Raleigh Costa Rica and Nicaragua: Goodbye, farewell, adios.....

Thursday, 21 April 2011

Goodbye, farewell, adios.....

And so the time has come to say adios to all of our 11C blog readers who’ve followed us daily through the most amazingly intense ten weeks of our lives. A big shout-out from me, Gerry your blogger, to all our venturers who were project communications officers and photographers for consistently bringing the blog to life from far-flung projects.

Our 11C Alpha and Delta groups successfully completed 21 projects including 7km of trail in La Cangreja Absolute Reserve in Costa Rica, rebuilt five houses damaged by hurricanes in El Rodeo, Nicaragua, and supplied 30 families with clean water to their homes in Achuapa, Nicaragua.

Now only the volunteer managers and Ross our country programme manager remain at fieldbase. The place is eerily quiet save for the occasional bark from our newly adopted dog Daz. And soon no one will be there to hear Daz’s barks.

So, this is Zero , signing off with our final sitrep for expedition 11C:

Serial Alpha: 10.00 hrs 20/04/11, over.

Serial Bravo: Fieldbase, Turrialba, Costa Rica, over.

Serial Charlie: Sunny and dry, over.

Serial Delta: On both the Alphas’ and Deltas’ last night we held The Golden Mess Tin Awards which recognise the crème de la crème of our venturers, though of course we’d have given them all an award if we could because we’ve never come across a more lively, creative and continuously surprising group.

So, final drumroll for our golden winners:

Hard Core Trekker

Alpha: Chris Hibberd

Delta:Stephan Moehrke

Entertainer/Comedian

Alpha: Andres Cambronero Rodriguez

Delta:Andres Chavarria Navarro

Most improved language
Alpha:Josseling Zeledon Bravo

Delta:Kike Lira

Romantico

Alpha: Richard Cronheim & Ellie Spicer

Delta: Jay Lancaster & Rose Ashbourn

Spirit of Raleigh

Alpha:Louise Simpson

Delta: Richard Mandell

Outstanding male

Alpha:Daniel Saborio Romano

Delta:Benny Gamsu

Outstanding female

Alpha: Emily van de Bunt

Delta: Mary McCann & Karla Arroyo Chaves

Our final changeover is finished. Our venturers have flown the nest. Deep clean of fieldbase is done and dusted, over.

Serial Echo: Get on the party bus to Cahuita beach. Carnage guaranteed, over.

Serial Foxtrot: None. All admin completed, over.

Serial Golf: Risk assessment update – now very high. 36 volunteer managers about to be unleashed on an unsuspecting Caribbean coast, over.

Serial Hotel: There won’t be a next time. This is it. Pura Vida! 11C Zero, listening out...

5 comments:

Marian22 April 2011 at 02:07
Thanks for everything and for returning a toned, tanned, lovely young woman busting with confidence back to us. All the very best to you.
I'll miss the blog! xxx
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Anonymous22 April 2011 at 07:04
The Whole Team
thank you for such entertaining accounts of these projects: it's pretty clear everyone had a great time as well as achieving a lot of fantastic work. well done one and all! Cathy Henderson
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anon23 April 2011 at 05:39
Thankyou Zero and all TeamRaleigh and Well Done for all your comms and support. THis blog was a lifeline from one family to a venturer and I can only say, enjoy your well earned rest on that beach. Lea Fellows
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Anonymous24 April 2011 at 03:59
To all the people at Raleigh who made this wonderful adventure so enjoyable to my son Stephan Moehrke, as well as those from Costa Rica and the families in Nicaragua, thank you very much. We hope and pray that you will always be able to find people to support you in this amazing calling that you are fulfilling in these countries. We will certainly promote you as far and as often as possible as we can.
Good luck with your future projects. Thank you very much for keeping the blogs up to date and informing us about what our kids were doing.
All the best
Carine Moehrke & family
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Anonymous26 April 2011 at 09:22
The Whole Team

Thank you for making my daughter's life such fun and full of adventure. She has returned bubbling with life and laughter, full of ideas for the future and working with Raleigh! Who knows what the next adventure will be! Thank you all and we will miss the blogs. Judith Murray (Caroline's mum)
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Hi,

Thank you for visiting our blog. Comments are monitored daily and we will ensure messages are promptly delivered to your loved ones. Please ensure you state the name of the person to whom your message is addressed. This is so we don't miss any out. Muchas gracias!

Pura Vida!

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Raleigh Lingo

Copy that?

Sometimes our Raleigh technical terms can be a tad confusing so we've put together a glossary for you blog followers. This will appear as a quick-reference section on the right-hand column so you can translate our Tico-terms into something a bit more palatable. And for those keen to brush up their Central American Spanish, we've included some handy translations. Here's a few to get you started...

Alpha, X-Ray and Zulu groups
(Grupos Alfa, X-Ray y Zulu)
The official name for project groups during the phases of CR&N 13A. Alpha will be out on project from 3rd to 23rd February, X-Ray from 24th February to 15th March and Zulu from 17th March to 5th April. Project groups are allocated during induction

Basha
Jungle ‘bed’: consists of a tarpaulin for shelter, a hammock and mosquito net. A basha is hung up between two trees and supported by rope, bamboo and canvas straps

Bodega
A Spanish word meaning store or warehouse

Bravo
A term of endearment for our hard-working Land Rovers. The four vehicles are officially, and imaginatively named Bravo One, Two, Three and Four

C.A.T.I.E.
The agricultural and development research institute on whose campus Fieldbase is situated. Find out more at http://www.catie.ac.cr/

Changeover (Cambio de Fase)
Two day period where all staff and Venturers return from their project sites for some respite before they are all reallocated and sent off to do it all over again...

Chicas, Chicos
Spanish term meaning girls (chicas) or guys (chicos) or both (chicos aswell). As in “Vamonos chicos!” or “Let’s go guys!”

Craic
A way to gauge how people are feeling, usually measured from 0 to 90. If your ‘craic’ is high, you’re pretty happy. If you announce a low craic, people will probably fix you up with an energy bomb and a nice big hug

CR&N 13A
Costa Rica and Nicaragua expeditions 13A

Day Leader (DL) (Líder del día)
Every day on project, one of the Team is designated DL – they are in charge of the day, including organising the day’s briefing, keeping group morale up, dealing with any problems, sticking to schedule and de-briefing at the end of the day. The DL role rotates round the whole group so everyone takes a turn

Energizer (Actividad Levanta Muertos)
An activity to gather the group together and raise energy levels. Can be used at the beginning of the day, or whenever a quick pick-me-up is required

Energy bombs (Explosión de azucar)
A trekking treat – mix together oats, raisins, condensed milk and chocolate powder and roll into little balls of gooey goodness to power you through the day

Fieldbase (FB) (Campo Base)
Refers to the Raleigh ‘office residence’ which is where the Fieldbase staff eat, sleep and work, whilst organising the expedition, manning the radios round the clock, supporting the projects, planning transport and logistics, keeping tabs on the finances and much, much more

Field Base Volunteer Managers (Equipo Logístico Voluntario del Campo Base)
Volunteer support staff for the expedition. The team looks after the ‘behind the scenes’ of the expedition and ensures everything runs smoothly. This consists of three permanent staff members - the Country Director, Country Project Manager and Country Expedition Manager - plus a team of volunteer staff including the, Medic, Photographer, Administrator, Finance Officer, three Logistics (logs) team members and the Communications Officer

Gallo Pinto
A traditional Costa Rican dish of rice and beans (yum!)

Icebreaker (Rompe Hielos)
A getting-to-know-you game

Longdrop (Letrina)
The camp loo. Literally a deep hole in the ground, it is one of the first tasks to complete when setting up jungle camp for obvious reasons! Short drops are similar, normally used for overnight stops when a shallower trench will suffice

Longs (Pantalones)
From 6pm onwards, we all don long trousers and sleeves to discourage the bugs that aren’t deterred by DEET

Maxis
Short for Maxi Pali, the stock-everything shop about a kilometer from Fieldbase where you can buy all those things you forgot/ran out of/lost

Nicas
An affectionate term referring to the native population of Nicaragua

Ninja
A popular game/energizer used by venturers and Project managers alike. Everyone stands in a circle and tries to hit the team members either side of them on the hand via a single ninja movements. Sound effects welcome

POPS
Legendary milkshake and ice-cream parlour chain found all over Costa Rica – perfect for a sweet splurge

Pork and beans (Frijoles con cerdo)
Another staple foodstuff for trekkers: tinned beans with a slightly sausage twang, served cold for lunch. Usually accompanied by dry cracker dust, sprinkled liberally on to the top. If you’re in a hurry, this can be consumed without cutlery straight from the can

Project Managers (PMs) (Guías)
Project staff for the expedition. Each of the groups has at least two PMs who work with the Venturers to develop skills, lead projects and challenge themselves

PURA VIDA!
A very special Costa Rican phrase that means hello, goodbye, I’m great, it’s good, pure life, basically any positive, feel-good thing can be Pura vida!

Radio check (Chequeo de Radio)
As well as a daily SITREP, all Alpha projects are required to complete a second radio call-in each day to check in, receive messages and report any developments

Review (Revisión)
A round-up that assesses how everyone feels, what went well and what needs work. This is sometimes an ‘activity’, sometimes a chat around the campfire, or sometimes just a bit of time to reflect. It’s an important part of everyone’s personal development so we make sure it happens every day

Roadtrip (Paseo Volando Rueda)
The logistics team and some of the Field Base team drive the Bravos on a loop round to each of the accessible project sites once per phase. They deliver kit, supplies, site visitors, messages from the blog and of course the all important post

Ropa Americana
Purveyors of the finest second hand American threads. Perfect for fancy dress/obtaining that long coveted college sports jersey

SITREP (Reporte de la Situación)
Literally Situation Report. A special radio message sent from the satellite project sites back to fieldbase once a day. It follows a certain format and includes all sort of handy information like where they are, what they’ve been up to, what they need and what they’re planning to do next

Tang
A fruity powder that is used to make squash. Jolly useful for taking away the chlorine taste of purified water

Ticos
An affectionate term referring to the native population of Costa Rica

Trangia (Mini Cocina)
A portable cooking stove. Used primarily for trekking, a trangia’s compact design makes it perfect for easy transportation. Literal translation in spanish - mini kitchen. Makes sense

Turrialba
The location of Fieldbase

Venturers (Aventureros)
Participants in the Raleigh expedition. Aged 17 to 24, they come in three varieties: Host Country Venturers (from Costa Rica and Nicaragua), Partnership Venturers (positive young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in the UK who participate in Raleigh expeditions as part of a longer term development programme) and UK and International Fundraising Participants (who work hard to raise money to contribute towards the charities work and expenses in order to take part in the expedition)

Wash up (Revisión Final)
The last few days of expedition, spent debriefing, returning equipment, performing skits, and most importantly enjoying the farewell party (tears alert)

Zero (Cero)
A radio term that identifies the radio controller at Fieldbase. Fieldbase monitors the radios 24-7, listening out on three frequencies for calls from our satellite project sites. When the radio alarm sounds, we might answer something like this: “Hello unknown call sign, hello unknown call sign, this is Zero, this is zero, do you copy, OVER?”