Here is a picture of a group from the International Gold Event who went to a bird sanctuary to help clean up. They had a really fun time working together and helping to make it a better place.

I’m sure that some of you will have some qualms about going on a canoe trip. If you’ve never been in a canoe before, our wonderful guide will show you how. Whether you are an adventurous outdoorsy person or you’ve never been camping before, you will have a good time on this trip. This is what The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is all about….challenging yourself to step outside of your comfort zone and try something new or different. It’s also about learning how to make new friends, work as a team, and experience adventures that you may never have experienced before. For the outdoorsy person, it’s a chance to get out there and share your experiences and love of the wilderness with others. This is also an opportunity to take on a leadership role if you so choose. This trip has something to offer for everyone.

I hope that you will join me for this great adventure. To sign up for the Canoe Trip call our office today at 988-3016.

One night we went to a lovely dinner put on by the Gold Award Holders Association in Mauritius for Divali Night. This is a big festival in Mauritius and is a festival of lights. We had a traditional meal and everyone got dressed up in traditional Sari’s.

Half way through our two weeks in Mauritius, we were given a day off and headed to the beach. The beach we went to was on an island about 10 minutes by boat from shore. It is the most popular destination for tourists that visit Mauritius. There was para-sailing, golfing, underwater walks, a pirate ship, sailing, and many other activities. The beach was a perfect white sand beach. Myself and a couple of friends decided just to chose a spot on the beach and enjoy the day. We also ordered food from the restaurant for lunch as it was a chance to have “regular” food instead of our usual bag lunch baguette sandwiches with mystery meat. I had spagetti and it was so yummy I enjoyed every bite.

I hope you enjoyed hearing about The Internataional Gold Event. Please leave a comment to let me know what you thought of the event.

Throughout our time in Mauritius we spent much time discussing the Award programme – it’s goals, improvements, differences in each country, and ideas for the future. For the Youth Forum we had to come up with our top 5 ideas for the future of what we could do to improve the Award programme around the world. After much deliberation we came up with the following 5 topics:

1. Extending the Award

2. Award Promotion and Awareness

3. Online Community

4. Global Award Holders Network

5. Gap Years and Exchanges

From these 5 topics we divided up in 5 working groups. Then we had two days to put together a workshop/presentation for the actual Youth Forum event. I was a part of the Award Promotion and Awareness group. We decided to do a quick power point presentation sharing our ideas about what Award Promotion could be and also sharing a video of the Award programme in Australia. After the presentation part we decided to invite the attendees to circulate throughout the room to the various tables that each had a slightly different topic. Some of these topics included videos, slogans, and other media. One of the main messages we wanted to get across was that the Award programme is not that well known by people around the world and so we feel more methods are needed to get the message out.

It was an incredibly busy time for all the groups as we had such a short time to prepare. Everyone was especially anxious about these workshops as the attendees for the event were the International Council and Executive members including His Royal Highness, Prince Edward, The Earl of Wessex, who is the Chairman of the Award programme as he has taken on this responsibility from his father His Royal Highness, Prince Phillip, The Duke of Edinburgh.

The Youth Forum was a great experience for all involved. The International Council was very open to our ideas and I believe they enjoyed hearing from young people who have come through the programme. HRH Prince Edward was especially wonderful and really took an interest in all the workshops. That evening we had a lovely dinner at our campus with all the International Council members. It was a great opportunity to get to know these people from all over the world and for them to get to know us. We also had the task of selecting 3 people from each of the regions to be our  representatives at the International Council meetings the following day, and to be our Youth Reps for the next three years. This was not a difficult task for the Americas Region as there are only 3 countries present and in the end we had 2 Canadian delegates and 1 from Guyana.

The next day the Youth Reps went to the International Council meetings and they were given certain tasks to coordinate. The five tasks were an Online Community, a Promotional Video, a Global Award Holders Network, Award Week, and Exchanges and Gap Years. The rest of us then got to join on to the project of our choice. We will work on these projects over the next three years to come up with some actual products. I am very excited as I believe all of these tasks will lead to a Global connection for the Award as well as more publicity and more opportunities for all participants in the future.

That evening we had a lovely formal dinner at a gorgeous estate-like restaurant. All of the International Council, the IGE delegates, and friends of the Award programme were present. Everyone was dressed up and we enjoyed a spectacular dinner. It was a great way to end our time in Mauritius.

The next day we had time to do some exploring around Mauritius and we went to the Sugar Cane Factory and the Northern part of the island for the day. It was fun to actually get some shopping done. That evening was the last night, unfortunately I was the first to leave as I booked my flight to leave that evening at 10pm so I missed the Toga Party that evening. However, I had an absolutely fabulous time in Mauritius and it was a great honour to be selected to attend. It was sad to say good bye to all of these new found friends as we now had to return to our respective countries all over the world knowing that we may never see each other again.

The next International Gold Event will be held in Kenya in 2011.

I represented Manitoba, Canada, along with 7 other Canadian delegates from across Canada. As a group we decided to have tables at the back of the room which displayed information about our country and about the Award programme in Canada, some food, and some other items of interest. One of the delegates, Kate, decided to bring Tim Horton’s Coffee as we felt that was a true reflection of Canadian culture. The toughest part was figuring out how to brew it as they did not have a coffee brewer so we had to boil water and then had the coffee to it and then strain it before serving. It was quite a process. We also had some Maple sugar candies, Maple flavoured cookies, some gum drops and other small treats. Everyone thought the Maple sugar candies were very sweet. Each of us also brought pins from our respective provinces as well as some Canadian pins.

For the actual presentation we didn’t know what we were going to do. The biggest question was how do we describe Canada and it’s culture. We had a hard time with this as we are such a mix of cultures and identities that make up Canada. So we decided to show a quick video put out by CBC about Canada. It showed the various landscapes, and some of the many cultures, as well as it had the National Anthem playing in the background. A good opener although, we all stood on the side lines having a little giggle about the dog sledding and igloos shown. After the video, we did a quick power point presentation about Canada, some of the key points of interest, and a little bit about the Award programme in Canada. It was fairly quick and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

After us was Guyana and St. Lucia, where they teamed up to do a short power point presentation and then shared some music of the Carribbean and everyone got up to dance. It was a fun presentation and we were happy to share some information about the region with our fellow delegates. The best thing about going first was that after the presentation we were able to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening as well as all the following evenings without worrying about the presentation.

The other evenings were so much fun. The Africa regional night was highlighted by the outfits, and dancing. The Asia- Pacific night included the Asian cultures, Indian and Australia. Some of the highlights of that night were the Indian hand painting of henna or mendi, and the Indian plate dance done by one of the delegates. The EMAS regional night was so long as it included a large number of different countries. The most interesting points of the evening were the Irish delegates that brought a type of ale for everyone to taste, as well as the dancing and singing done by a few different countries.

The evening events were always something to look forward to as we could relax and enjoy a fun evening with fellow delegates and friends. As the two weeks came to an end, we spent the last three days focused on the Youth Forum. This was probably the most important part of the entire event. More information to follow in the next post.

Canada Display board

The women who were living at the shelter also had their children with them. The women and their children were so excited to see us and they all chipped in to help with cleaning up the yard. The children were also excited to paint. They required some supervision and sometimes the language barrier was a bit of an issue but it made for a fun and enjoyable time for themselves and for us.  The children really clung to some of us and were sad to see us leave after two full days of interaction with lots of people around.

The second day the team divided into two groups - one smaller group of 4 people that worked on finishing up the mural and the other group put in a new garden in the back yard. I was one of the people that worked on finishing the mural and one of the main things we noticed was that from where we started and were the mural finished around the corner it looked completely different. We decided to try and make it flow a bit better and spent most of our time fixing that up. The group at the back spent their time digging up the soil, putting in a trench for the water to flow through, and seeding and watering the garden. It was so neat to be able to help in these ways. The women and children at the centre were very appreciative.

This past winter, a number of delegates decided to send small gifts to the centre for Christmas. Unfortunately they were a little late to arrive but they were well received. Putting your time into a project like this can really have a large impact not only on the lives of the people there but also on your own life. I often think back to the women and children at the shelter and how different their lives are from my own. They are often in my thoughts and I will never forget the feeling I had as I left - seeing the mural and the garden and smiling faces of the women and children.

In the evenings throughout IGE, each regional area was asked to do a presentation about their country and the Award in their country. There are 4 regional areas – The Americas, Asia-Pacific, EMAS (Europe, Mediterranean, and Arab States), and Africa. The first night was The Americas Region which had delegates from Canada, Guyana, and St. Lucia. I will tell you all about the evenings in the next post.

The adventurous journey activities included Snorkeling at Blue Bay, Abseiling (rappelling) down a water fall, hiking, and mountaineering. We were divided into four large groups and rotated through each of the activities for half a day. I started with Snorkeling at Blue Bay. We were first taken on a boat ride around the bay on a glass bottom boat. Then we had time to snorkel around the reef. It was absolutely gorgeous and I absolutely enjoyed every minute in the water. We had some time to relax on the beach and have lunch before our afternoon activity. We were to meet the group that had gone hiking for lunch however their hike took an hour longer than anticipated so we were delayed in getting started on our hike. This meant we had to do a much shorter hike. (This suited me just fine!) We hiked up a hill over looking the ocean. That night we had a campfire and attempted to roast marshmallows. The funny thing was that there were no normal marshmallows to be found in Mauritius. So we roasted these fruity flavored twisted marshmallows. It wasn’t quite the same but for some who had never roasted marshmallows before it was a new and interesting taste.

The next day my group went Abseiling at Tamarin Falls in the morning. Everyone was so excited as we had heard from other groups how amazing it was. I have done some climbing and rappelling before but had no idea what I was in for. There were three courses set up, one that went across the water from the top of the waterfall to the opposite side of the lake at the bottom, and the second route that went down the right hand side of the waterfall to a ledge half way down and then there was flying fox section that you held on to a rope and then let go and fall into the water.  I did the long one first and liked the beginning of it but then it got a little scary as I got to the middle and realized I was really high above the water and I still had a long way to go. At the end I had to walk across the water and then underneath the waterfall and climb back up to the top. Not an easy task along a muddy trail. I decided to stop half way up and do the flying fox into the water, which was a blast. Then I finally made the climb back to the top. It was so much fun. Then it was time for lunch as the next group had already arrived and our group was to go mountaineering. I decided not to go and stayed with the next group to watch and take pictures. It was a good choice for me as I really enjoyed watching everyone and taking pictures for them.

That night we had an authentic Mauritian dinner. This was a very interesting meal as you eat with your hands and all you have is flat bread (like pita bread) to eat the different kinds of “stews”. There was one made with squash, one with tomato and peas, and one I have no idea what it was. There was also a cucumber salad. It was delicious!

The next day we returned to our campus and spent some time finishing up our skill workshops and preparing for two days of Community Service, which I will tell you about tomorrow.

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.

The two week event was a whirlwind of activity. I will share more about what we did over the course of the week. Check back here to learn more about IGE, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and The International Award for Young People.