armenia :D

Sunday 22 July 2012

Days 1 and 2

***Day One***

We had a good journey to Armenia in various stages.  Our taxi drivers competed to get us to Heathrow on time and we arrived only 3 and half hours before takeoff.  Winner.  Being Guiders, the logical next step was to find some food, so we checked in our luggage and hunted down some Italian.

We bumped into Team Malawi very briefly and then went to hop on the plane to.... Poland.  This was uneventful, apart from the unexpected sandwiches, biscuits and tea that were provided.  After some meat/cheese debate, we decided that the sandwiches contained smoked cheese.

From Poland we had a comfortable hour transferring to our flight to Yerevan, Armenia.  Customs did question Tori about the harmonica they thought she might be carrying in her bag, but having established that she wasn't carrying a harmonica, everyone smiled and waved us on.

We were met at the airport at 5:00am by some very dedicated Armenian Guiders and hopped on a taxi to the hostel.  We arrived a little dishevelled and a tad on the sleepy side at around 5:30am local time.  

***Day Two***

We began day 2 in an energetic fashion by going to bed for the morning.  Necessary.  But by afternoon, we were up, cheerful, chipper and other words beginning with ch, so we set out to complete our to-do list.  We've got bits and pieces to arrange before we go off to Camp on Day 4, but more on that in the future :D

We also managed to track down some lunch and after contemplating the longest menu in the world which seemed to take in most of the world's cuisine in some way shape or form, we settled on pizza as a safe bet.  And peach juice.  We had some initial difficulty in communicating this to the waiter given our failure to learn the Armenian for peach juice, but peach juice duly appeared and was lovely and refreshing.

Having been refreshed, the only logical conclusion is to do an unreasonable amount of exercise and so we tottered through Yerevan and climbed the 721 steps up the Cascade. (In English money, that's 3.6 Whitby's, minus the abbey).  The Cascade dominates the end of the main street through Yerevan and scales up and up, soaring above the city.  At the top is an enormous grey concrete tower and a tremendous view over the whole capital.  I was able to appreciate this more once I got my breath back.

Actually, for the faint-hearted there are escalators running underground which can transport you in air-conditioned bliss to the summit.  But we are GOLDies and therefore hardcore and so we climbed.  

But how, I hear you cry, do you know that there are 721 steps?  On the way down we counted, Rachael making notes on her hands every time we hit a new level.  I added them up incorrectly so that I could contribute as a maths teacher, and then Rachael did it properly.  So 721 it is.  Up and down.  If it seems that I am mentioning this a little more than necessary, it's because my legs hurt.

So we went to the supermarket, bought some bits and bobs for dinner and consumed lots of apricots in honour of our adopted country.  The apricots here are good.

I'll be back soon with more exciting, possibly apricot-fuelled adventures of....

Team Armenia xxxx

Saturday 21 July 2012

And they're off!

And Team Armenia have packed everything they can think of.  And then some.  But we've cheerfully weighed our bags (coming in at an average of 19.6kg each) and booked a taxi to the airport and practised friendship knots for our neckers.  We've also spent a lot of time talking pants.  We're obsessed.  How many pairs to take?  These things are important!

So Team Armenia, how are we feeling?

Jade and Rachel in unison say "Excited".  Good to know.  And it looks a bit like this.


The overwhelming consensus is that it feels unreal.  We can't believe it's actually here as we've been preparing since November when fundraising began.  It hardly seems possible that today we'll be leaving for Armenia.  

But we're looking forward to being there, getting stuck in and, of course, letting you all know how it goes.

Kirsty and the Team xxx

Wednesday 11 July 2012

Ten Days and Counting

And so we are a mere ten days from departure.  And we've been busy.

It's the time that we engage in frantic scanning of the shelves in Boots for our first aid kit essentials, hurriedly sewing union flags to the arms of our T-shirts and scrambling about trying to remember what we may or may not know about traditional country dancing for International Night at Armenian camp.

And that's if we don't even get into visas, passports, plug adaptors, currency and giving everyone at home the right emergency contact details.

Honestly, this time is the most nerve-wracking.  There still seems like a lot to get done before we go and excitement can easily get crowded out by a multiplicity of little worries.  But we've just had a phone conference and knowing that everyone feels like that really helps.  Maybe, just maybe, this will work after all, and everything will come together after the months of planning.

Fingers crossed!

xxx