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