Being a guest in the Global South at two of our WAGGGS World Centers in the past seven months has been some of the most impactful travel and global experience I have ever had. Serving as a WAGGGS Celebrating Us global event facilitator at Kusafiri in Ghana in West Africa in August 2023 was a profoundly eye-opening three weeks of learning. Attending the Friends of Nuestra Cabaña annual meeting as a ‘friend’ guest for four days and then facilitating the GSCO Global Action Team adult event at Nuestra Cabaña for five days was such a meaningful way to bring the global sisterhood home.Â
These were not my first World Center experiences. In November 2007 I had a window of time, a sizeable flight voucher, a crisply new passport, and had never been out of the country. I knew Girl Scouting was an avenue for international travel, so I began to search for options and discovered I could volunteer for three weeks at Our Chalet on off-season maintenance projects and then travel all over Switzerland on the long weekends. I was in my mid-20s and I made it happen.Â
Many years went by without any Girl Scout volunteering until late 2019 when I reached out to the GSCO Volunteer team and asked where I could help without becoming a troop leader. They needed Gold Award Mentors and also explained there was this small group called the Global Action Team. I joined both. After many years of Zoom only meetings in June 2023, the Global Action Team had its first in-person meeting/retreat. It’s always so surprising to find out how tall people are when you finally meet them in person. Late in the day after much brainstorming and strategizing ways to reinvigorate and reinspire Global Girl Scouting in Colorado, I suggested an adult volunteer and staff trip to what would be the reopened (after three years due to COVID-19) Nuestra Cabaña World Center in Cuernavaca in central Mexico in February 2024.Â
It was also in this Global Action Team that I met Rae Ann Doughtery who quickly became a friend and mentor for me. She helped me navigate the process to volunteer with WAGGGS. I was honored to serve as a mentor for six amazing young women from Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Pakistan, India, and the Philippines (all the Global Majority from the Global South) in the 2022 Juliette Low Seminar for four months. I also mentored them all for six more months while they completed their 100 Girls Projects which ended up reaching at least 1,400 teenage girls in their communities (watch video). We met weekly on Zoom on Fridays for the first four months and every other week for the remaining six months at 7 a.m. mountain time which is 9 or 10 p.m. in the Philippines. Four of them chose and received scholarships to travel to Ghana for the Celebrating Us event at Kusafiri World Center in August 2023. I was selected to be a global event facilitator and after much preparation, the five of us met in person for the first time. When they each walked in the door at Kusafiri it was an emotional moment for all of us hugging and living a moment we weren’t quite sure would actually happen. All of these young women will be part of my life forever.Â
Upon my return home, I immediately picked up my suggestion to get Colorado adults to our closest Western Hemisphere World Center, Nuestra Cabaña. My enthusiasm and passion were fed by the richness and magic of relationships that happen at World Centers. I want this opportunity for Colorado's older girls and young women, and in order to make it happen we need adult staff and volunteers who have first-hand experience, skills, and inspiration to make it possible. I was hoping for possibly ten interested people; and within only a couple weeks of announcing the Global Girl Scouting trip more than 30 people had submitted their interest forms. There is a lot of interest in Global Girl Scouting in Colorado. After learning about the details, 17 women and two husbands committed to the adventure.
Both Ghana and Mexico are in the Global South and populated by the Global Majority. Being a white Westerner from a very comfortable place defined by our gross national consumption, I was given an authentic opportunity to look wider and open my eyes, mind, and heart in ways I did not know possible all of which invited me well beyond my comfort zone. Being in West Africa is very different than a Colorado mountain town. Spending time in Mexico learning Spanish in addition to spending time at the World Center was humbling. Building close intimate relationships with people who live in these places and beginning to understand their cultural values, traditions, ways of preparing drinking water, using toilet paper or not, cooking culture, and what foods grow in their regions was an incredible experience. Learning about how schools work, streets and driving happen, money and the economy, and so many pieces of the landscape and various community structures has been so interesting.Â
Most of all, connecting with people both at the World Centers and in the local communities is the most powerful part of my World Center experiences. While there were significant personal challenges bigger than I ever expected at both World Centers, what I will remember long into the future is the power and magic of the Girl Guide and Girl Scout sisterhood. No matter what, I'm part of this global movement; Girl Scouting has been in my blood since I was seven years old. World Centers provide a place for connection a Zoom call will never replace.Â
I encourage you to start planning your first (or next) World Center trip. Contact the Global Action Team for ideas on how to get started. Email gscoglobal@gmail.com.