International Day of the Girl
Today was International Day of the Girl and I lead the meeting at my Pathfinder unit. We did a split meeting; IDOG with postcards and an experiment and the Cookies Rising Badge. I did both with my Guide unit as well, but my contact leader wrote the programme for each meeting and I merely had to follow it. This time I had to write and plan all the activities. I gave my girls info packets from WAGGGS and did the experiment and we did up postcards to submit to the IDOG tumblr site.
Here is one of them:
We only have two girls in the unit but they each did about two postcards to upload. We also taught them how to budget for their trips this year, a marketting campaign relay race, skits and had them draw from a hat to decide who was going to plan campfire and who would bring a game for next week.
I cannot explain the sheer joy and excitement I get from empowering girls to take charge of their lives and to give them the power of autonomy in decisions about their lives, something so many girls and women never learn because of dominating gender disparity attitudes and the abuse they have to endure. Guides is an experiential way to teach girls to be proud of who they are and how to utilise the skills they already possess in themselves to have full control over their minds, lives and bodies.
It’s very different leading teenage girls than it is leading young girls and preteens. Every day is a new, surprising challenge.
Summer time! Camping, woodsy weddings, and hiking!
So the prospects for this summer are looking pretty fabulous. I’ll be married in June to the Astrophysicist, rock climbing in two weeks for our last GGC meeting and then working at Camp Wyoka as a volunteer. In September I finish my Outdoor Activity Leadership training! I am still working on my Red Pine Award but I am nearing half way there. I didn’t go hiking for a while so it put me back. Bought myself a new pair of hiking shoes and my camp shirt just in time because I just had my interview with the director of Wyoka and I’ll be leading a hike as well as doing a leadership skills retreat with some Ranger age girls. I’m also working on sewing my Camp Patch Jacket with all the badges and patches I’ve collected since rejoining GGC. Pictures of that upcoming! Since our regular meetings are ending, I will be available for Young Naturalists and Trail Maintenance to fill in my days. 
This year has been sort of messed up for me. I went from having the ambition(which tbh still exists) of being an Archaeologist to being too poor to finish my degree and dealing with my inability to become employed in a new city 3000 km away from where I’d been living for four years. I’ve been hitting the quarterlife crisis way too hard…being a “grown-up” but not feeling like one at all. I decided to play up my strengths and push myself in ways I never thought possible(I’ve done a few scary things I never could have done in the past, due to having a mental disability) and it seems like my life trajectory is changing. I took a single online course for Naturalist Career Management which is going to become handy now since I am running a leadership camp in the wilderness.
In the flurry of it all, my other science blog has been a bit barren the past few months and I feel guilty…but I have no relevant development to add to it being that I currently can’t pursue Archaeology. At any rate, things are changing, and I have some future plans that didn’t really fit with my old ones…but summer is going to be good. I hope to have more than one award by the end of the summer and hopefully get some of my poor financial situation figured out.
Camping Season and Being an Outdoorsy Girl Guide
So camping season is starting. Winter camp was a while ago but already I’m getting prepared for the summer, summer camp and all kinds of outdoor activities. I’ve been working toward my Red Pine Award for Hike Ontario and the other day we did Night Ops at the Warplane Heritage Museum. My unit slept under one of only two flying Lancaster Bombers. Anyway I thought I’d give you guys some GPOY of my GGC exploits to date.
GPOY, bad photo of me in my Guides uniform with my current badges to date.
A closeup of my pintab with my Outdoor Activity Leadership badge 
My sweet Night Ops crest, and my Girl Guides International Flash
My patch collection that I’ve been starting, and a survival bracelet I made. The other Guides crest is for Camp Adelaide.
With summer camps coming up, I have applied to be a volunteer for Girl Guides summer camp, we have our own unit’s camp coming up and we just did an overnight camp at the Warplane Heritage Museum with the Scouts, and another Guide unit. In September, I will be finishing up my Outdoor Activity Leadership badgework so I can get the full badge.
Back!
I’ve been away for some time. Just busy with life. I earned myself a “badge” through Girl Guides while I was away. I went to an OAL training, “Outdoor Activity Leadership”. It was a 2½ day intensive of training, coursework and fun stuff. We woke up roughly around 7 am, for some of us earlier, and started right away. We went on three hikes around the camp, including a trail blazing hike and a scavenger hunt. It was in Haliburton, and there was still snow on the ground. We also made firestarters and survival bracelets. I haven’t earned the full badge, but in September after summer camp I will be finishing my training and earning the full badge. I got the first part though.
Happy Thinking Day!!
Heading out to a Thinking Day ceremony at the town hall. Everyone gets a crest and a hot chocolate. They expected 50 registrants but they got 450.
Return/Camp love
So I’ve returned from my overnighter winter camp with the Girl Guides. The usual occurred such as fights, the odd child crying but all was swiftly remedied. Winter hit us hard on the bus ride there, temperature dropping to -20 degrees celsius and it began to blizzard. All of these girls are urban girls and for the younger ones, they’d never been on a camp in the wilderness so the close copses of trees and wild animals walking right up to your doorstep was a new experience. We played Night Eyes in the trees in the dark, went on a wilderness hike and scavenger hunt, did an owl pellet demonstration and played a card game involving mushrooms and a survival prey and predator game. The girls loved it, and they all had a healthy obsession with nature. One girl commented that her favourite part of camp was “seeing a dead fox”, in a way that only a 9 year old can. My solar charger performed its duties well, and so did the girls.
If all goes according to plan, I will be heading 8 hours to Northern Ontario for an Outdoor Activity Leadership course camping weekend. This one is for residential and I’m hoping to upgrade to the wilderness level. Tomorrow night we’re doing the Nedic Love Yourself challenge for valentines day, and the girls are going to make feel good valentines for themselves. I’m also all set to go to summer camp and we’ll be teaching them to set up their own tents beforehand. Thinking Day is coming up so that meets more outdoor adventures, a festival, skating, etc… All in all, it’s been pretty awesome.
I have an in
As of today I am officially a Young Naturalists leader at our local Royal Botanical Gardens. This means it’s my job to be a grownup Naturalist(my dream, great mother earth!) and teach children about nature and plants and animals. One of my jobs is to help fight nature deficit disorder. I’m super excited. There’s going to be a bonfire. My hope is that I will create a network for getting hired sometime in the future.
I’m sad I’m missing the roller derby with the Girl Guides though. Field trips are always sad to miss out on. My first assignment for Natural Resources Careers is due this Sunday as well. In other news, I am going to start to update you guys with an herbalism and potions post once a week like the soap one I posted yesterday. 
Pinus Sylvestrus, Wikipedia
/personal
So I’m officially a Guide leader. I went to the first event last night and met all the other Guiders and the girls who cooked a supper for a hostel for families of patients in critical care and later my mentor bought me white hot chocolate. Winter camp is in February and in between that time I have a lot of trail work to do.
