Kincraig, Near Aviemore
Friday 26th October - Sunday 28th October 2007
Once everyone arrived at Badenoch Centre in Kincraig (near Aviemore) and been introduced we went to get dressed up for our Fairytale mystery. We all had great costumes! We had to figure out who killed King Herod, it took us a while to work it out but finally found it was Cinderella!
On the Saturday there was lots of do, we started off with the World Trade Game. We were spilt into groups and named different countries and were given different materials, some more than others. The aim of the game was to use our allotted materials to make the required shapes and sell them to the World Bank. Some countries had a lot more resources than others (USA vs Nigeria). We could buy, swap or borrow resources from other groups to demonstrate how countries must co-operate to advance. After this exciting game some went off to make wooden bird boxes that we donated to the Kincraig Centre while others tackled some of the crafts in our welcome packs.
After lunch we had an orienteering session around Kincraig which lead to some of us getting stick in the marsh that appeared out of nowhere just for our activity, or so it seemed!
In the evening we learned about INTOPS and other international opportunities open to us before we started our debating session. We got together in pairs and were given a fun topic and a serious topic where we had to make arguments for and against each such as tax on chocolate and should there be male guiders. So we had quite lengthy discussions! Afterwards we headed outside for a small campfire before the rain got really heavy and forced us back inside for board games and chat till the early hours.
On Sunday we were up early for breakfast then got ready for mountain rescue! We split into 2 groups and each had a casualty to rescue. We were given a bag with everything we needed, rope, sweets, water, hot juice, extra jacket, hats, gloves, scarves and a survival bag. When we found our casualty we had to get them warm, hydrated and fed and then back to the base. We struggled to work out to get get them back without famaging their broken leg or hip. With a bit of help we got our casulaly onto the survival bag and carried them back to the base, which is much harder than it sounds. After mountain rescue we attempted some more crafts from our welcome pack then had munch. WE then evaluated the new Senior Section CD-ROM, we split into small groups and each looked at a different section and reported back to the whole goup. This was great to have a look at the new CD and be able to report back about things we like and disliked about it.
Before we left we nominated the new Polaris Planning team members, which was quite exciting to be able to say who we wanted on the team. The new team had their first planning meeting while everyone else got ready to head home. It was a great action packed weekend!
- Nicola Gray & Shona Littlejohn