BP Parade

The BP Church Service was held today, Sunday 24th February, in the beautiful grounds of Arrowe Park in Benoni. We started marching at 09h30 to the chapel across the bridge.

9th Benoni Bambanani Cubs. Two Chums in the middle are due to be invested on Friday.

Some more of our cubs.

The 9th Benoni Bambanani Cub Pack Flag Bearer.

The Cub Pack received a Silver Award for the Star Pack Evaluation last year. Here the Leaders are receiving their award.

Renewing the Scout Promise.

Renewing the Cub Promise

Renewing the Guide Promise.

A 9th Benoni Cub saying the closing prayer.

Final procession from the Chapel ...

across the bridge to where the tea was waiting for everyone!

The Birds of Prey show followed.

Healthy Living - 22 Feb 2008

Our steam-release game was called "Germs attacking the Goodies". This games is based along the lines of Stick in the Mud with the Germs catching the Goodies who must then stand with their legs apart waiting to be rescued.

Cubs being rescued!

During Instruction we brought up into our Advancement Groups of New Chums, Cheetah, Leopard, Lion and Leaping Wolf. Here we have a New Chum and we concentrated on the Membership Badge - learning the Cub Law, the Cub Promise, the Left Handshake etc. We will be investing 3 New Chums next week.

We had a "going up" ceremony for these 2 'cubs' who went up to Scouts last night..... looking very smart in their scout uniform!

9th Benoni Bambanani Cub Pack

Our next game was fabulous and the cubs really enjoyed playing it. Fish were cut out and behind each fish was written a type of food - eg. cereal, cabbage, biscuits, doughnuts, rice, cauliflower, sweets, peas, steak. etc.

Fishing rods were made with a magnet on the end and on each paper fish there was one paper clip. Cubs went fishing and once they caught a fish, they would look and see what food was written on the back and decide whether this was a GOOD food or a BAD food and put it in the respective bucket.

Afterwards a quick discussion was had about which was good and bad foods - health wise.

The cubs could have played this for hours!

We put them in their Sixes and had a winner as well.

We then had a discussion on the correct way to brush our teeth and how important it is to brush our teeth after each meal.

The next game was a little different in that they had to run up, place a bit of toothpaste on their finger, swish it around in their mouth with some water, swallow it and run back to their Six, and then the next one came up to do the same thing.

I was not sure whether they would enjoy this but they wanted to repeat it!

Our two young men that have now gone up to Scouts saying their Promise for the last time as a cub.

Akela Joy handing them over to the Group Scouter.

It was BP's birthday last night - 22nd February - and the Troop Scouter blew the Kudu Horn to call everyone to attention. Here he is showing everyone a Kudu Horn very similar to the one BP would have used.

Our first Scout being invested.

He will be going into the Leopard Patrol

Our second Scout being invested.

Three Cheers!

Next week we will be having just as much fun - join us then.

Keep Cubbing

Akela Joy

Detective Delight - 16 February 2008

Back to doing what cubs enjoy doing best! Having fun!

This week our theme was - Detective Delight.

The cubs hauled out their magnifying glasses and raced around the given area looking for unusual items.
Nine different items had been hidden - from paper clips, corn, sweets etc. They had to run around and on the blow of the whistle stop and look for these items.

Two of our older cubs taking a look at all the Cub Interest Badges that can be done.

This week, the Lions learnt how to conserve energy. Here in South Africa we need to do that as each household needs to save at least 10% - we regularly have blackouts due to energy shortages.

The Leaping Wolves were learning about the Map Symbols.

And finally we played a game with compass directions and secret codes.

A treasure map is handed to each team. On this map, is written clear instructions on what you need them to do. Very basic instructions were used - such as:

Stand at Base X and face North, then take 20 paced North East. When you arrive there complete the secret code and return to Base X.

Face North, now run 40 paces west and see what you have to do, remembering to return to Base-X.

There were a few more instruction for them to follow using a few more compass directions.

We also showed them how to disguise a person by dressing up using a coat and a hat. They were then each given a picture which each cub "diguised" beautifully!

Till next Time

Keep Cubbing

Akela Joy

Sabie 2008

This week the theme for the Cub Meeting was H2Ohhhh - which was quite fitting as Akela and family joined the Scouts for the annual pilgrimage to Sabie in Mphumalanga.

So, althought we do not have any Cub Photos, we have some lovely family scouts photos of everyone going down the Sabie River.

There are two ways to start your journey down the river.

Either by jumping backwards into the river.....

..... or climbing in rather sedately!

.... and off you float....

The river was a little fuller than the last time I went down. This makes for a faster ride as well as one not hitting so many rocks with your bottom!

It looks terribly calm here but as you go along there are some awesome rapids...

As you can see safety gear is a must and everyone has to wear a lifejacket, closed shoes and be able to swim!

3 happy young scouts

Sunday morning and a last trip down the river.

Each tube is specially named - this one, as you can see, belongs to Akela!

The tubes come in all shapes and sizes. Some even have special seats on them or ropes tied around them to form a seat!

Ingenuity of a Scout ???

We really had a fantastic weekend. We stayed at the Castle Rock Municipal Camping ground which is adequate for one's needs.
..... and we will be back again next year, same time!

Till next time

Keep Cubbing

Akela Joy

Survivor 1 February 2008

Survivor Arrowe Park!

After Grand Howl and Inspection the Cubs were sent out onto the 'island' to look for 'news' of their team mates. These of course, were envelopes hidden around the grounds that contained bandanas (2 different colours) determining which team they would go into.

The 'yellow' and the 'blue' team

After a quick game, we got straight into making our torches for Tribal Council.

Different shapes....

.... different sizes....

.. but they all looked great in the end.

.... and very simple to make.

1 x bamboo reed

1 x candle cut in half

1x 2litre cold drink bottle

Cut the cold drink bottle so that it forms a shelter for the flame - as you can see in the picture below. Trim the bamboo reed so that it will fit inside of the cold drink bottle top. The candle can also be trimmed to now fit snugly into the bamboo reed once the bottle has been placed over the bamboo. This can now be decorated with whatever you have available.

Completed torches - ready for Tribal Council

Let the Challenges begin!

Team Challenges

... and the first one was 'Tug-of-War"

and the Yellow Team won!

The seond team challenge was "laying an egg for breakfast" and I thought every egg would break but the cubs really surprised me!

Cubs are paired up back to back and a raw egg is placed between the two of them. They must work out how they are going to "lay their egg" without breaking it.

Both teams did equally well - so there was no out-right winner of the team challenges!

.. so on to the individual challenge and each cub was given 3 balls to see how many tins they could hit.

Our ball catchers!

We finally had a winner of the individual challenge and it was nearly home time!

A very special occassion - it was time to invest a New Chum and from all of us at 9th Benoni we say a warm welcome!

Newly invested Cub with mom.

Everyone had a tremendous time being "Survivors" and fortunately no-one was sent to Exile Island!

Next week will be just as much fun.

Till then

Keep Cubbing

Akela Joy