This weekend marked our final get together before we embark on our journey to Haiti. I can't believe how quickly it seems to have come around, it seems like just yesterday we were looking at potential destinations!
We decided to spread our meetings around different parts of LaSER so that they could be accessible for all of the participants, so this weekend we headed to camp on one of LaSER’s own sites - Cudham Shaws. I'd never been there before so that's an adventure in itself! One thing you'll quickly learn about me is that many things can be considered an adventure, so you can only imagine how massive an adventure Haiti will be!)
The weekend
I left work at 4.45pm sharp, and got the train straight to Orpington, which is the station nearest to Cudham.
We are lucky that so many people in the group drive, so Eleanor picked myself and Zahra up from Orpington station and drove us to the site. Joyous train delays means that we arrived at the campsite an hour after we had intended, but actually it meant that most of the tents had already been pitched and it was almost dinner time - excellent!
After a fantastic meal of sweet potatoes and a selection of toppings (outdoorsy people, I'd highly recommend it as an option for cooking outside), we sat around catching up and ensuring we all knew what we wanted to get out of the weekend.
On Saturday, Eleanor had very kindly organised for us to do some bag packing at the local supermarket. We were only there from 10am - 12pm, but the people of Orpington were clearly in a very giving mood! Over the course of two hours, we raised £268.32 which was very impressive considering many people just seemed to pay us to hear about the project. Everyone was extremely positive and supportive, in many cases engaging with their own experiences of guiding and. All in all, our morning was very enjoyable - thanks Orpington!
Later, at the campsite, we shared a selection of non-verbal icebreakers and water themed games that we may be able to run with the groups we meet in Haiti. I also found that many of these translate to using with my Rainbows and Brownies, so that's a bonus! Perhaps we’ll share some of them if anyone is interested in some fresh ideas for work/youth groups.
We reviewed the proposed itinerary and have come up with a few questions that we’ll want to ask of the organisation we are volunteering with in Haiti - it's always nice when you realise you're all thinking along the same lines! Hopefully we'll be able to have a Skype call or something similar before we meet at Heathrow.
Saturday evening we sat around the fire, sharing potential songs that we may be able to ‘entertain’ our new friends with in Haiti. It was, surprisingly harder than anticipated! We picked out a couple of favourites, however, will be able to practice them while we wait for our plane transfer from Atlanta. I glad to say I learned a handful of new songs that will be taken back to various campfire events in the future.
We spent Sunday morning striking the tents and tidying the site, before reviewing everything we had talked about over the weekend. There are a few independent tasks that we will need to fit in before the trip, so I may write about those when I get round to them. I would also like to squeeze in another fundraising event but I don't know how feasible that will be as time really is ticking.
Not long now!
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