Adventure 2019

The return to reality after any major experience is always hard, but there is something different about this one. In just 10 months, we fundraised over £15,500 and took 18 members of 1st Chislehurst Guides and Rangers on the ultimate international Guiding experience - a World Centre stay - and we didn't go for the one in Belsize Park, we went to India. I avoid superlatives generally but there isn't an equivalent word to describe the Sangam experience - it was truly awesome and I cannot recommend it enough. On arrival, we immediately became part of the Sangam family, where staff and volunteers from around the world deliver programmes designed to immerse visitors in Guiding, combined with the unique Indian culture. We were welcomed at a traditional ceremony; we shopped for saris, then learnt to tie them; we travelled in rickshaws and on public buses; we hiked up a hill and ate breakfast overlooking the curious landscape of Pune; we ate traditional cuisine lovingly prepa...

On Friday, we had the absolute privilege of visiting an Indian family’s home for dinner. To be invited into the home of a stranger and to see them going above and beyond in welcoming us to their homes merely because we were part of the worldwide sisterhood of Girlguiding truly demonstrated to us how lucky we are to be Guides and Rangers. In our family, the women told us that they had spent almost 3 hours preparing our dinner. To see such selflessness and generosity from strangers made us feel so honoured, and is something I will definitely aspire to in the future. Prior to our meal, we were welcomed into the family home and made to feel at home sitting in the “hall” (the word used to refer to the lounge). After spending some time getting to know the three members of the family, Kirti then went to feed the family cow. She invited us along with her, and we then met their family calf and a large group of adult cows. It was fascinating to see the way in which cows are perceived as sac...

For the Indian family visit I was in a group with Chloe, Amaya and Lily. Our group was the most exciting because we found out we were the only group getting there by car. When everyone got into their saris and punjabis, they all started to leave but our group left last, which was fine because we got to see everyone leave.  Sandip and his daughter came to pick us up. Once we got to their house, the family was there and we took our shoes off and went in. They were interested in our  lifestyle in England. We started talking about all of the paintings on the walls and found out that Sandip had painted all of them around the house. They wanted to show us around the house so off we went. They have a big house with load of stairs and walking up them with a sari is the worst. First we went through the living room that was connected to the kitchen and the dining room.      – lily Their house was more tall than large, but still equally beautiful and still very big (t...

On Friday evening at Sangam  we were all so excited that we would be going to an Indian family home. None of us knew what to expect. As we got in our rickshaws, my group was the the first to go leaving at 5:00 (I was with Helen and Millie). When we arrived, we were taken to the 12th floor of  a block of flats. As our elevator door opened, we saw bright faces smiling at us. We were welcomed in so humbly and they gave  us the best onion bhajjis to eat - Neena’s family were so nice. As the day went on I got to know their 15 year old daughter a lot better and we even went up on their balcony and watched the sun set. Later,  it was time for dinner and I was so exited; when we walked out there was the prettiest rangoli on the floor. We sat on the floor and they served us the best food: daal, rice, naan and lots more- they even gave us a sweet for the end. Not knowing what it was I put it all in at once and it was very interesting 😝😕😂. After our amazing dinner, ...

On Friday we received an invitation to visit an Indian family.  In my group we there was Eva, Edda and myself (Katherine). We got dressed up nicely and travelled to their home by rickshaw! It took us about 20 minutes to get  there and once we had arrived we had to walk up all the way up to the 6th level because we couldn’t figure out how to use the lift. About 10 minutes later we made it up and were warmly welcomed into their home. We talked about their family and jobs and what they like doing. Some of us bought a  picture of our family to show them and talked about our hobbies and what our school is like; the conversation kept going and we had such fun! We were all starting to get hungry so Smita (the lady who was hosting us) started to make dinner. The dinner was very nice but some of it I found too spicy 😂 They didn’t eat with us as they eat after 9:00 but the dad decided to join us. We ate with our hands which was … different but we embraced it and it was a new ex...

Near to 6:30 pm Annabel,Maddy,Evie and I all gathered ourselves in the breezeway in our beautiful, colourful saris . A group photo was taken and we quickly hopped on a rickshaw to the lovely family home of Kumkum. On our journey to Kumkum's house we were all chatting away about what we might talk about with our family and what food we might be served , we also took a cheeky selfie in the rickshaw. We arrived at Kumkum's door and received a very friendly welcome from the entire family. We were seated on their sofa and were served a pink coloured welcome drink; it was an obscure flavour that we had never come across and something we can add to our long list of things tried in India. During our conversations we found out that Kumkum used to work at Sangam and that she had trained all the hospitality staff. From this moment onwards we all really looked forward to our dinner as we knew the food would be even better than Sangam! Dinner was served and it definitely met our expectat...

The final day of our adventure has been long and we have finally made it to Heathrow and are now in the coach on the way back.  Blogs are also about to be updated, enjoy !

An incredible final day was had on our Indian Adventure not seeing one World Heritage site but two: The Taj Mahal and Red Fort, Agra bringing our total to 3. Today was sadly our last full day embracing all that is India. For  me it was a day I have been greatly looking forward to and also  dreading.  This is because today we get to visit one of the 7 modern Wonders of the World, and it’s my 19th Birthday, but also due to our impending departure less than 24 hours away. Pushing this fact to the back of our minds, we set out to  enjoy as much as possible in these final hours of our life changing adventure. We started our penultimate day with an early morning bus ride to the New Delhi train station to catch our express  train to Agra. After this sleepy journey was completed we had another quick journey to arrive in the vicinity of the Taj Mahal with it’s dome glistening away in the distance,  balancing on top of  tree tops. Collecting our tickets ...

Good Morning all, we have safely arrived in Delhi after a fantastic last morning at Sangam and today we are off to the Taj Mahal. Today was the last day at Sangam, we all packed the night before and were almost ready in the morning. We had breakfast (it was a buffet) then made our way to do flag, made our sign and got the word of the day!  Then we did laughing yoga but the thing is it wasn’t really yoga!? We had to go round the room laughing in all kinds of ways, which was hilarious. We had half an hour to finish off packing, making sure we didn’t  forget anything. We made our way back to the hall for our leaving ceremony which we all knew was going to be emotional 😢 We were all presented with a Sangam badge and certificate. Mari (an intern at Sangam) put together a video of our time at Sangam and it was amazing to see how much we did in such little time -  Helen and Edda cried.  We then all sang the Sangam song and came together in a circle. We were all hungry s...

Blogs to follow, photos to keep you going !  We have been so busy apologies for the delayed blogs. 🇮🇳 Alandi, Ishwari and Tulapur 🇮🇳 We woke up as quick as a cheetah because we were off to experience all of the famous Hindu temples. At 7:00 we got the coach and started our journey. Firstly, we drove to Alandi (which was a Shiva and Ganesh temple). We got off to see a sacred river which people were washing their clothes in and maybe even swimming in (as they believe that it washes all your sins away) Everyone followed Shweta (a Sangam volunteer in training) who lead us to the temple while giving us facts along the way. For example, did you know that the majority of Hindu gods have a sidekick? While we were walking, we had to look our for the ‘turtles’ as they are sacred because it was one of the Hindu God’s sidekicks. Once we had finally reached the temple, we found another turtle which people were touching as they believe that the turtle shell is so hard that it could ha...