Conference Training Day

 It has been a week already since The Manitoba Guiding Conference. I have spent most of the past week doing only my required activities and trying to catch up on some extra rest. All that fun last weekend was exhausting! I had fun and caught up with lots of old friends and tried to do everything there was to do. Basically I overdid it and paid for it all week, but if I had another chance I would do it all again.
 
I went with my Guider daughter Alicia and 3 of her teenage "Rangers" unit. We stayed at the conference hotel and got adjoining rooms and it worked out really well with Alicia and I in one room, and the girls in the other.  I was glad not to be going back and forth to my house. During lunch hour I went up to the room and stretched out and then again later in the afternoon. It gave me a second wind so I could enjoy the banquet last Saturday evening. Swimming, hot tub, junk food and a cheesy movie with the Rangers all added to the fun.

There were 4 training sessions that I attended. You got to pick from a list of options for each of the 4 different time slots.

 First was  "Going Green" to develop and teach environmentally responsible activities for the girls, and I was just about convinced to go get some red wiggler composting worms for my kitchen. It was a pretty good session. I learned a few new games and it was pleasant. The presenter was full of programing ideas for youth. Did you know that families use 5 gallons of water a day just for brushing their teeth? Turn that running water off while brushing! 

We play a game in Guiding and Scouting called a Kim's game. You get a collection of objects together,  show it to the kids briefly and then you cover it over and they try to remember what the objects are. We played it at this session and as we tried to remember the objects we were supposed to suggest a way we could recycle or reuse the object we listed. When I was first being assessed for cognitive impairment two years ago,  I was surprised to find that a "Kim's game" was part of the assessment. More shocking to me was how bad I did on it it back then. Last weekend I did okay. ummm kids jammie bottoms, yogurt container, lid, book, envelope and.... I forget what else she had now, .. but I retained 7 out of 11 items when it mattered.


My next session was "Bullying" Girls United. It was a bit tougher.  I had one of the teenagers with me for that session  and she didn't follow a lot of the details and she was petty bored, but at the same time I think the topic was hitting a bunch of painful buttons. I should have taken her for a juice run instead. Truth be told I was finding it a little hard myself to think about the topic. I have been overweight since I was a kid and I suffered a lot of bullying and discrimination based on my appearance. Sadly I have now experienced discrimination as a woman with disabilities.  For more information about Bullying you might find the following site useful. http://www.prevnet.ca/

After Lunch I did a Restorative Yoga session while my daughter did a very active Dance session.
  I was such a natural and I did great! It was pretty well all done sitting or lying on a mat so no advanced poses that required balance skills. I am pretty flexible, but I guess all that physio has me moving pretty good! I was surprised at how hard it seemed to be for many of the other Guiders. I felt very proud of myself  (I told my Physiotherapist and he was very proud of me too LOL) 
I might very well want to take  yoga in the future.

The last session was a Mosaic Tile Picture Frame. That turned out pretty good looking too.  Only thing I had trouble with was that I was supposed to nail a picture hanger onto the back of the wooden frame base. I tried to hold a little nail in my weak left hand and hammer with my strong hand.  Let's just say I should have gotten someone else to do that part.



Evening was the dinner and awards, followed by visiting small parties in different Leaders rooms. It was a chance for the teenagers to meet Guiding members outside our immediate area and even from around the province.


I had a great weekend and am glad I went, but I was sure happy to get home to my own bed for a nap once the conference was over.