The Return of the X-Rays: Phase 2's End

X-Rays 1 to 10 are home!! Their is palpable excitement at Fieldbase - we're ready to hear the stories, find out about the campaigns everyone has come up with for Women's Day and catch up with all of our friends who have been away for 3 weeks. We have completed a gravity water feed, which is an incredible achievement, 3 teams returned from trekking 270kms across Costa Rica and the rest of the teams have made fantastic progress on the remaining 3 environmental and 3 community projects with everything looking on track for Expedition end which is scarily fast approaching.

It is a bit rainy here in Turri but that didn't dampen the mood of returning Venturers and PMs - so here are some welcome home pictures:

Today all the X-Ray teams are finishing all of their cleaning (themselves, their kit and their clothes) presenting their Women's Day Campaigns, we will be talking about our next theme World Water Day on the 22nd March, it is Skit night (watch this space for piccies) and we are celebrating St. Patrick's Day, even thought it's not until Sunday! And of course a well earned rest afternoon is on the cards... phew i'm exhausted just writing it out!

X-Ray 6: Racoon Ramblings

X-Ray 6: Greggae, Jeannina, Roger, Charlie, Rakeem, Katinka, Merle, John, Fran, Catherine, Tom, Amy, Rosina, Don, Colin and Vic

A morning with x-ray 6 begins with a chorus of howler monkeys, and cries of ‘the raccoons have struck again!’ from the weeping breakfast makers. What at first appeared to be a harmless fluffy friend has become the staking terror of the night. So far this light fingered mammal, or ‘the beast’, at it has come to be known, has stolen 2kgs of sugar, a bag of salt, a vat of powdered milk, biscuits, tang, noodles, ibuprofen, underwear and mascara.

X-Ray 6 enjoying an R&R day on the playa

Venturers lie, clenched, in their beds at night, too scared to go to the loo clutching ther possessions as the nocturnal raider weaves between the basher beds, loosening the knots and cutting holes in our mosquitoe nets. In the day it lies in it’s nest in a sugar induced stupor, with fabulous eyelashes of course.

On our path building expeditions through Cabo Blanco’s lush jungle we have encountered a few less pesky animals; armadillos, anteaters, a large snake, scorpions, and a third named Nigel a beautiful blue bird (who steals our crackers) have all been spotted on the ½ km wheelbarrow run. We have morning yoga sessions to energise us, saluting the sun as it rises over the Pacific, and eat starfruit from the tree to keep us going throughout the day.We make between 22 and 36m’s each day, 272m down, and 3 days to go. All is well.

One of the rocks that X-Ray 6 and Artist Holly painted to line the path

X-Ray 6 Art

Artist Holly went to visit X-Ray 6: They have been working on the Alberth Ingalls path and had in mind to paint and decorate the rocks lining the new trail, leaving their own personal Raleigh legacy.

What with the nature of the project, we aim in our art programme to be as unobtrusive to the environment as possible and select materials from our immediate surroundings. We experimented with printing using found objects and created some beautiful designs and compositions by painting leaves and transferring them onto card; we even incorporated this method onto the rocks, which gave a really striking effect.

Smiley PM Colin

Fran printing with leaves

Blog written by John X-Ray 6's project comms officer who conducted(!!) his blog with a lot of humour NB everyone is well and looking forward to returning at changeover - the clutching of possessions was John's poetic licence!

X-Ray 7: Tapping into Matapalo

X-Ray 7 have been working incredibly hard in Matapalo, a remote village in the Achuapa region of Nicaragua to install a gravity fed water system providing an improved water source of clean and safe water. They have almost finished supplying 30 of the community access to this water. As previously expressed in their blog for women's day: Women, X-Ray 7 and Water this project is not going to just provide clean and safe water but time, for every member of the community to go to school, to socialise, and better their health. To celebrate Women's day the team hosted a community morning with face painting and a puppet show about women and water.

PM Paul, when asked about his project he said: it's grrrrreat!

Flavia taking her face painting task very seriously

PM Emma with one of the younger butterflies of Matapalo

Shadow puppetry, explaining their lives through art

Pin the tail on the donkey

X-Ray 7's update from Matapalo

As we took our seats on the luxury Transnica coach early on Sunday morning, we thought the 20 hour journey to our destination would pass in a haze of air conditioning, reclining seats and cheap films. And for a while it did. But then, as we roused ourselves with some morning porridge, looking ahead of us was the yellow abomination in which we would spend the second day of our journey. The following 10 hours dragged by in a nightmare of Spanish translated 80s power ballads!

Many goodbyes were shared with friends from phase 1 as we fropped off Xrays 8 and 10 at San Ramon and Miraflor respectively, but we struggled on and made it to our overnight stop in the town of Achuapa. The next morning we endured an hour on an old Canadian school bus and walked the remaining few kilometres to our destination of Matapalo.

On arrival, we were split into our groups and met our mums and dads-to-be for the next 2 weeks. The welcoming faces of our host families highlighted that we were now really a part of their isolated community. This made us all feel instantly at home, and it is this sense of community which makes our project here so special.

A typical family homestay PM's Cali, Emma and Paul live here with Norberto and Sylvia and their family picture below

Since our arrival we have finished digging the trenches in which we will lay the pipes to provide safe drinking water to four families, all of whom are currently hosting fellow Xray 7 venturers. The sense of gratification achievable here on our project is extremely motivating, and it is a special feeling watching trenches and pipes creep closer to houses and families in need of clean water.

Almost there - clean and safe water supplied to homes in Matapalo

We feel blessed here in Matapalo as after a hard days work we can relax in the idyllic setting of the river, which is just a short walk from our houses (under supervision of at least 2 PMs). We cannot wait to see the looks on our families’ faces when the first drops of water emerge on their doorsteps and we will all be truly sad to leave this unique and vibrant community.

This blog was written by Olly Wolrond and Josh Arbon X-Ray 7's Project Comms Officers, X-Ray 7 and Alpha 1 worked incredibly hard and this project has now been completed. All of the houses of Matapalo, due to previous Raleigh Expeditions and this one have been provided with clean, safe running water - an amazing achievement by everyone.

X-Ray 10: Mud mud glorious mud

X-Ray 10: Sacha, Matt, Nelson, Jaap, Emily, Emilie, Amy, Stella, Ella, George, Ben, Dom, Sally, Natasha, Dav and Lilly

X-Ray 10 have been achieving great things on project in La Arenilla and have fully integrated into community life. On Friday 8 they celebrated International Women's Day and had an incredible afternoon where they decorated the community centre with crepe paper and balloons and all of the community attended a coffee morning with cakes made by all of the families. The Don's, not the women as usual, made the coffee for everyone and David, the community leader and host family of our PMs Sally, Dav and Sacha, read a passage from the bible and then gave a heartfelt speech about gender equality and his hopes and aspirations for his daughters, the next generations and for all of those women in the village. La Arenilla had never celebrated IWD before but will now annually host it in honour of Raleigh and the women of their community who work tirelessly to support their families.

X-Ray 10 on their project in Miraflor

All great projects start with foundations; how else were the pyramids and skyscrapers of our generation made. While Xray 10 may be several weeks late in laying the physical foundations of houses and suchlike, we have been building the foundations for a structure that no wind or earth can ever assail; friendship, eternal and true.

By helping build houses and other  buildings for the community, it is the specific hope of Xray 10 that we may one day be remembered by the people of Miraflor as but one cog in the machine that bettered their lives. Through collecting old man’s beard (con creepy crawlies), gathering and producing mud (of which 30% is used to dirty our t-shirts, play mudball or experiment with new ‘looks’) and building houses (which makes most of us feel like kids again) we have completed several extra layers on the majority of the new houses, which is great.

Matt, today's blogger with his newly designed mud shirt.

Holly from roadtrip and Emilie making adobe bricks, made from natural sustainable materials they are a mixture of old man's beard and mud.

But all this would be for nought without becoming firm friends with the locals; from simple sentences and oft comical hand signalling (me encanta los chicas en Englyse being one) to learning about their lives, families and hopes for the future. It is by doing such things that Raleigh has flourished into such an organisation.

Sacha testing the shower

As part of Women’s Day, we have also been interviewing the local women (and a few men, besides) as to their role in the community, their education and their hopes for their children. So far, all have been incredibly positive, and while some women have received little education, the majority having received equal education to their husbands, while their children have been becoming increasingly educated, thus opening more opportunities. One such example came from Don Alejandro’s wife, Maximelia, whose eldest daughter has finished college and works in a bank. Such examples reflect on how far Nicaragua has come in recent years.

The houses are coming on really well - X-Ray 10 have made incredible progress.

Today's blog was written by X-Ray 10's Matt Heathcote