February 26, 2007
For Cuzzin Tom
(Picture-heavy post, Dear Readers!)
I spent Saturday morning at a local church with 65 Girl Scouts and their troop leaders. Me. Church. 65 Girl Scouts. Has the world gone mad? But it was Girl Scout “World Thinking Day” and, thanks to Dear Reader Saralyn, the Girl Scout troops involved had chosen to dedicate their day to learning about Mongolia and to making blankets for the Mongolian people. Which made it a Dulaan event. Which meant I needed to be there. And I am so glad I went.
Granted, at first I was Scroogily skeptical about how things would play out. After all, how were the Scout leaders going to get 65 restless, energetic, giggling, chattering Girl Scouts of various ages to focus on, think about, learn about and care about people in a country that three years ago even I, erstwhile world traveler that I am, had barely heard of? But they pulled it off. And in the most remarkable way.
To start, the girls stood around in a circle while various Scouts recited facts about Mongolia. (Who knew that, in the entire country, Mongolia has fewer people than we have in Seattle and environs?) Then the Scouts that had provided the food described what they had brought and why. (It killed me when they said they had made everything small so it would be easier for the nomads to carry.) Here, crackers, goat cheese and deep-fried boortsog cookies (although I have no idea how the can of squirty cheese fits into the traditional Mongolian diet):
And tea with salt…er, minus the salt to appeal to our American palates:
And printouts of recipes:
Next, a rousing round of “Feed it or Eat it?,” a game in which a Scout held up these posters and the girls guessed if the animal was something the Mongolians would feed or eat. (Yes, Cuzzin, that is a picture of a marmot. The girls had done their homework! And, yes, the answer to the horse picture was “both.” And, yes, all the Girl Scouts said, “Euuuuuuuuw!”)
Next, the girls broke up into four groups and went to four different stations to participate in Mongolia-related activities. At Station #1, they watched the YouTube videos about Mongolia and Dulaan:
At station #2, they made Shrinky Dink magnets out of maps of Mongolia. A Shrinky Dink before it was cut, colored and put in the oven...
...and a finished magnet made by Girl Scout Elizabeth.
Me, showing off my magnet, my first Shrinky Dink ever. It’s ironic, is it not, that the end result of my running a Mongolian charity-knitting project would be an American cultural experience?
At Station #3, in order to teach the girls that you can’t go to school in Mongolia unless you have proper clothing, they had relay races where the girls had to bundle up in winter clothes, to the point where they looked like tiny Michelin men, run to the end of the hall, and take all the winter clothes off. It was hysterical. There was much tripping over pant legs.
At Station #4, they played knucklebones (or shagai as a quick search on the Net tells me) with fake sheep ankle bones made out of shaped and oven-dried clay. (The girls reported that they tried to get the real thing from a butcher but no go. Given the delicate sensibilities of some of the mothers, this was probably a good thing.)
I manned an extra “side station” where I displayed enlargements of blog photos showing the Mongolians, some of the many items the Dulaan Brigade has sent over the years, pictures of "our" happy children and “our” cria. The photos were a hit!
Then the girls got down to the serious business of making the fringed fleece blankets. For security reasons, I’m not posting any pictures of the girls, but I did take one wonderful one of all the young ‘uns sitting cross-legged on the floor, heads bowed over their blankets. By that time, believe you me, the Scrooge in me was loooooong gone. Here, the ten finished blankets, soon to be on their way to Arizona:
What a day.
Wednesday—the other Dulaan event I attended on Saturday, plus an update on Abbdar!
Avalanche Yarn
I had a good 40 or 50 requests for Avalanche yarn. Wow! Right now, I can, obviously, only accommodate the first 10 requestors, those being:
Pat Packer
Carrie Garrod
Rachel Debasitis
Lynn in Tuscon
Mary Barnett
Elizabeth Durand
Angie Marshall (3 boxes)
Jessica Cooper
If your name is not on this list, you are on a waiting list. Since the waiting list is so long, however, I doubt very much I’ll be able to accommodate everyone but I will keep you updated as we go along.
Angie cheated.
*grin*
Posted by: MaryB in Richmond on February 26, 2007 02:34 PMI love the girl scouts organization as a whole...gotta little gripe about the whole cookie thing, but the girls and the leaders ROCK and it's truly an incredible program for girls, near and dear to my heart.
I've never made a shrinky dink either...How could i have missed out on that one!
Posted by: Lisa in Oregon on February 26, 2007 02:42 PMStations! Brilliant! I hope they believe that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. Well done all!
Posted by: marylee on February 26, 2007 02:49 PMIn Angie's defense, Mischievous MaryB, she's giving all the yarn to the residents of a nursing home who are knitting for Dulaan and who have run out of yarn so I say s'all good.
Lisa, this was my first Girl Scout event ever (I think. My sister was a Girl Scout or a Brownie or something way back in the mists of time so I may have attended something similar) so it was fascinating on so many levels. My eyes almost fell out of my head as I tried to take it all in, the flag ceremony, the pledge of allegiance, the singing of songs, the way the troop leaders made everyone fall quiet just by raising their hands... Quite the cultural experience for me!
Posted by: Ryan on February 26, 2007 02:49 PMOh, I have *such* a long way to go in my monastic vocation. What made me laugh right out loud? That's right. "Feed It Or Eat It?" Then I just got a second laugh seeing the flies hovering around the yak. They should have pointed to the flies and the answer should have been, "Neither." I coulda maybe provoked another "eeeuuuuw" by telling them on my recent Gobi trip I was served hot camel yoghurt. Turns out it was delicious and I asked for seconds!
I'm deeply impressed by the scout leaders' creativity. And their inspired invitation of a certain cuzzin, who I'm sure was a major hit.
Posted by: Cuzzin Tom on February 26, 2007 02:50 PMCuzzin, during "Feed It or Eat It?", they did report that the marmots are sometimes cooked from the inside out with hot rocks. That merited another "eeeeuuuuuuuuwwww." Good, gross fun!
P.S. I'll send you the photos of the Girl Scouts so you can see all the young 'uns hard at work for Dulaan; I just don't want to/can't post them on the Net.
Posted by: Ryan on February 26, 2007 03:03 PMAs a lifetime GS member (girl, leader, camp counselor, trainer, etc., etc.) I can honestly say, with few exceptions, NEVER doubt the ability of Girl Scouts to organize an event around almost any theme. A good leader works hard at girl-adult planning and empowers her charges to explore and learn nearly anything possible. On behalf of girl scouts everywhere: thanks for helping out!
That is so cool!
I so glad to see that the Girl Scouts have come so far since I was one 30-odd years ago. Although, I don't doubt those girls are well controlled when need be. I know we were. o.0 Oh, and I think you need the cheese in a can for it to be an official Girl Scout gathering. ;^)
Posted by: Cookie on February 26, 2007 04:07 PMThat's really brave of you! I'm glad you had a good time though, and that the girls were able to contribute to the Dulaan project. I also think it's great that yarn is going to the nursing home. I'm a nursing student and so far my favorite experience was at a nursing home. I just love 'old people' and think we tend to forget about them too easily. Anyway, hope you're well!
Posted by: EricaLynn on February 26, 2007 06:05 PMi was a girl scout for 8 years, from 2nd grade to 10th grade. i loved every year. it was the one place where i was accepted for me (school was a nightmare from grade 5 on). my favorite day was always thinking day. the day you experienced sounds much like my experiences, even though i'm 30 some years out myself.
and i hope i'm high on the avalanche list (although i doubt it, lol)
i used to work at 2 different nursing homes, and actually live 1/2 block from one. i may have to go spend some time there.
Posted by: minnie on February 26, 2007 06:54 PMRyan--
Thank you SO MUCH for coming to our little shin-dig. It meant a lot to me that you traveled all the way south to be there at 9:30 on a Saturday morning. I think the girls learned lots about Mon-go-LEE-a (and marmot-cooking).
I loved having the big pictures for the girls to look at (you were right--they really liked the picture of the alpaca). And it was great having you there to help out and to give them an insider's perspective. I hope you had a fun initiation into Girl Scouts.
Enjoy your magnet! (I got the Shrinky Dink stuff at Michaels, in case you really get into it. I made Knitting Olympics stitch markers with it).
Hoping to see you again soon!
Saralyn
Carpe acum! (Seize the needle!)
(And if you need Girl Scout cookies. . .you know who to call!)
Posted by: Saralyn on February 26, 2007 09:57 PMShrinky Dinks....hadn't thought of those in forever! how funny...but how cool!
Sounds like a wonderful day and hey, let's hear it for the Girl Scouts and what they can do.
YAY for the Girl Scouts. How wonderful!
Posted by: Julie on February 27, 2007 07:08 AMHot camel yogourt.
Ewwwww.
It's just been pointed out to me, by the way, my dear Ryan, that Mossy Cottage is not on my blogroll. I subscribe! I do! I just have a lameass method of updating my sidebar files on our we-done-made-it-ourselves blogging software! Really!
I adore you. TMK too. I just suck at finding the damned sidebar file.
And now I want a Shrinkydink kit.
Posted by: Lee Ann on February 27, 2007 08:12 AMI am a girl scout leader (juniors) and now I totally know what to do for next Thinking Day! Thanks!
Posted by: martha in mobile on February 27, 2007 09:22 AMWow! (1) Girl Power Rules!!!! and (2) you CAN have fun with kids! They really aren't so bad now, are they? What a wonderful day and such a positive experience for all of you.
BTW, I have now completed a DOZEN items for Dulaan--a far cry from my goal of 50, but I'm starting to get cranked up now.
MaryB
Posted by: MaryB on February 27, 2007 11:25 AMThat looks like ALOT of fun! Great job Ryan! I wish I was closer, I would have loved to participate. I was a girl scout many moons ago, and I too, found it to be one of the few places where I felt like I belonged.
Maybe we found a few more young ladies that we can seduce over to the "yarn side" of the Force--lol!
Hugs to you, TMK and Frankie!
Nancy O. :)
as a lifetime member of GS I want to say WAHOOO!! that sure looked like fun.
In fact, on Thinking Day I was with two women I met 18 yrs ago through GS in Germany. I know of no better way to spend the day.
hugs to you and your shrinky dink too!
Posted by: anj on February 28, 2007 12:35 PM