Today was a busy day for day three of the trip. We started the day visiting the Girl Guides in a local school. Guides ranging from 9-21 years old travelled to take part in craft and Internet safety sessions.
As a group, we had raised enough money for each guide to have a Guide uniform made by the tailor. We were able to present these uniforms to them all today which was really special. The Guides and their leaders sang their Guiding songs to us and the national anthem which was lovely.
Our craft session consisted of the girls making a flower brooch, we’d spent the previous evening cutting what felt like a million circles out in preparation for the craft, but it was all worth it seeing the girls wearing them with pride. They played games with us in the outside space and we used the staple Girlguiding parachute which they all loved.
The Internet safety session went well and all of the girls learnt something to take away with them. We’ll be returning tomorrow to deliver further sessions which we are all looking forward to.
We then headed out for the afternoon and visited another craft market (Bakau) to pick up some more souvenirs.
We visited the Gambian Girlguiding Headquarters and met with the Chief Commissioner, who gave us a tour of the facilities. It was great seeing that training is delivered there to lots of student, and also being told that there are over eight thousand Girl Guides across The Gambia.
We stopped off at a local bar on the way to our evening activity… a show called Kings and Queen’s which consisted of a group of talented singers and dancers, that have travelled to Gambia from different African countries to perform. At the bar, we headed down to the beach to watch the sunset which was beautiful.
After the bar, we all enjoyed our evening meal and the show which had throwback songs, some interesting costumes, and even a Dirty Dancing number!
We were all tired after a very busy day, but are looking forward to tomorrow where the Guides will be attending for the second day of sessions in their new uniforms!
By Hollie and Harriet