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nicolablackburn - Nicola Blackburn

Hello!

My name is Nicola, I'm 23 and I'm shortly about to embark upon a year-long voluntary project in Mexico. I am going to Mexico with Inter-Cultural Youth Exchange (www.icye.org.uk) who are a registered charity. Their aims are to promote cultural understanding and exchange, whilst enabling young people to volunteer in social projects around the world. In Mexico I will be working at an SOS Children’s Village in Tuxtla Gutierrez , Chiapas State. The Village provides education and therapy for children with special needs and many of the children are resident at the centre. My work will involve helping in the classroom, assisting with physiotherapy, as well as any other tasks they require of me!

I will be using this blog to share stories and photos of what I get upto here in Mexico. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported my decision to come to Mexico, and especially those who have helped me with my fundraising efforts! Special thanks goes to Hazel's Footprints Trust (www.hazelsfootprints.org) and the Edward Cadbury Trust for their generous donations.

So, I hope you enjoy, and please feel free to leave comments and (for those that know me) keep me up to date with the gossip back home!

Nicola x

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Joined on: July 16th 2007
Last Login: August 22nd 2008

Blog Entries: 7
Photos: 131

TB Code: [blogger=43618]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by nicolablackburn, order by Date newest first.

By nicolablackburn
January 5th 2008

...and a Oaxaca new year!!

North America » Mexico » Oaxaca » Mazunte

Market in Oaxaca
we spent a lot of time and money here

I guess my poor attempt at a play on words only works if you know how to pronounce oaxaca (see previous blog :). So here is part 2 of my mamouth holiday blogging session. I spent Christmas with my family in Tuxtla. My original plan was to be as far away from all things holiday related, to ensure i didn't feel christmassy and therefore avoid feeling homesick. However the family asked me way back in november if i would like to spend christmas with them, and i figured it would be pretty interesting to spend the 24th and 25th with people [View Full Entry]

By nicolablackburn
January 2nd 2008

A very mayan christmas....

North America » Mexico » Chiapas » Palenque

christmas mexican style

Well, where to start? I finished work for christmas on the 15th December, and set of with my friend Els on an epic and slightly insane week of visiting ruins, old towns and finally the beach in the Yucatan. I will try and recount the highlights for you, but hope the photos will do more justice to some of the beautiful places i have visited in the last few weeks. We left Chiapas on the friday night to take an overnight bus to Palenque, a small town but home to some seriously impressive ruins and waterfalls. As we stumbled off the [View Full Entry]

By nicolablackburn
December 6th 2007

Why does the airplane play baseball?

North America » Mexico » Chiapas » Tuxtla Gutiérrez

chiflon

Sometimes life throws up some interesting philosophical questions. The other day when i was working, one of my favourite patients (yes i know i shouldn't have favourites and all that, but the ones that don't scream, bite or try to pull out my hair generally endear themselves more to me than those who do....) was sporting a tshirt, which, no word of a lie, has had me puzzled ever since. All that was written on his t shirt was the question..."why does the airplane play baseball?" i turned jonathan around and upside down in search of the answer hidden somewhere else [View Full Entry]

By nicolablackburn
October 19th 2007

Are my feet tanned or just dirty?

North America » Mexico » Chiapas » Tuxtla Gutiérrez

My Kingdom

The answer to that question is both i´m pleased to report. Ok onto more important matters. It has been a while since my last blog so i thought i ought to write some more. Its been difficult purely for the fact that a lot has happened, but nothing very major (until last weekend) so i guess i've been saving up all my little stories. (chances of me having forgotten all of them are pretty high though.) Ok i'll go in the order of my photos, as they are pretty chronological. One weekend i got back from my Spanish class and Alba [View Full Entry]

By nicolablackburn
September 10th 2007

Viva Mexico

North America » Mexico » Chiapas » Tuxtla Gutiérrez

¡Viva Mexico!

¡Hola! So another few weeks have passed and its difficult to know where the time goes. The days seem to merge into one and before i know it monday has turned into friday and friday has turned into sunday evening. The project is ticking along nicely. I get there for about 8.40 (one day i´ll make it at my planned arrival time of 8.30, but this is mexico cabrones...10 minutes late is half an hour early). I have set up a timetable for therapy which of course never gets adhered to...mainly due to the fact i am now on Mexican time, [View Full Entry]

By nicolablackburn
August 27th 2007

Learning to survive on a few hours sleep.

North America » Mexico » Chiapas » Tuxtla Gutiérrez

My Street

Well, a lot has happened in the last few weeks, so much so that I don´t really know where to start. Last weekend (which is about as far back as i can remember) was my host niece, Sophie´s first communion, which i was invited to attend both the service on the saurday and the party on the sunday. Now as Mexico is a predominantly Roman Catholic country, the first communion is pretty important and a lot of effort goes into preparing for the big day and the party. My part in the preparations involved removing the skins off about a thousand [View Full Entry]

By nicolablackburn
August 14th 2007

soy inglesa, no hablo espanol

North America » Mexico » Chiapas

View from the bus
Hazy view of Popacatapetl (one day i´ll learn how to spell it :)

Ok, where to start? The first 2 days were a blur of bus journeys (not forgetting one incredibly long and uncomfortable flight), before i made it to my first destination: Metepec in Puebla (about 2-3 hours from Mexico City). This is where our orientation camp was held and it couldn´t have been nicer. It was a bit like a v classy Butlins (minus the chavs) set high up in the mountains and in the shadow of Popacapetal (sp?!), which periodically spewed out clouds of ash from its snow covered peak. The landscape around Puebla is really beautiful, with a massive contrast [View Full Entry]

TravelBlog » nicolablackburn