MALAYSIA, Kenya and New Zealand are all places that members of Girlguiding Launceston have visited over the past twelve months.

Jess Hill was the lucky Guide who visited Malaysia. It started with her having to attend a county selection weekend, then on to the regional selection in Hampshire and finally being told she had made it to be part of the group representing Europe, to travel to Kuala Lumpur.

The selections were based on getting to know the people the Guides might end up travelling with and how they would deal with the different situations they may face.

Jess and the others on the trip, were greeted by Guides from Kuala Lumpur, Pakistan, Myanmar and India at the airport. They went on to stay at a camp at Telaki in the mountains.

While at camp, the Guides learned traditional dancing, cooking, rubber tapping, kayaking and even tasted some jungle cuisine. Jess also met the president of the Malaysian Girlguiding Association.

After leaving camp, Jess and the rest of her group travelled to Kuala Lumpur itself for some sight-seeing. She also got the chance to go on safari and was fortunate enough to feed baby monkeys, help some rescued elephants and go on a boat trip in the mangroves to see the fireflies.

Jess said she hopes to return to Malaysia one day and has said that the trip made her realise how fortunate people are in the UK.

Kenya was the country that the Launceston District Commissioner Louise Cowling visited as part of the South West England leaders trip.

Louise took part in many fundraising events to help with the cost of the trip. This trip involved helping at a secondary school in Nakuru, which is north west of Nairobi and a primary school in the Rhonda slum area of Nakuru.

The leaders were all able to use their Girlguiding skills and teach them to the children attending the schools. First aid is also an important skill that all leaders in Girlguiding have to update regularly to be able to run their unit meetings and so to be able to pass some of their knowledge to the youngsters they met they said was ‘extremely rewarding’.

Another skill from Girlguiding is ‘gadget making’, which is usually practiced at weekly meetings, before using it while away at camp. This skill enabled the school children to learn how to make washstands and draining boards from sticks. This would allow the children to take them home so their mothers didn’t have to wash up on the ground.

The educational value of the trip was two way as while there, the leaders were able to visit a Masai village and learned about the village culture. They also learned some Kenyan songs and games in return for teaching the children some campfire songs.

No trip to Kenya would be complete without a safari and Louise was lucky enough to see the ‘big five’ and to visit an elephant orphanage and a giraffe sanctuary.

Louise said her abiding memory of the trip was to see how happy the children were when given things that to many would be nothing but to them would mean so much. However, she added that the culture shock was quite severe at first and it took a bit of adjustment.

It was not just the younger members of Girlguiding travelling the world this year — Susan Eldridge joined the Trefoil Guilds from Hampshire to go to New Zealand.

They flew into Christchurch and the first thing they saw was the devastation from the massive earthquake in 2011.

The trip was very well organised to take in as much of the country as possible and to experience the real New Zealand. This involved things like hot spas, swimming with dolphins, Maori carvings, jet boating, a cable car ride, admiring the historic buildings and spectacular natural scenery and even a visit to the Antarctic centre.

The local wildlife had quite an impact too with meetings with parrots, kiwis, possums and little blue penguins.

Susan said she is now looking forward to her next trip to Tasmania in 2020.

If anyone would like to experience any of these excursions the Girlguides have experienced recently they can either register via the website www.girlguiding.org.uk or phone 07376 930335 for a chance to ask questions.