Advertisement
Published: February 18th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Thank you to EVERYONE who has made donations to my website.... large and small they have been INVALUABLE. There have been some incredibly generous ones and I am very touched that you have put so much in to support what Raleigh and the projects are trying to achieve.
I have tried to give you an idea below of where and to whom your money is going..... I now know a bit more about Raleigh and what we are trying to do here and it is very exciting. First and foremost it is about motivating people... young people in particular.. from all walks of life to work together and stretch themselves further than ever before. Secondly, but just as important, is to make a fundamental difference to the lives, communities and areas of outstanding beauty surrounding us. All projects take place fully integrated with project partners, sometimes government involvement, and local communities and require a great deal of sensitivity and management at times.
Costa Rica is definitely hotter and wetter than Antigua although we are still at altitude and near another volcano. (Volcan Turrialba) You realise how volatile this region is geologically, given we are sitting on the San Andreas plate line.
It is supposed to be the dry season but we had 24 hours of rain the first day we arrived (Tuesday 14th Feb) and have just had another almost continuous 12 hours overnight as we practiced making jungle bed (bashas) in the practice 'jungle camp' near fieldbase. We had to navigate and practice radio operation and a river crossing, float and rescue on the way there. Luckily we had Jorge a local in our group for the journey and he got out his machete and cut us a very appreciated snack of sugar cane, in addition to showing us how you can get the pinzers of large ants to bite down on skin which can be used to close a wound (you then pull their bodies off and the head remains to hold the wound together until you can get help... uuurgh!).
Then we had to build camp and cook, unfortunately as it was getting dark. Julian (Country Director) was an absolute star and turned up with much needed sustenance of crisps and the local rum at about 8pm when we were flagging... this revived spirits completely but obviously isn't allowed once Venturers arrive so we will have to think of an alternative (that chocolate may come in very handy Sue!) Bashas are surprisingly comfortable (like a bed slung between trees or A-frames and once you have sleeping mat, sleeping bag and mosquito net set up in there you are wonderfully dry and snug... I certainly didn't feel like climbing out into the rain when we were woken at 6am this morning! We had more training on building camp and beds, in addition to machete training and emergency evacuation training. On returning to camp it was incredible how great even freezing cold showers seemed!
So far we are all well acquainted with the mosquitoes and biting ants. The mozzies here are particularly productive, not great when dengue fever is present. They leave a lovely red pinprick to show where they have been, the bite then swells to about an inch or red, hard skin and if you are lucky the bites disappear without trace after 48 hours. Luckily no other creepy crawlies as yet but I have been told Costa Rica has one of the most dangerous snakes!
Staff are great, and include two costa ricans, a costa rican PA and photographer at fieldbase, and the majority of the rest are Brits with 1 Kiwi and 1 Aussie both living in London and 1 German living in NZ. A few more gals than guys although the jefes are male! We´re being fed well (food gets very important when you are here) and venturers don´t arrive for about 1.5 weeks so we have preparation time.
Who takes part?
They have changed the set up a bit here and for our session only 2 projects are in nicaragua and 6 are in Costa Rica. We have 19 host country participants (Nicaraguans and Costa Ricans who Raleigh funds with your donations), 2 Motiv8 participants who are ex-young offenders from the UK who have earned a right through their development to attend the course and about 65 who have raised the money to come here, again mostly from the UK but also a couple from Australia and Asia.
Projects
We had a slide show of the projects and several are first time projects for Raleigh.
1) Community: Working with the last true indigenous population left in the far south east corner of Costa Rica, near the border with Panama. The local community rep walked 8 hours along a beach to leave the community and spent a large chunk of his savings just to make a call to our Country Director. He is really keen that his community (including him) have access to secondary education and Raleigh will be building a wooden secondary school. The community will house the group in a hut and will feed them communally (mostly rice and beans). The setting is idyllic but very remote.
2) Environmental: Piedras Blancas, Costa Rica national park. Julian has been building a relationship with the rangers here for two years and has got the go ahead to add sleeping quarters to the building already there. This will provide somewhere for scientists and hikers to sleep while visiting the area. It requires hiking in for about 6 hours and crossing a river 5 times, with all your kit and building equipment.
3) Environmental: Another Costa Rican national park which is very remote and very muddy. This is full on jungle camping, building your own beds, cooking and recreational area, loos, the works! This is so remote there is a chance you will even see jaguar here. The project is building stairs and trails through the jungle.
4) Community: Achuapa is a large valley but one of the poorest parts of Nicaragua. It is up in the far north and requires several days of long bus rides and hiking or riding in to get to. You lives with the community in their huts and they provide food. Sometimes there may be 17 family members in the hut with you! The project is to bring clean water to the villages as the river often dries out and gets contaminated.
5) Community: Miraflor is also in a remote part of Nicaragua. The project is challenging since it requires the building of two primary schools in two different locations, so moving the project site in between. Again you live with families.
6) Environmental and social: San Lucas island. This is an old prison along the lines of Robin Island. Life was horrifically harsh for the prisoners and several would have died there. The project is to restore several of the buildings so it can be used as a museum and take pictures recording all the graffiti in the cells. This will be gathered together and the words translated by the Raleigh photographer as part of the museum. The island setting is idyllic with palm trees and white beaches, and no other people there.
7) - 8) The last two projects are treks across the top of the world. If you lead all ten weeks of trekking you will be walking 1000km in that time! The photos look absolutely incredible. On some of the three week treks you will only see 2 or 3 people other than yourselves, and many take you along ridges of ancient extinct volcanoes above the cloud line before ending up on deserted beaches. there might even be one more trek if Julian is able to get permission.
We find out tonight or tomorrow which projects we are going to be on. I would like Piedras Blancas but they are short on spanish speakers so I may get a community project. Once we know we set off on Monday or Tuesday next week for 5 days to plan and scope our project sites, complete risk assessments and meet local community leaders and contacts. We have to know where the local hospital is, where we can get helicopters in in case we have to evacuate anyone, plan our jungle camps, our building materials and just getting to some of these projects could take 4 days! Not helping is a public transport strike in nicaragua.
Until we completely leave fieldbase I have internet access at the local agricultural campus so will keep you posted before I head off.
lots of love
Bexxxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.251s; Tpl: 0.025s; cc: 12; qc: 66; dbt: 0.1733s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 3;
; mem: 1.2mb