 |
 |
 |
||||||
|
World Thinking Day at Sangam |
||||||||
|
Click on the photos to the right to see larger images |
||||||||
|
Greetings! I am at Sangam. I am the Assistant Programme Manager, my term started June 15 (I graduated June 10, so got here in a hurry!) and will run until the end of March. I am having an incredibly amazing time. I love it. My job entails helping to plan and run International events. We have approximately 3 events every two months.We've had participants from Canada, United States, UK, Sri Lanka, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, Togo, Benin, Chad, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Thailand, Cambodia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Fiji,Phillipines and India. I have made Guiding friends from all of those countries. World Thinking Day at Sangam was a very special and memorable day. We started with breakfast at 7:30 (ugh!) and since we had to be in our uniform saris for the morning, that meant getting up at 7 to tie a sari. The power went out shortly there after, causing me to decide that putting on a sari at 7 am in the dark is inhumane punishment! The day got much better however, after we set off in our rickshaws shivering in the early morning cool. There were over 200 Guides and Scouts all in different school uniforms and scarves. We started with a flag raising ceremony (where we sang the World Song... it gave me goosebumps!) and speeches, then broke into groups to play games with the children and watch demonstrations of local games and dances. We ended with another short ceremony, the lowering of the flags, more speeches and presentations of certificates to the winners of essay and first aid competitions held last month. Then we were invited into the hall for tea, biscuits and samosas. In the afternoon we had our International Afternoon where participants present songs, games, etc from their country. We also had an International tea time with snacks and goodies from the UK, Canada, US, India and Bangladesh. The staff (and many of the participants) spent most of tea time hovering over the salt and vinegar potato chips, Lancashire cheese and US Girl Scout cookies! Of course all the good food meant we were in no way hungry for dinner! Dinner was followed by our candle lit ceremony in the Thinking Day Courtyard. It was very very special. We then went into the hall to pose for photographs, kindly taken by the father of one of our guests. While he took pictures on 40 different cameras we sang Guiding and Scouting songs. All day it felt a bit like Christmas - Thinking Day cards slipped into our napkin holders at every meal, gifts and badges being given or slipped into our mail boxes, and then to end it we sang Guiding 'carols' as we waited for our photos to be taken! This has definitely been one of my more memorable Thinking Days, but again like Christmas, I couldn't help but think of my Guiding and Scouting sisters around the world. |
||||||||
 |
||