Update from Claire

This weekend, Team Ghana (or, ‘Family Ghana’, as we have become accustomed to calling ourselves) will be meeting up again for another briefing weekend, but just because we haven’t seen each other since February doesn’t mean that we have forgotten about our trip in the meantime!

We have welcomed a new team member, Emily, who will be the third leader for our trip. Emily is an assistant leader of a Brownie Unit who is training to become a Primary Teacher, and she loves travelling. We are looking forward to meeting her this Saturday. 

There have been a number of exciting updates about the trip itself, most importantly, the flights have been booked! We will fly from Gatwick to Casablanca, then on to Accra. The first flight will take 3 hours and 15 minutes and the second will take 4 hours and 25 minutes.

We have all been turning into human pin cushions as there are lots of vaccinations recommended for travel to Ghana. The most important is yellow fever, as without a yellow fever certificate you are not allowed into the country. The recommended inoculations include Hepatitis A and B and rabies. For protection against cholera, rather than an injection, the vaccination needs to be drunk (apparently, it tastes horrible!). 

We are all looking forward to the project work at the King Jesus Charity Home, and in preparation for working with the children there we will all be organising activities for our Guides, Brownies and Rainbows to get used to managing groups and to check if our ideas will work. In addition, we are beginning to collect some items to take with us when we go. Laura wrote to the Derwent pencil company, who donated a huge box of pencils. Her Brownie unit have also said that they would like to buy a parachute and book of parachute games for the children at the orphanage. Also, a lady in Nat’s village has given Nat some knitted soldiers in their bearskin hats – very British looking and very cute – which we will also take to Ghana with us.

So, with the briefing weekend coming up we all look forward to seeing each other again, coming up with more ideas and planning the trip together.

Claire