Adventure 2019

This morning was another later start with breakfast at 8:30. The breakfast was really nice and it was great to try some new food. After everyone had finished we got ready to go out to MG Road. Once again we went into our Rickshaw groups and it was fun as always. When we got there, most of us went to change our money. Then we went into a tourist shop and it was like an Aladdin's cave. It had three floors, each of which was a kaleidoscope of colours - fabric, ornaments, souvenirs and more. After we spent our money we explored the Bombay store which was so nice and air conditioned and it was full of great presents for our families. After exploring the authentic Indian shops we moved on to a more western shopping centre which was a complete contrast to what we have adjusted to here. On returning from the shopping trip, those of us who hadn't filled up at McDonald's enjoyed pizza - Indian style - and jelly and custard.  We then were briefed by Mina about our upcoming visits t...

Today we had a chilled🧘‍♀️ start to our morning, this is because we were able to take things at more of our own pace, in contrast to our previous early mornings🔆. A few of us started our day with an early swimming session accompanied by a cheeky frog 🐸 others sleeping💤 until breakfast turned into ‘maitri’ meaning ‘morning snack’. During breakfast, those of us who had purchased saris and Punjabis, had the tailors Rekha and Ajay measure them respectively. This will enable us to enjoy a perfectly fitted, brand new outfit, which we will be returned in time for our Indian evening on Saturday. After eating and measuring we had our first official session of the day labelled Fun in the pool🏊‍♀️’, we had immense fun splashing each other while racing to win🏆 a multitude of different games and watching synchronised swimming performances. The overall favourite decided by the many was ‘Sharks and Minnows’. The accompanying playlist 🎵 to our games was a blessing to our ears 👂.  Rebecc...

Good Morning from a very sunny India !  Yesterday’s blog will be up later today; we had a very busy day yesterday with an early start so were too tired to write.  Just know you are in for a treat - hills, swimming, markets, bangles, fruits, restaurants, buses, rickshaws, Saris and Punjabis ! Ok here we go ... To start off the morning we all had to wake up  at 6:30 . For some of us it was our first experience on a public bus while others have become professional at blending in with the locals. As we made our way to Dighi Hill we found slums, cows, horse and more. After 20 minutes we finally arrived and off the bus we got.  When we got off many off us questioned why it was called a hill and not a mountain but Mina explained that in Hindi they only have one word for it. We started to climb; once we reached the top of the gravel hill, many thought that was it but NO! That just got us to the start of the hill. The walk up was long but I will keep the paragra...

Today’s blog is written by different people as all groups had slightly different experiences, enjoy ! Today was the first whole day at Sangam, breakfast started at 8:30 but before that we had the Flag ceremony led by Madeleine, Rebecca and Alice. After having our delicious breakfast we went to get ready to start the Wadi Challenge (written by the staff here). We all got into groups and set out to start our challenges. We got a sheet of paper with lots of questions and challenges, once we had completed it we would tick it off and start a new one.We spent all morning walking around trying new sweets and seeing how people lived their lives. We also went into supermarkets and purchased clothes and food! My group (Katherine, Evie, Helen, Elizabeth and Lucie) decided to cross the road to get the the hot chip shop but there was a slight problem… we couldn’t cross the road 😂 we had to go on a bridge to cross. While we were up there was decided to take some pictures as the sight was ama...

This morning started bright and early for most of us who enjoyed BBQ chicken and chocolate croissants for breakfast.  However, not all of us set our alarms so we only had a few minutes to get dressed, packed and eat breakfast. Soon enough, we embarked on our journey to Sangam it was a long haul but we saw so much including paddy fields, slums, temples, statues and much more. A few hours later we soon arrived at Sangam. WOW! 😍It’s amazing and so much more than we expected. The volunteers welcomed us in, wearing their beautiful purple uniforms. Our rooms are great but the pool outside them is even better; we’ll be in there in the morning, noon, night, basically whenever we can! We just couldn’t resist cooling our feet! Stop. Noodle Time ! After we unpacked and settled in, we had our very first flag ceremony, I (Hannah) and Katherine we’re even lucky enough to carry the USA and Canadian flags, with other flags from countries to represent everyone staying in Sangam 🇬🇧🇮...

It's traditional for every International Centre in GirlGuiding to welcome their guests with warm , open arms through a welcoming ceremony. We were lucky enough to participate in our own tonight. At around 20:00  we all gathered in the 'breeze way', a hallway at the front of the centre which produces artificial air conditioning. We were then briefed by Nikki and Nieke (some Sangam short term volunteers) and they gave us tips and tricks for the welcoming ceremony.  The ceremony began with us making two neat lines behind each of the volunteers and waiting quietly until everyone was ready. We all stood in a horseshoe surrounding the welcoming lamp which then proceeded to be lit by Mina (the World Centre's Deputy Manager) . The blessing came next. It involved kumkum powder and turmeric being dotted on our 3rd eye, a yellow and orange flower lei placed gracefully around our necks and a bowl circled around us 3 times. This ritual was then repeated on everyone and we were ...

Day 2 😇😇 We woke up  at 8:00 AM  and got ready for breakfast since there were so many choices we all had something different from curry to chocolate muffins. This was slightly overwhelming so I just had a slice of toast. After we had all finished breakfast we went up to our room and got ready to leave.  After about an hour or so of learning a lot about the bits of India we went through, we arrived at the place where the boat docked. We got into the boat safely and enjoyed a hot but fun hour on the boat.  Municipal Building in Mumbai next to the Victoria Train Station Terminal. When we arrived at Elephanta Island we climbed a long and steep hill of little stalls and when we reached the top and arrived at the caves we had a lovely lady to guide us around the caves. She told us really interesting information about the history of the caves! Everyone was asking or just taking pictures of us; we all felt like celebrities but after a while it started to ge...