Fieldbase Recap in Slideshow

At the end of the training for the Fieldbase team we put together a slideshow to remind ourselves just how much we had done...

Love and Land Rovers

Brum, Brum...

No, it isn't the city of Birmingham in England to which I am referring, it is the sound resonating in our ears during intense 4x4 driving training for some of the Advance team! Ross, our Country Programme Manager, has been patiently and bravely taking to the passenger seat this week and letting us city slickers have a bash at driving Bravo 1, 2, 3 and 4, Raleigh’s trusty Landies, around the CATIE farm, Turrialba, San Jose and off-road (the weather overnight creating some interesting terrain to say the least!). As well as some tentative on- and off-road driving, we all went a bit Daisy Duke and got serious with a jack, lifting the 2 tonne vehicles and changing a tyre (a first for some of us - ¿Dónde está Kwik Fit?)

So, if you’re reading this and would like to wish us luck, please feel free to comment – we’re all excellent drivers at home (obviously...) but add in a different side of the road, Spanish road signs, opposite controls, some big rocks, inclines to make your eyes water and 8 hours of torrential rain and we need all the support we can get! It’s all so we can get everything, and everyone, to (often remote) project sites exactly when they’re needed in the next few weeks, very important I’m sure you’ll agree. Our learner drivers are Nick, Jen, Dave, Bjorn, Katie, Roeland, myself (Leanne) and Becky, all of whom will hopefully get some 4x4 fortune in our tests later this week.

Becky, one of our Logistics team, has another link to 'Brum'. She has been married for 2 years today to a lucky gent from that aforementioned part of the world – who just happens to be one of our Project Managers, Andy! So please join me in saying ‘Feliz Aniversario’ to Becky and Andy – you’ll be reading more about them and why they decided to join a Raleigh expedition together over the next couple of weeks.

Andy will also be our guest blogger tomorrow, if he survives ‘Anniversary Games Night’ here at Fieldbase!

Living For The Weekend

It is now a full week since the Advanced Fieldbase Team touched down in Costa Rica and as a reward for their endeavours (pats on the back all round), were given the morning to take a trip up Volcan Irazú on a glorious Saturday. Bravos 2 and 4, both noble steeds, were loaded up and 90 minutes later, Team FB (Fieldbase) had ascended through the clouds to the summit. Scenery aside, a striking observation was the number of cyclists battling their way up Irazu’s flanks in the 25 degree heat. We doff our caps to you; a feat worthy of the upmost respect. Dubbed ‘El Coloso’, Irazú towers above the city of Cartago at 3432m and the views from the top were spectacular to say the least - the layer of cloud cover below providing an almost heavenly view (admire Ale’s stunning snaps below).

Sunday/Monday will see the relentless activity at Fieldbase kick up yet another gear – the Venturer Managers are on their way. Dave F, Tim and Pedro are San Jose bound to meet the recruits and return them safe and sound to Turrialba, where they will be welcomed over a breakfast of Gallo Pinto before the fun and games of training begin.

We're on it!

Hola! By now you have an idea of what the 11C advance team have been up to this week in preparation for the arrival of our project managers very soon and also our young people, known here at Raleigh as venturers, at the beginning of February.

So, just before the chaos begins i.e. 35 volunteer managers fighting for less than half the number of fieldbase beds, here's a quick round up of what the 11C advance team has been doing (it's not all fancy dress and volcano viewing you know!).

First up is Ivan, our deputy programme manager, who has devised an induction plan so detailed in its military precision that we practically know what times we're going to the loo each day when project training begins on Tuesday. Here he is outlining his master plan (at world domination?) to Catherine and Abi in our staff room:

A few minutes in, they realised the complex diagram represented only the first day. Looks like we're in for an intense, but highly organised, two weeks! And no, Ivan didn't insist that I include 'highly organised' but he'll be pleased I did. We also discovered that Ivan's childhood nickname is 'dog bowl'. If you're coming out, ask him about it.

Meanwhile, Catherine, our finance manager... :

... has been busy making sure the numbers add up by visiting the local bank in Turrialba to get money changed, setting up a Bureau de Change here at fieldbase so everyone has enough colónes when they arrive (the colón is the Costa Rican currency), updating our accounts for head office in London, and ensuring we have enough money for project planning visits. Along with Tom, Catherine's also kindly labelled furniture in the staff room with their Spanish names so we can start learning toute suite. Or should that be 'inmediatamente'.

As well as being the font of all knowledge in the office because she's volunteered as the finance manager before, Abi, our administrator,... :

... has been preparing all the project packs, checking everyone's details are up to date, making sure we all have the right visas, ordering stationery, re-learning how to cope with crazy Costa Rican drivers, and a zillion other admin tasks for which we're very grateful. 

Jess, our team coach... :

... has been organising the project manager's skills training sessions which will help them manage groups, as well as being an all round star by helping out other teams, and revealing hidden dancing talents on the salsa floor.

And Dr Sheila is delighted now that she has been joined by Dr Ben:

 ... making lighter work of compiling the static, vehicle, and trek kits; preparing and taking medical one-to-ones; organising medical training for the project manager's induction; and stocktaking, and ordering medical equipment. They've also learnt how to salsa - we have (blurry) photographic evidence!

The logistics team (left to right) of Pete, Tom, Laura, Bob and Mark have had a frazzled few days:

... learning how to negotiate the chaotic Costa Rican roads in the landys; repairing and ordering new equipment; stocktaking maps, vehicles and radio kits, and planning menus to work out food rations (286 toilet rolls, 384 tins of tuna, 90 kilos of oats, 1,700 packets of tomato sauce, and 85 kilos of pasta arrived yesterday with all sorts of other goodies - no sign of the famous expedition food staple of pork and beans yet!).

And on to the media team. Julie, our photographer... :

... has been taking lots of pictures (no surprises there) not to mention making slideshows and our blog introduction video, learning to drive, helping other teams out, and sending everyone nuts by singing 'Do you know the way to San Jose' every five minutes. Hopefully she'll have got bored of it by the time everyone else arrives.

And here's me, your blogger, Gerry... :

... I've been setting up the blog, flat-planning the magazine which will be ready for everyone by the end of expedition, and devising a 3 month plan involving lots of other communications stuff which I won't mention in case I spoil the surprise for the volunteer managers and venturers. Oh, and I've been fretting about my shoe to T-shirt ratio (roughly 3:1) which means I'm short on tops but I'm probably the Imelda Marcos (lady who owned lots of shoes) of Raleigh in Costa Rica and Nicaragua (I haven't brought my hair straighteners so I had to make up for it somehow).

Ross, our country programme manager who lives here... :

 ... has been teaching drivers how to drive safely in country, taking one to ones, answering our ridiculous questions, playing darts while following Andy Murray at the Australian Open, and crying over Hibs football club (yup, he's Scottish).

And, last but absolutely by no means least, Julian, our country director who also lives here... :

 ... has been finalising trek routes; making sure all the project plans are in order, and laughing at Ross crying over Hibs (he's not Scottish).

So all in all, we're ready for the project managers' arrival... (almost). ¡Pura vida!

Hola! Volcán Irazú

Welcome again to Expedition 11C where the advance team is in situ and ready for action. After a bonza barbie from barbeque kings Tom (pictured) and Pete last night (they're both in the logistics team so it was super organised)...

... our treat this morning was an early jaunt up a volcano.  At 3432m above sea level, Volcan Irazu (pronounced a bit like 'Oovavu' from Shooting Stars') is pretty high. So we hopped in the landys, which we parked in reverse when we arrived. This was just in case the volcano decided to get active on us (in fact our deputy programme manager Ivan's safety brief included the immortal lines 'if anyone spots an eruption please let everyone else know'). Gulp.

With that we set off for an hour to meander round the beautiful turquoise crater lake of an active volcano, a first for many of us:

The guys decided a boyband shot was in order along the way:

Left to right: Keiner - our host venturer co-ordinator; Tom, Mark and Pete -all logistics; Ben our newest arrival - a medic project manager, and Ivan - our deputy programme manager.

Move over Take That! 

As we walked up to the lookout point we had a totally awesome view of the smoke plume coming from Volcan Turrialba which we can also see from fieldbase on a good day:

And here's the obligatory group shot but with the added twist of us trying to kill each other (not really):

With that we headed down to say hello to a friendly furry thing which had bounded up to us on arrival. However, the adorable creature known as a Koatimundi in English ('Pizote' in Spanish) displayed its Jekyll and Hyde nature when it ran off with Tom and Julie's cake. They weren't happy.

After so much excitement, most of us headed back to fieldbase. But a small number took a detour to visit a project site from the last expedition, 10L, in Volcan Irazu national park. One of last year's teams helped to develop a trail system with paths and drainage. Here's Laura our logistics manager returning rakes to a happy Horacio, one of the park rangers:

And Keiner was chuffed because he was able to run up and down the path at top speed which his little brother had helped to build last year:

Laura and me (Gerry, the comms officer) huffed and puffed our way up before realising that altitude sickness was potentially kicking in. So Mark from logistics and our driver for the day, did a sterling job of negotiating hairpin bends, giant potholes, crazy cars overtaking, cows in the road, and hills so steep they would be black runs if they had snow on them, to get us back in one piece. Phew!

Welcome to Expedition 11C

¡Hola! from a hot and sunny Turrialba in Costa Rica!  Twelve of the volunteer manager advance team arrived here three days ago to join our permanent in-country staff, director Julian and programme manager Ross.

After a day of bleary-eyed jetlag we've been busy getting up to speed on our roles here at Raleigh country HQ, known as fieldbase, and starting to prepare for the arrival of the other volunteer managers next week. Although we're busy that doesn't mean we're not having fun and we'll tell you more about that in our next post.

Meanwhile, if a picture speaks a thousand words, then a video speaks at least a few pictures. So what better way for you to get a feel for fieldbase if you're coming out here soon, or if you know someone who is, than by watching our short welcome film. Turn on your speakers and click on to (virtually) meet our friendly advance team.

As they say in Costa Rica in response to everything good and happy, ¡Pura vida!