Girl Guides

Maxine and Alice have joined a Girl Guides troupe here in Namibia. It took me awhile to figure out what was equivalent to Girl Scouts. We hard about the regular “Scouts” program, which was a co-ed program that seemed to be mostly white Namibians. We didn’t want to do that one. After some searching, I finally found the Girl Guides of Namibia. The Girl Guides of Namibia used to be part of the South Africa Girl Guides, but broke off a few years ago to be independent. They have a tiny little office that is opened one hour per week and staffed by three lovely older volunteers. They have written their own Girl Guides manual (which is photocopied), and the uniforms and badges are all hand-sown! I’ll post photos when our camera is back from the shop, as the uniforms are very cute (this is our second camera to break since we’ve been here!). The group that our girls have joined meets every Saturday morning. They do some of the regular types of things, playing games and working on badges, but there is a definite Namibian flair. For example, a few weeks ago the girls worked on their “Making Tea” badge. Tea is important in Namibia, and there are two types. “Five Roses”, which is regular tea – referred to by its brand name, and “Rooibos”, which is southern African decaffeinated tea. The girls learned how appropriately to brew tea, and to serve it appropriately on a tray with the right accompaniments. They also have a “fingernail clean” check and expect the uniforms to be ironed! I think they will be doing some rallies and maybe even going on a trip later on. The leader of the group is very nice, and Maxine and Alice enjoy all the girls in the group. This has been a great complement to the girls’ experiences at Windhoek International School.