Getting to South Africa

Hello Girl Guides of Canada - Guides du Canada,

I would first like to apologize to all of you who have been checking the blog regularly for being unable to post any news and updates until now. I know that many of you hope to learn and share in the adventure we have undertaken here at the World Conference in Johannesburg, and all I can offer is that we have had technical difficulties getting access to the internet.

That being said, a lot has happened since our departure from Canada.

Getting to South Africa was an undertaking. I left my home in Vancouver, BC on July 3rd at 8:15 pm and arrived in Johannesburg at 7:10 am on July 5th – it was a long journey. I flew from Vancouver to London (9.5 hrs), had a layover in London (5 hrs) and then flew from London to Johannesburg direct (11 hrs). I had the opportunity to meet up with three members from our delegation in London so that we would all arrive in South Africa together. They are Susie from Torbay, NL, Chris from Lethbridge, AB and Enidd from Calgary, AB.

During our travels, it was neat to spot women in various Girl Guide or Girl Scout uniforms in the airports and airplanes. This gave us the chance to approach certain individuals and immediately make connections with them about the bond we share through the sisterhood of guiding as well as know that there were a lot of people heading to the same event as we were.

Upon arrival, we were understandably very tired after our long journeys. Plus, I was at least trying to fend off the inevitable jet lag that comes with traveling across nine time zones. Something that is interesting to realize is that although Chris, Enidd, Susie, Myrtle, Deborah and myself represent Canada, we all come from such geographically distant places within Canada that our adjustments to the South African time have also been very different. For example, consider that from Vancouver the time change to Johannesburg is 9 hours, while from Newfoundland it is only 4.5 hours.

This realization really made me appreciate that the six women in our delegation have really been given the chance to represent a very expansive nation and its wonderful diversity of women.

I am very proud I am here doing this job on your behalf.