Childhood Tales: The Girl Guides Experience

Lovely weather tonight and it reminds me of the girl guides training centre. One of the memories I hold so dear is my Girl Guides camping experiences. As the saying goes, once a guide, always a guide.

Girl Guides taught me quite a number of things. Firstly as a ten year old, I had never lived on my own. I still remember when my Stella of blessed memory (Last Friday marked exactly five years she was returned to dust ) would drop me off at the training center. Surrounded by weeds and trees, the Girl Guides training center seemed to have been the only building in the forest if I'm allowed to put it that way. You saw no lights and heard no sounds except for that of birds chirping and perhaps wild animals. Once a while you were lucky to hear the sound of a car.
The thought of running away never for once occurred to me. This was a boarding house experience devoid of seniority. We were all Guides. The junior didn't have to sleep on the top bed. Allocation of beds was based on first come first served basis.

There was no indication that there were seniors and juniors. We were all sisters, even the seniors pampered the younger girls.

They allowed me to go camping because my Stella was once a guide and beside my uniform, I became the owner of her guides uniform with all the badges she had earned.

Give me a G: G
Give me a U: U
Give me an I:I
Guides are smashing, guides are cool.....

As we trek along together, shall we sing a song...
love, love, love and sorrow who knows what comes tomorrow,  love, love as we trek along..

Oh I have an Aunty
An Aunty Monica...

There were cheese,
Cheese, cheese to make the mice go round....

Legon Girl Guides are coming
Will you give way for them ohhhh.....

Midnight feasts in Elsie dormitory or Ruby dorm( I only slept in these two dorms each time I went camping) Entertainment( Saturday night),  fun day out.
You ate the food whether you wanted to or not. A sense of owning your own stuff and being responsible. I guess you've got to learn to be a lady....

There my writing began.
Turning my Girl Guides camping experiences into fiction( They were deemed crap in those days as i littered the place with papers covered with things i had written and today I write just more than camping  experiences).

I miss wearing that blue dress with my enrollment badge on the left side of my chest. My red scarf: yes my company was known for wearing red scarf and spotting my black combat shoes. One of the things I would always remember: the lessons I learned and I miss those days.
Reminiscing on my childhood days with love from the Ghana Girl Guides Training Center. I' m wondering if my Girl Guides teacher is still alive but I sincerely hope she is.

#Childhood Memories
#Girl Guides stories

Saturday marked my sister's   special   day.
Congratulations @Mancee Adiku.

Photo source: Anita Erskine