Japanese Guide Visit – Saturday

サタディー

Full Day of Activities

The cold morning started with rain and a forecast of only 12 degrees with scattered showers. Luckily the rain cleared before our activities began. We started with an early visit to a local property to bottle feed baby goats for their first meal of the day.

This was followed by a session of abseiling for our Japanese Guides at Pax Hill Activity Centre.  They were a bit nervous but all managed to conquer the descent of the 10 metre tall tower.

Our Leaders cooked a BBQ lunch for the girls to enjoy.

Aussie Bush Activity Day

About 70 local Guides and Leaders from Ballarat District gathered at Pax Hill to meet the girls of Troop 17 of Hyogo Council. We planned a special afternoon full of Aussie themed activities, including:

• bush archery
• decorating (and eating) pavs
• a photo booth with Aussie items
• making a bookmark with Australian stamps and Victorian handwriting
• decorating a variety of boomerangs
• working together to achieve team challenges with marbles and tubes
• bubble-wrap caterpillar
• Japanese word translation and memory challenge
• bubble-blowing (universally enjoyed by all)
• ballistas (with a hit-the-Leader challenge)

The Japanese Guides performed their clapping song for us and gave our Guides a gift.

We presented our guests with a gift bag containing an Australian flag,  box of Girl Guide biscuits, Tim Tams, Arnott’s biscuits, a crocheted koala purse, Guiding badges (Unit, District and Region), lollies, Caramello Koala, an Australian pin, Mars Bar and Milky Way ….. and more badges.

Our Ballarat Guides thoroughly enjoyed this day and the opportunity it provided to highlight World Guiding. Guiding is the world’s largest all-female volunteer organisation with units in 145 different countries.

We look forward to the next visit from the Girl Scout of Japan Troop 17 of Hyogo Council in 5 years time.