Here we are in London, currently without Kate but using our time resourcefully and doing a last mad printing session.
Flying at 915 tomorrow morning, if we haven’t done it now it’s too late!
Just wanted to share the wonder of how I got so much stuff in to something I’ll be carrying round for the next 6 weeks!
I’ve come home from work to yet another GOLD related parcel, this time the international necker and union flag badges for my uniform. That’s followed deliveries of sun cream, packing cubes and a lock to secure my bag to the train so we can sleep between destinations! Looking at the mound of stuff I’ve accumulated I’m slightly concerned about fitting it all in, some tough packing decisions are going to be required.
One week to go now and reports from Egypt suggest that if our accommodation and internal travel isn’t actually booked, plans are well underway for everything to be ready when we arrive.
So, this time next week we’ll be in Egypt! Keep logging in to follow our adventures!
Fifth and final briefing saw the girls visiting me in Manchester.
After much cutting and sticking, printing and laminating, our resources are in order. The resources suitcase is packed with everything we could possibly need to train 90 girls and young women over the 3 weeks of project. So, that left us with enough time to sample the delights of Manchester’s China Town.
Only 3 weeks to go now. Next time we see each other will be in London.
Dear Hayley
We have busy doing our communications for the last few days, and there
may be a possibility that you may train a week in Minia instead of
Assuit, a week in Qena and a week in Aswan. They are three important
governorates in Upper Egypt.Thanks
Yours in guiding
Nesrin
After another successful briefing weekend, this time on the beach in Hastings, the team are itching to travel. It’s all about last minute details now; injections, shopping for kit, finalising the resources, and generally getting excited. I feel I should use my first post to explain what we are doing and why, but I’m hoping the “about” pages will answer all those questions for you. So this, my first ever blog, is really just to touch base and begin a process of what will hopefully be much shared fun and excitement. No doubt there will be highs and lows along the way but we are in that blissfully optimistic stage when we just know it will all work out and simply hope that we will be able to impart some useful Girlguiding wisdom in Eqypt – where in Egypt, we’re not quite sure yet. Qena, Asyut and Aswan are names that are freely being batted around.
At risk of rambling on with very little to say I shall close and say – watch this space over the coming months to hear about Team Egypt 2010 and our adventures somewhere in Egypt!
For third briefing the team gathered at Sarah’s house in Birmingham. This was our most productive briefing. We’ve planned all our training sessions to use on project. I will post these on the blog as part of my vision of providing a useful resource to Guiders reading this.
Suddenly things are starting to fall in to place and it feels like we would get by if we were plonked down by a pyramid tomorrow. The only niggle of a concern is that we still don’t know where we’re going. Watch this space for the latest information as it unfolds…
Saturday night in Birmingham saw us sampling pink cocktails in honour of the WAGGS conference.
Second briefing started with various travel and car issues, which resulted in Gemma arriving at bedtime and Sarah finally showing her face on Saturday lunchtime! Really I think the car troubles were a guise to get out of the presentation.
Each team presented ‘their country’ to the rest of the group. Team Egypt presented:
a taster of some Egyptian pop music - listen 43 Leily Nehary
an introduction to the team from Hayley – see the ‘about’ page of our blog
an introdution to Egypt with a brief history from Gemma - see the home page of our blog
a perspective on the challenges we might face in Egypt from Becci
an introduction to Guiding in Egypt from Sarah – sadly the group never got to see this but see the home page of our blog for the information that might have been included.
an introduction to our project and programme from Helen - see the home page of our blog
and an introduction to Egyptian from Kate, which identified some key phrases we may (or may not) use on project,
Mother = ‘umm
Donkey = himar
and I seem to have misplaced the translation for girl and bicycle. Maybe Kate can assist at some point…
The Saturday night ‘decades’ party inspired the 1950′s dubbed team Egypt to spin off the ‘One Show’ with Helen as the stylish presenter. Kate took on the role of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth making her coronation speech to the nation in immaculate fashion. Gemma was the ubiquitous 1950′s housewife. A quick ‘Google’ tells me this requires “lots of energy, no opinion, and talent in every area”. Hayley, the perfect 1950′s guide, demonstrated her special talent for making bunting. “Unice was very excited to take part in coronation celebrations you know”. Sarah and I danced away the rest of the show with a perfect rendition of the ‘handjive’. To share in the 50′s fun check out the pics…
First briefing was just that, the one of many firsts. The first time we met Hayley, our team leader and the first time we all got together as a team. Happily it soon became clear that we work really efficiently together. By the end of the first weekend, not only have we dressed up in red, white and blue to honour our Scottish thistle (this will make sense when you see the photos), but we have ordered our uniform, booked in our briefing weekends, organised our conference calls, and most importantly designed our badge.
The Team Egypt 2010 GOLD badge:
Most of you will recognise the eye symbol that we have used for our team badge and some of you may already associate it with Egypt. I thought it would be of interest to provide a little by way of explanation as to the meaning of the badge.
The ‘Eye of Horus’, personified in the goddess ‘Wadjet’ is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and royal power. Wadjet was one of the earliest Egyptian deities who later became associated with other goddesses. She was the tutelary deity of Lower Egypt and the major Delta shrine the ‘per-nu’ was under her protection. The Wadjet was intended to protect the king in the afterlife and to ward off evil. Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern sailors would frequently paint the symbol on the bow of their vessel to ensure safe sea travel. Maybe our adoption of the eye, will bring us the same protection on our trip!
Horus was the Ancient Egyptian sky god who was usually depicted as a falcon. His right eye was associated with the sun Ra. The eye symbol represents the marking around a Peregrine Falcon’s eye that includes the teardrop marking sometimes found below the eye.
There are seven different hieroglyphs used to represent the eye. In Egyptian myth the eye was not seen as the passive organ of sight but more as an agent of action, protection or wrath.
