A warm Guiding Buzz :)

I’m on a bit of a warm fuzzy Guiding high buzz. I shall explain … as you know from my previous post we’ve just come back from a little international sojourn to France where the Brownies got to experience Guiding internationally …and they really enjoyed it!

Don’t think it’s the 2nd international trip of the year for me that giving me the buzz, I think it’s the realisation we had a wonderful group of girls on the trip, and buzz is because I was so proud of them. They were confident, responsible, well behaved; heck, are they the Guiders of the future? Half the time we didn’t have to check we were all there as the girls were doing that themselves. If we sort of got parted the front group would always wait for the rear to catch up. Pretty much when we asked them to get ready for bed/ get up and dressed in the morning they could sort themselves out all OK. On the motorway service station stops (when all 210 descended on a station) they always checked they could go and look at something before doing so, they realised why we did the loo run together and that in those situations when going back to the coach they needed to find their seat partner and keep and eye out for the rest of the group so not be parted and end up with the wrong group of Brownies! Through our purchase of £1 neck pouches they kept their passports safe all the way there and back (and round Disney studios), always knew where their money was (often in the pouch as they were useful for keeping bits in).

We also realised as leaders we were a happy medium. We give the girls the freedom to learn their responsibility safely without smothering (as some Guiders seemed to be doing everything for their girls) them from pushing their boundaries, rather than as some Guiders did, it seemed (particularly on the ferry/ stops) of not really caring where their Brownies were on the stops. The girls amused themselves quite happily on the trip, and we hardly had a moan! We realised that as the girls were being so responsible for themselves, we could relax and enjoy Disney with them more. The more the trip went on the more we relaxed (hmm and also we were on the downward stretch!).

One of the girls who was on the trip in our group has a nut allergy and whilst I was getting lunch on the first day with the first half of the group and this girl (which always took ages, as both places started out by trying not to have the meals they had… in girl’s own words ... ‘why do you have to pay so much more for something that’s yucky’ the girl did good with the quite frankly dismal food they provide, it tries to cover too many bases I think on allergies) the other half had a discussion over nut allergies, and why we had to go to certain restaurants. One of the older girls had twigged why it was important .. but didn't want to say the words and that’s why you have the epi-pen & that indeed the worse case scenario is death. These 9 & 10 yr olds were having a very mature and rational discussion on why you have to cater for dietary requirements (maybe they should become menu consultants for Disney? As the larger county group I think from the experience there will be the fact of taking this into account when deciding if Disney is the place for your group to go for future trips, I think we covered many dietary requirements). So they never moaned about the limited choice of restaurants, and we all took the yukiness of the ‘menu allergic’ in a light hearted manner! Unlike the other group with a ‘nut brownie’ at the same meal, we ended up sitting near, whose Guider headed straight for Kestrel virtually ramming the chicken option under her nose and saying how vile it was (in hearing of both sets of girls, this was while I was sorting out our girl’s meal) and how bad it all was … resulting in their ‘nut brownie’ being in tears as she felt awkward and freaky. Our girls’ reaction? They described the ickiness of the look of the chicken one and suggested that our ‘nut brownie’ didn’t bother try that one .. and that she seemed to have made the better choice! Heck if often got referred to a ‘the mush’ as it seemed everything was pureed … hmm allergic does not mean baby! Some mush was better than others.

So whilst they may be Brownies, they acted at times beyond their years when needed, but just like kids when enjoying the rides and Disney atmosphere. We bumped into the County Commissioner and International Advisor (who was organising the trip) a couple of times, who both me and Kestrel know and get on well with … and so they spoke to us and our girls .. and our girls gave considered and well replied answers on how they were finding the trip. In a sea of stressy & annoying Guiders I think our little group were showing them the reason they did this trip!

Hmm from the mouths of Brownies … (in the Dragon’s cave at the base of the Disney Castle) as overheard by Raindrop, the Rainbow leader drafted into our group for our 3rd adult (its stuff like this that makes Rainbows & Brownies nice to work with, you wouldn't get this with Guides).

Brownie 1‘Is it a real dragon?’
Brownie 2 ‘no of course its not’
B1 ‘why?’
B2 ‘you couldn’t have a real dragon, it would be too dangerous with all the people’
B1 ‘but its good as it looks like a real dragon’

..to join their consumer savvy when purchasing Disney soft toys with spending money. They generally felt it was only worth buying the 8,50euro toys as the 9,90 ones weren’t really that much better for the money.