Return to Tallinn (The final leg) (19 - 21 July)

Returning to Tallinn was bittersweet. Coming back to our hostel was very familiar, and we were looking forward to finishing the leader qualification; but our final check-in reminded us all that our project was coming to an end. There was no time to dwell, as we checked into the hostel and immediately left for EGL to consult with our last group of leaders. Again, we were greeted with a familiar face from camp, and a leader we hadn't met before. We felt that we were becoming experts in our sections of the qualification, and yet every group would have different comments and items of feedback. Once we got back to the hostel, we were able to relax. After an amazing dinner (Thanks to Margaret for being head Chef that night!), we all settled into one room for some relaxing and a movie.

Wednesday morning was clear and bright, so we took our work outside. We finally climbed Fat Margaret's tower, and sat in the cafe at the top to work through the feedback. After showing the proposed scheme to more than half of the regular leaders in Estonia, we had a lot of comments to review and incorporate changes to the leadership qualification. The concept was really well received by the leaders we met, and they particularly liked the accessibility, structure, and relevance of the qualification/training proposed. We had a lot of comments and tweaks to consider for incorporation - some of which were even contradictory! Yet, after a few hours we had the next revision ready for the training board. Make no mistake - the qualification is not a British or Australian Qualification which has been modified - we have workshopped with the Estonian Guide Association to create something that follows the WAGGGS principles, and meets their needs. With this revision completed, we explored some more of St Margaret's tower, before heading back to the Hostel to prepare to meet the Training Board.

View from Fat Margaret's	Working hard
Fat Margaret's was a fortification - very thick!	Now it is a maritime museum - complete with knots for visitors to practice

Wednesday night was our last night with the training board, a chance to present our findings from consulting the leaders across Estonia, and to consider what happens next with the work we have done. As one member noted, we have kickstarted this process in Estonia, and achieved massive progress towards not only initiating a better scheme, but developing and even implementing it. We have left the training board with a document ready to be translated into Estonian (with all its nuances), and hopefully with final approval to start implementing after the next annual meeting! Of course, this final meeting still including much discussion and evaluation of whether a section should be in/out/changed. As a team, we are looking forward to hearing about what happens next, and hearing about the positive impacts that this training and qualification will provide to Leaders and their Guides.

It was almost with sadness that we left the office on Wednesday - our project was coming to a close, but the sense of achievement was strong as well. Charlotte had a perfect cure though - facials! Our thoughtful leader had bought us all face masks in the UK, and then carried them all though Estonia for us. It was a great fun way to pass the evening, especially when combined with our card games.

Application of the Facials

Facial Selfie!

Thursday was our first time at the Eesti Gaidide Litt office during the day. It was evaluation day, and we were meeting with the core Estonian GOLD team to evaluate this year's project, and look towards future projects with the UK-Estonia GOLD partnership. This was also our longest session in the office, and we got heaps of fantastic feedback about this year's project, their plans for implementation, and ideas for projects to follow. We also had the chance to thank the leaders and staff from EGL who had made this project possible and successful.

Our meetings always had great snacks	Discussing what happened	Smiling at what went well
Saying our Thank yous	Signing off some Queen's Guide paperwork	One last group shot!

This year our project was to focus on two areas - engaging with Rovers (Senior Section), and engaging with leaders and their training scheme. Although it was disappointing not to meet many Rovers, we achieved more than could have been expected with the leaders. The feedback from EGL is currently being compiled and will be returned to the UK to review and plan for projects to follow. Our team will also have an opportunity to provide feedback from the project - but this will happen at our de-brief weekend in December.

Leaving the office this time was definitely with sadness (that our project was over), but joy at what we had achieved. We climbed St Olaf's tower to celebrate (amazing views of Old Town Tallinn), and headed to a traditional Estonian cheap-eats restaurant to mark the end of the project work.

Climbing the tower

Looking around the corner

Yummy Herring

But that wasn't quite the end of our time in Estonia. The original plan included de-brief on Sunday, and a couple of travel/rest days between Parnu & Tallinn. It happened that a festival was happening in the south of Estonia that weekend, and everyone was going to be away. So, we did consultation and project work on our travel days, and our rest days, and every other day in between to get it finished by Thursday. As a result, all of our rest days were concentrated on the last weekend, and we were going to make the most of it!

Read our next blog post to find out what we did with that last weekend.