More Activity days...

Hey guys!

It's been a while since we last posted now...and we've been mega busy!

Woke up early on Sunday after a lateish night for an Activity Recruitment Day in Yerevan, the Davtashen district! Media Lilit's area - woop!! So off we trotted,Metro and Minibus experts now! The day was brilliant fun - tho mighty warm - brooning day by day!! Cara and Rachel were on balloon modelling duties - dodgy balloons though - so after a few sucessful balloon dog's we were onto balloon fishes - not so exciting!!

We then came back to the hostel, all set on a wee rare night off yet due to last minute change of plans - we do love the Armenians!! - we spent the evening preparing for an extra activity recruitment day in Byurexavan and also the evening training session for the Leaders in Yerevan for Monday!

So another busy, lateish evening! We were then up at the crack of dawn to head to Byurexavan. Two minibusses later we were - raring to go! We were given the treat of watching a Traditional Armenian Dance Class. The girls were arranged in height and performed a greulling dance routine especially for us - was grande to watch! Especially the two wee cute ones who where about 3 years old and had no clue what was going on and just made it up as they went along!!

We then had another sucessful recruitment activity day with around 30 girls plus some boys!! Who now of course want to be Guides! We were also greeted by the Headmistress of the School who was ever so kind and praised us for what our project was doing! After a few a games and singsongs - special mention to the wee army dude who made us all smile - we said our goodbyes and were asked to join the Guiders for some lunch!

We were then escorted down the most rural, secluded path to a mineral water fountain which once produced seven different varieties of water! There was such beautiful views as we were kind of inbetween two valleys. The most wonderful feast was then produced via the back of the Guider Brother's car - it even involved him driving home for the main course! We were treated to summer dolma, beer, fizzy pear juice, SALTY CHEESE, lavash, aubergiene and Garlic parcels - and an awesome, massive apriocot sponge cake!! Yum Yum Yum!! Yet thats not all - the Armenians like to watch us eat - and then produced a large watermelon that was shared out! Tina devoured an entire section of the watermelon - closely followed by us all - minus Cara (I'm a laaaady!) Joyful Joyful - however the mess they made on the floor and across their faces was another story!

We were then running short of time to get back to Yerevan for the evening training - so Taxi! We literally had 30 minutes to get back, grab resources for the evening session and get out! Exhaustion was felt - and Simona commented on how knackered we all looked!! How rude! The training prooved to be very sucessful - good turn out and in the short time we had with them we taught a number of new songs and games and spent time working on programme planning! All in all, grande! We then walked home in the nice cool air - and were treated with chocolate Ice cream cones! Yaba! Repacked for recruitment day then straight to bed!! Yawn!

Then on Tuesday we were up and away again this time to Armavir for yet another activity day, where we were met by Kara, a teacher and guide leader who we saw at camp. This area has a lot of guides already, partly because Kara is here and she's amazing ( it really goes with the name!! mwhaha!) but they are still hoping to get some more! The girls were a bit older here, but we ha about 30 and had a great day playing games including Mama, Papa, Balik and duck duck goose. We had a little bit of a scare when one of the girls fainted, but she was fine and the team handled it very well! Even though Simona attempted to drown the poor kid with a bucket of ice cold water as a remedy!!

Cara, Tina, Sarah and Lorraine had the privellage of experiencing the School toilet - what a treat! Especially for Lorraine - after Cara and Tina had some aiming issues! Joyful! - and we thought our school toilets were bad, atleast they have a door and pan!

After we had finished entertaining, the Armenians yet again entertained us. We were taken into a room where we were fed watermelon, coffee and "toffy" before piling into two taxis to go visit a World War I Memorial. It had great views of the surrounding area and we posed for lots of pictures on the steps. We were only 25km from the Turkish Border. Then we went off to the nearby museum where we looked at a pot aka a witches' cauldron and some very interesting statues/sculptures and historical artifacts from Armenian life. Back into the taxis, it was off to the hostel for a well deserved night off.

It was Tina and Jess's turn to cook, and we had some lovely stuffed peppers, in an attempt to recreate the yummy dolma we have been eating - didn't quite work but still tasty! After dinner, Cara, Lorraine, Tina and Rachel went out to change some money, but didn't quite make it to the supermarket - instead reaching a local Irish pub for a drink(s). No Guinness though, so maybe not so Irish, but plenty of Russian Vodka!! Anyway, on the way home they bumped into Gavorg the manager of the hostel who took us to "that place" to sample an Armenian night out...Awesome! But 4 hours kip was not wise planning!!

Wednesday was another busy day - slow start! - this time we headed off to Abovyan for our last activity day. This time we were joined by Tika who we also met on camp and she was very excited to see us!! We had lots of girls again today, around 30! Everyone had lots of fun doing all the activities, Rachel got quite competitive with Mummy, Daddy, Baby and we even got given some photos of us with some of the girls who were at camp with us! Lots of the girls said they would join guides too which is fab as Tika is hoping to open a new unit in the area in September! Again we were given food - cheese pastries, almond sweet things and more melon. We had a lovely inspirational speech from the headteacher of the school too who was very grateful for us coming to run our activity day, but we couldn't stop long as we had to get back to the hostel to polish ourselves up for the evening! How many baby wipes were used on the ole feet!?

Wednesday night at 8ish we had our GOLD evaluation at the guide office in Yerevan with Amalya, Hasmik, Aya and all of the team. We had a good chat, good feedback about our trainings at camp and the activity days. Hopefully there will be a few more units opening in September, this his will help increase their membership numbers and hopefully get them their full WAGGGS membership, which is what we were hoping for!! We were also given some lovely gifts - handmade Armenian earrings and coasters - to say thank you.

It was then off to a restaurant round the corner and Lilit, Lilit and Simona joined us too (although of course Lilit and Simona were late :P ) Our meal was huge - including chicken with a peanut sauce, small mince pastry parcels, grilled cheese, a baked egg and cheese thing on a pizza base, Hay cola (aniseed flavour and bright green), and boomerang bread. We were well and truly stuffed by the time we finished, but in a good way! It was then our turn to give some thank you presents to all the leaders and translators that have helped us over the last 3 weeks. They have been truly amazing and spent so much time with us, it's surprising their families haven't complained having hardly seen them!! It was all a bit emotional as tonight was the last time we would see Amalya, Hasmik and Aya, but we managed to stay strong and there were no tears!! :)

We then took a lovely night stroll back to the hostel as it was past 11pm by this point and the metro station was already shut. After a hectic few days we were exhausted by the time we got back and all collapsed into bed...

More to come of our final few days in Yerevan!! But for now, that is the end of our GOLD 2010 project work! Job Done - though sad times!! Sad times indeed!

Talk soon,

Love Team Armenia xxxx