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Published: March 3rd 2011
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I only passed through Mexico City for one night and didn’t really do anything. The next morning I headed to the taxquena and caught a bus to Cuernavaca for something I had been looking forward to for quite some time: my Thinking Day event at Our Cabana (a Girl Guide thing). I arrived mid-afternoon when everyone else were out on a day trip (I started the event a few days late), which gave me an opportunity to sort out my life (e.g. laundry) and check out the facilities (e.g. craft house open 18 hours a day- definitely utilised by me to its full extent). The first night was an introduction to what guides in Mexico is like followed by margarita night. Definitely a good way to start things off!
The next morning was Saturday and thus began our weekend of Thinking Day celebrations. Thank God there was another Australian there because there was an International festival I was totally unaware of and every country had to make a presentation- Cecilie and I just sang ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and explained some of the slang words (all translated by our handy translator for the benefit of the 75% Spanish speakers there). We then
had an Australian stall where we gave away free samples of vegemite and postcards and did some badge swapping. That night was campfire which was truly spectacular- the Mexican guides certainly had a lot more energy than my ones back home and were constantly chanting unit chants. Thus the campfire hardly needed to be run- after every country had presented their item (we banded together with America and did ‘heads, shoulders, knees and toes’), every unit present did their favourite song and suddenly it was time for bed. One of the coolest songs of the night was called alacran- it was in Spanish, about a scorpion, but pretty simple and definitely something I’ll try to introduce back home.
Probably one of the sweetest moments of the night was when a group got up and explained somewhat inexplicable rules for a game where we had to pass a hat from person to person and whoever it landed on when the third whistle blew got a punishment. When the third person got blindfolded and led around the fire I was a bit worried about what was going to happen next, but it turned out that the whole game was some elaborate
rouse- it was surprise promise ceremony for someone moving from leader to guider. Tres adorable. After the campfire the Scottish invited everyone to their nightly ‘sneaky whisky’. From there I went down back to the campfire and collected some ashes- it’s a guiding tradition to collect ashes and put some of them in other special campfires (kind of so the spirit of the campfire can be passed on). Really hoping that customs will let them through, it’d be great to collect campfire ashes from each of the four world centres.
Sunday was the main day for the guias to come (only some had come to Saturday and to sleep over). A group of 5 of us (and one translator in the form of a 15-year-old Mexican guide- Paola) had, over the past 2 days, been working on an activity to do with the guides on this day. It was about self-esteem. For the younger ones it involved drawing things they liked about themselves and turning it into a necklace; for the older ones it involved blindfolding and answering questions about self esteem. It went pretty well, especially considering the translation barrier and the relatively unfun subject matter at hand.
That afternoon was the closing ceremony (never have I seen so many kids MC hammering to Black Eyed Pea’s ‘Time of my life’), then the guias went home.
That night was Mexican evening- a Mexican themed wide game that involved things such as guacamole making competitions and dressing team members in Mexican-style dress using only newspaper. There had been a power outage that night so most of this was done by candlelight. I had somehow managed to sit at the table with only Spanish-speakers, but a system of charades worked quite successfully and the night was pretty fun.
Monday was an optional daytrip to Xochicalco- some ruins not very far from Cuernavaca. They were pretty good. Perhaps not as impressive in themselves as Chichen Itza, but situated in the mountains they certainly presented much better views. That afternoon was an optional trip to a fancy restaurant: Las Mananitas. It is certainly the fanciest restaurant I’ve ever gone to spending my own cash (and yet I could actually kind of afford it)! There were peacocks walking around, as well as parrots, toucans and a flamingo. Drinks were served in a grassy area around the birds, then we moved up
a level to eat. The pasta I had was delicious, but the dessert was truly decadent! After that we walked down to the zocalo (me getting to show off my very very basic Spanish asking for directions), then to wander around some markets. A good day all round.
Tuesday was my last full day at Our Cabana. It was spent doing a service project with senior citizens. Unfortunately (the other Australian) Cecilie’s daughter had gotten bad food poisoning while living in Mexico City, so Cecilie had gone to sort out insurance thngs for her. Luckily Cecilie left me her set of Australian bingo to run with the seniors (as I was also totally unaware that this was something I was supposed to organise). Australian bingo (or loteria as they call it in Mexico) is essentially normal bingo, but with famous Australian landmarks and animals instead of some of the numbers. It was actually fun. We had someone translating at our table (as none of seniors spoke English) and through our translator we got to joke around with them. Luckily there were 3 participants on the younger side (I was by far the youngest participant before they arrived) from York
No zoom used
Just turned around in my chair at Las Hananitas and this was behind me who arrived at the event after me and agreed to help me run bingo. One of them was surprised that numbers in Spanish looked the same as in English. We all, including the elderly Mexican women, had a good laugh at that.
That afternoon I finally got the go to the guide store at Our Cabana, and spent up big as planned. After that was an optional walk to some smaller ruins nearby. I joined in. It was a bit strange actually: walking down a busy street- house, house, house, ruins. There were pretty cool to climb and had some interesting plaques (e.g. one that said that in one of the pyramids they mysteriously found a bunch of skeletons, with extra hands and feet). We all left after about an hour though and headed back for the Mexican fiesta. The fiesta was pretty cool- there was a table full of Mexican food (e.g. delicious tamales- much better than the ones I had in Texas, cucumbers served with chilli, and Mexican candies). Then out of nowhere a band arrived. We did some dancing, Good fun. Once things wrapped up I headed up to the kitchen with the younger girls from York. One of them had found Tim Tams at a Mexican grocery store (she got the obsession from meeting an Australian), so we did some tim tam slams (i.e. biting off the end of the tim tam and sucking a hot drink through it- in this case tea because they didn’t have hot chocolate). After that we did some badge swapping- I now have an excitingly large amount of badges to sew onto my camp blanket! It was a good way to end my time at Our Cabana. Next thing I know it was the next morning, with me going back to Mexico City. It was certainly a fantastic experience though, and has inspired me in many ways.
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