Love for Our Cabaña

The other day I was going through some old things to see what I could find and scan to share.  I realized that I have been extremely remiss in talking about our troop’s trip to Our Cabaña in 1988.  I cannot believe I have been so neglectful of it considering it is a tie with the Trip Out West™ for my favorite GS trip.

If you are not familiar with Our Cabaña, it’s an International Center of WAGGGS with Our Chalet in Switzerland, Sangam in India, and Pax Lodge in England as the other three.  It’s located in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Our troop went for a total of 10 days for the overall trip with three days in Mexico City and then a week at Our Cabaña.  Although I don’t have as many specific memories to share like I do for other trips, I have an extreme fondness in my heart for it.  Just doing a Google search for Our Cabaña images really made me smile and warmed my heart.  I don’t think that it’s necessarily the place itself – I think it had more to do with the people I met there.

Here’s our group shot from 1988:

For living quarters, you were split up from your troop and placed with other Girl Scouts and Guides from all over the world!  Although some people might cringe at the thought of being assigned with a bunch of strangers, it was the best thing for me.  This by no means has anything to do with my fellow troop members, because I loved them (and still do!) to death.  But it was great to go into a place where you don’t know anybody but have something in common.  It was like a do over – someone meets you for the first time, and they don’t know anything about you or where you come from other than your city and state.  They haven’t been to school with you for years and years, and they don’t know how others view you.  It’s a new beginning.

So Sarah, Meghan, “Bert”, Cindy, Daphne, Karin, Amy, Angela, and everyone else that I’ve forgotten, thank you for making that trip so much fun!  And thank you to the counselors as well, especially the one named Becky from WisCAHNsin!