Raleigh Costa Rica and Nicaragua: Staff Induction

Showing posts with label Staff Induction. Show all posts

Sunday, 27 January 2013

Salsa Burns

It has been a crazy few days at Fieldbase, after we all returned from 5 days on our Project Planning Visits, we needed to clean (ourselves and our kit), write up our project plans, risk assessments and casevac plans - but don't worry with our paperwork done, we made sure we had a bit of fun too - welcome to Expedition 13As induction into salsa and celebration of the great bard of Scotland with Burns Night.

Salsa Night

Keiner the HCV Coordinator and local Costa Rican showed us how to salsa

Salsa faces

Greg and Lou had it down (great salsa faces too)

Some salsa flair from Helena and Shane

Burn's Night at Fieldbase

We are incredibly lucky to have Scottish PMs on 13A and Colin and Marie who were amazing ambassadors for bonny Scotland - hosting a night of haggis, poems, hialirty and ceilidh dancing (you have never seen so many sweaty but suprisingly coordinated people in one place!)

Our running order for Burns night

Vanessa gave us a speech: Preparing the Immortal Memory with her support crew of SLD

Address tae the Haggis by our eminent host Colin (that is a towel kilt yes) and a poem he wrote about the PMs and a mouse who was sadly effected by Millenium Development Goal 7: loss of biodiversity and therefore his home:

To a PM (Mouse?) 

Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beasties,

O, what a panic's in thy breasties!

Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

Wi' bickering gossip!

I wad be laith to rin an' salsa with thee,

Or sing murd'ring Bohemian Rhapsody!

I'm truly happy man's dominion,

Has built this random social union,

An' breaks that ill opinion,

Which makes thee startle

At us, thy poor, earth-born PMs,

An' fellow-mortal friends

Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!

It's silly stinking clothes are strewin!

An' nowhere to sleep or clean, O' mattress dream!

An' bleak January's winds ensuin,

Please baith yer smelly bits clean!

Thou saw the field laid bare an' wast,

An' weary Venturers comin fast,

An' crying their under tarp,

Thou wouldnae live - Till crash!

all our parties long past

Nada will we hiv.

That wee bit heap o' rash an' stubble,

Has cost thee mony a sneaky cuddle!

Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,

Leaving all behind us, life or love,

To thole the Costa Rican heavens above,

Flying here like pastey white doves!

Still we art blest, compar'd wi' them

The present has toucheth thee: Och if I backward cast my e'e.

On projects all we'll be!

An' forward, tho' I canna see,

Pura Vida!

It was then over to Marie to Toast the Laddies:

Marie giving 'em hell - we beat them (female blogger!) go 13A Ladies

Colin and 40 VMs attempting to strip the willow

Gay Gordons

Elegance, grace and the Dashing White Sargeant

It was very confusing

Sarah and Liz

Denise embracing her inner lassie

Team ceilidh - an incredible evening - the Scots definitely know how to have a good partay

Monday, 21 January 2013

Way down deep in the middle of the jungle…

Yesterday you saw all of the Volunteer Managers set off on their first day trekking in Costa Rica, putting all of their training into practice. Day 2, and Whiskey 1 to 5 channelled Willie Nelson (on the road again!) awake at 4.30am packing up camp in order to set off at 6am.

6.30am: stunning Costa Rica

We had a few hours of walking through beautiful scenery with our destination: a bit of training with Simon and Pedro, learning water safety and how to cross a river safely.

Water safety: our classroom for the morning

A great save, res-q disking

An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman huddled across a river

The line astern method, a bit of PM congestion in the river

We arrived after a full morning of trekking, river crossings and a bit more trekking to our jungle camp, to learn campcraft, including how to dig a long drop, and enjoy the first night sleep for many in the infamous Raleigh basher.

Pedro attempting to levitate the basher with his mind

Dav, Shane and Antonio learning the finer points of a bamboo basher bed

Greg ready for a good nights sleep in his basher hammock

Yes, Simon is squatting and demonstrating exactly what you think he is - I'll say no more

Lou, Katharine and Vanessa taking afternoon tea

Zoe, slightly potty

Emma, Marie, Chris and Sara enjoying a cuppa after getting their camp up

Helena prepping for a three course dinner, undoubtedly a jus was included in the main

Whiskey 2 definitely won the prize for best camp

Our final day was another early 4am wake up and a short walk to Fieldbase which turned into a rather more stressful experience than first expected with our mock Casevac training - a 2km trek from where our 'patients' (all of the medics had a lovely time being carried back to Fieldbase in a stretcher) all jokes aside it is a brilliant exercise, where everyone put everything they had learnt into practice.

Marisa being tended to by our well trained Project Managers

Completed mission - Casevac training over and a short walk to Fieldbase

Home, clean and ready for allocations! Find out where our project managers will be based for their first phase tomorrow.

Sunday, 3 July 2011

Ready and Waiting

Only one more day left until our Host Country Venturers arrive to join us here at fieldbase and the Volunteer Managers have been busy filling up the last few days with more preparation and development.

On the schedule for today, Sustainable development… what do we believe would make a better, more sustainable world, and how can we achieve this? How can we contribute these ideas into our expedition projects? Who is involved? What are the motivations behind our projects here at Raleigh? Naturally, these questions provoked some debate within the group as they demonstrated a variety of opinions and some passionate ideas.

The venturers land tomorrow and the team are now more excited than ever. Feeling inspired, motivated and ready to input their efforts and make a real difference, the fieldbase team eagerly awaits their arrival.

Bring on the venturers!

Pura Vida

*Blog written by Dawn Tennant and photo’s by Kat Mammone, unless otherwise stated.

Thursday, 30 June 2011

"Up Your Kilt!"

The "dance floor" at Raleigh HQ was feeling a little worse for wear on Thursday morning after Wednesday's Scottish cèilidh, curtsey of CPM Ross – what a fun night! As always, with any themed party (but mainly just because we wanted to) fancy dress was compulsory, and I have to say we all looked very becoming.

Kilts were a plenty, as were sovereign rings, patriotic face painting and sweat patches. After a gentle warm up with a few ‘normal’ songs to get the party started, it wasn’t long before the fruitful sounds the great north were bursting out of the speakers and Ross was demonstrating the moves for our first dance together as managers. Quotes for the night... “Up your kilt!” and “spin!!!!” (there was a lot of spinning). In a nutshell, it was a cracking evening and we all now want to be Scottish and Cèilidh every night forevermore! Pictures below. Enjoy.

Andy B and Natty

Chava - putting his own twist on the Scottish theme

Jimmy Cruz looking gorgeous

Waheeda and Chava!

Carmen and Cameron!

Tom, Reggie 'I love glitter' Lang, and Connor

Beautiful lasses - Photographer Kat and Admin Amy

Amy and Niall!

Carwyn, Nick, Jen and Megan!

Wee Scottish Lasses

Emily!

Nessy! Laura, Claire and sarah - a cracking effort from the girls

A very tartan Brie!

Stripping the willow

Spin!

SPIN!!

Spanish chicas Helena and Marga, and US representative Ruth!

Jon and Cam!

Megan, Waheeda, Carwyn and Helena!

Reggie, Emily, Cam and Siew-Ling!

Tom and Reggie... Grrr.

Cam, Siew and Dawn

CC and Carwyn - yet more spinning!

So a good night all round then! As well as Cèilidh's however, we've also been putting our PM skills into good practice with more fun and games and lots more training, training, training. So just to keep you entertained, here are a few more snaps of recent events.

Helena, Waheeda and Wendy - yogatastic

Ross and Megan - more training and challenges for the 11H Project Managers

The team... formulising a plan

Medics Hayley and Nick!

New challenge - the group with the least body parts on the floor wins! A fine effort here from Amy, Nick, Connor and Niall.

Sarah, Jon, Chava and Carmen - going for gold!

Tom, reggie, Ruth and Siew-Ling... a brave effort.

Carwyn, Claire, Dawn and Helena!

Team leader skills

Nothing wrong with a healthy debate.

So that's it for now. Hopefully this has amused you for the last 15 minutes. Back soon with more of course. In the meantime the Raleigh team are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our first lot of venturers - the Host Country Venturers.

We can't wait.

Pura Vida

*Blog written by Dawn Tennant and photo’s by Kat Mammone, unless stated otherwise.

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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?”