The first couple of days at the International Gold Event (IGE) were a whirlwind of activity. We spent most of our time in the first day getting to know each other and our surroundings. The first event was the opening ceremonies for IGE held at the President of Mauritius’s House. It was really fun to all get dressed up in nice outfits and some people even had cultural outfits that were especially neat. We travelled everywhere in little vans in teams of 10 people. The ceremony was a lovely event, minus the delay as the President was late. After the opening ceremonies, there was lovely dainties served outside in the lush gardens. Then off we were, to our next event, a presentation at a local school and then our first skill workshop. When we arrived at the school, we were able to go and change out of our fine clothes. We got many stares from the students who just couldn’t quite figure out who we all were. The presentation was put on by a group of students who are doing The Award at the school. They told us about one of their recent Adventurous Journey trips. Then we had lunch….lunches were always a baguette sandwich of various types, a bottle of water, and an apple. This first lunch was especially interesting as it was a fish sandwich. Definitely a first for me! The afternoon was spent at our first skill session. The five skill sessions were Telling a story, Blogging, Journalism, Photography, and Videography. I was excited when I found out that my first session was Videography. Unfortunately, the instructor was late and the session was drab, but all in all I learned a few new video techniques. After our skill session, we headed back to our compound/campus. We had a bit of free time until dinner, and many of us gathered around the pool for some much needed relaxing. That evening after dinner, the Mauritian people put on a lovely show for us all about their culture, and dancing. It was a fun evening as we learned their dance called Saga.
The next day was similar, however we did 2 skill sessions in the morning at our campus. I did Journalism and Blogging. Both of these were very interesting. I especially liked the Blogging session as we went around the campus with sidewalk chalk writing various thoughts and adding on to other people’s thoughts. We also went on the CyberBus and set up our own blog accounts. The CyberBus was so wonderful as it was a bus that housed 10 computers and had internet. It was such a lifesaver for all of us as making calls home were somewhat difficult. Then in the afternoon we had a couple of presentations and then did some get to know you games and activities. It was another fun filled day. That evening we talked about what we would be doing for our adventurous journey activities that were coming up shortly. We were all greatly anticipating the fun adventures they had in store for us.
Which I will share with you tomorrow.
Tags: Adventurous Journey, IGE, International Gold Event, mauritius, skill workshops, The Duke of Edinburgh's Award, The International Award
