13A's induction is over: now the hard work really begins!

Expedition 13A is now well under way - yesterday saw all of our teams deploy to their respective projects but not before a big day of packing and planning which all culminated in an amazing evening of inspirational talks from our Country Team of Julian, Pedro and Simon.

The evening ended with a wonderful slideshow of what our teams had done since arriving; an intensive period of learning and challenges for all but it is amazing what can be achieved with a lot of hard work and a go for it attitude from every member of expedition.

We thought you would love to see what everyone has been up to - so here is our Venturer Induction video, put together by our incredible and very talented photographer Liz:

Today is Day 1 of Phase 1 and Alpha's 1 to 10 will be beginning their projects across Costa Rica and Nicaragua - we will bring you lots more updates over the coming days and weeks from our Project Communications Officers, Venturers who have volunteered to be our bloggers on project. This will hopefully give you an idea about what it is like to be a Raleigh International Volunteer, the projects that are undertaken and how Raleigh ensures their sustainability, the themes we are discussing (for Phase 1 it is Social Justice leading upto UN World Social Justice Day on the 20th February) and furthermore the outcomes we hope to achieve.

Find out more about the Raleigh's Project Framework by clicking here >

Finally, a big thank you to everyone for the amazing support we have had so far and for your comments on the blog and just a quick reminder that if you are posting a comment for a volunteer on expedition just make sure you tell us their full name and team.

Pura Vida!

Role Call: Our Inspiring Venturers. Nuestros Ventureros Inspiradores

We know you are all probably wondering how your loved ones are getting on out here since they arrived at Raleigh Costa Rica and Nicaragua's Fieldbase, as you can imagine with 160 volunteers it is a little bit tough to get everyone onto the blog... but we thought we would try! Here is Expedition 13A and our Venturer Role Call - our inspiring young people:

Aqui en Fieldbase, estamos concientes de que van a estar pensando en como estan sus queridos desde que llegaron a Raleigh International. Como pueden imaginar, con 160 voluntarios, es un poco dificil poner las fotos de todos en el blog... pero hemos tratado hacerlo! Aqui esta el equipo de 13A, y nuestro de pasaje de lista de Ventureros - nuestros jovenes inspiradores:

And so it begins... 13A here we go!

Today is Day 1 of Venturer Induction and we are incredibly excited that 119 Venturer volunteers aged 17 to 24 have arrived at Raleigh International's Costa Rica & Nicaragua Fieldbase in Turrialba, about 2 hours east of the capital San Jose. 

Expedition 13A has begun and we have welcomed individuals who are dedicating themselves to working with people from around the world, inspiring, developing and challenging themselves; working in partnership, learning to build sustainable communities and conserve the environment. 

Firstly last night saw a cooking competition between the HCVs and the PMs at Fieldbase, amazing teams making empanadas:

Judges, taking their jobs very seriously

And so to Day 1 of induction - lots more pictures to come, but it has been a crazy busy day for our Fieldbase team here as i'm sure you can imagine. Today has been a round robin of admin, ID shots, swimming assessments, moving into the new 'hotels and resorts' (more explanation to come in next the few days!) but everyone is happy and an incredible group of young people have taken today in their stride, even though they were exhausted and jet-lagged. The Venturers have thrown themselves wholeheartedly into the beginning of their expedition.

More to come soon, we have got an amazing video of everyone going up tomorrow, so stay tuned...

Early starts and fond farewells...

Today is deployment day - the day when all Alpha groups head out to their projects.  It starts early with alarm calls at 3.30 am, that's right I said 3.30 AM!  And there was no avoiding it as Martina drove a Land rover around the campsite with both the horn and radio blaring - nice one Martina.

Ben and Sophie and a big sandwich

There was time to make a big sandwich for breakfast and another one for lunch and then belongings and tools had to be loaded on the buses.

Yorleny, Tigi and Patrice - watching over a lot of heavy rucksacks

Bonds have been formed over the past few days so there were fond farewells, best wishes and hugs as new friends said "Adios" for 19 days.  And a few venturers had a special goodbye for Splatches, the resident Fieldbase dog, who is keen to be everyones best friend.

Henry, Matt and Lilian say goodbye to Splatches

As the sun came up the buses headed off in different directions - to Playa Hermosa, Carara National Park, Nicaragua and the start of the Coast to Coast Trek.  Some will be travelling for a couple of hours and some for a couple of days, before they arrive at their destination and the work begins. 

On their way

Remember to leave your messages here and we will make sure that they are received by you loved ones whilst they are away at their projects - your kind wishes mean a lot to everyone.

R&R - that's Turri Time and Salsa

After a very early start at jungle camp and a lot of training, there was a little time at the end of the day yesterday for some R & R.  The venturers discovered what local shopping opportunities there are in Turrialba ("Turri Time").  Rodeo Drive it ain't; but then if you're only after mossie spray and wet wipes it's just the job.

Then after supper it was time for Salsa.  K-dawg and Jae, our resident snake-hipped salsa king and queen, were the instructors.

There were some warm-up exercises, including getting the "salsa face" right - basically that's having a huge smile and looking like you're enjoying yourself - which inevitably you are.

After some expert coaching by the end of the evening I'd say everyone had mastered the technique.  The HCVs partnered up with those that were less sure and the dance floor was swinging to those Latin American beats.

12L venturers...arrived safe and sound

Happy to report that the venturers all arrived safe and sound in San Jose yesterday, (there are 6 who are still making there way over and will be with us today).  They were picked up at the airport and greeted by the big smiles of the welcome party.  Last night they stayed  in San Jose before getting up bright and early and making there way here to Fieldbase in Turrialba.

First things first.  Mess tins at the ready we served up gallo pinto, scrambled eggs, fried plantains, cheese and bread - a veritable Costa Rican breakfast feast.

Next some introductions in English and Spanish and everyone got divided into smaller sleeping groups - named Hotel 1 to Hotel 9 (with only a little irony!). The rest of the day will be full of activity - tours of Fieldbase, administration, money exchange, id photo and swimming assessments.  We should all sleep well in our "Hotels" tonight.

Alpha Groups Training Slideshow

The night before the Alpha Groups deployed they too were treated to a slideshow showing how much they had packed into their short time in the country...

Delta Training Slideshow

The night right before the Delta Venturers were deployed into the field we reminded them of all they had been doing ...

Incoming

Quick update. Team Fieldbase is San Jose bound to pick up the venturers. After all, it wouldn't be much of an expedition without them....  The rest of the VMs are hard at work, toiling away over the project plans, prior to deployment on Saturday. We've got an action-packed week ahead.

***

It begins. Fieldbase is now close to capacity as this morning we welcomed a fairly tired bunch of venturers to Turrialba HQ, indeed I too am struggling to prevent my head from lolling after a late night/early start organising sleeping arrangements, feeding and marshalling half-asleep venturers onto buses at the British School in San Jose. A cracking gallo pinto with scrambled egg breakfast cooked by Sandrita and Mireya has been followed by an intense morning of icebreakers, swim tests, admin and accommodation arrangement,and despite the jet-lag, smiles are present all round.

The afternoon has progressed with radio training, the standard method of communication whilst out on phase, giving the groups chance to perfect their Maverick/Goose impersonations. Dinner was followed by a comprehensive run through of projects by Country Director Julian, as venturers were given summaries of the amazing array of projects being undertaken in Expedition12B. The option of evening entertainment in the form of a movie, unsurprisingly had a take-up of zero given the hectic previous 24 hours-Tomorrow it’s project allocation and jungle camp.

'Ninja'

Turrialba Fieldbase

Breakfast on the terrace

HCVs in full swing

Pedro and Ross greet the venturers

The Deltas are off!

The beats were pumping and all kinds of shapes were being thrown around the dance floor last night as the Delta's enjoyed a proper send off at our 4th July party. Red, white and blue was the theme, along with an ‘American’ fancy dress… quite a broad theme I’ll admit but it seemed to go down well nonetheless. After a delicious BBQ (courtesy of cook Sandra and handy-man and living legend Don Martin) and an inspiring slideshow of the last few days, it wasn’t long before the party kicked off.

The groups were up from 3.30am this morning to finish off a few final preparations and some last minute packing before they loaded up the buses and set off on their adventures just as the sun began to rise. We will hopefully be getting updates from these groups soon enough, so keep an eye out.

So, the Deltas departed and it was a quick clean up and turnaround at fieldbase before the Alphas arrived back from their Jungle camps soon after. True to the jungle camp form there were a mixture of feelings upon return, however we’re happy to say that these were all good (mostly good…) and the Alpha's are now pumped, motivated and ready for action – woo, let's go!!

Alphas at Jungle camp!

Alpha 2 polishing up on their map reading skills

A little first aid for the Deltas before they set off

Alpha 7 ready to go

The Delta's sit down to a well deserved BBQ evening!

Boogie nights

More BBQ and party times for the Alpha's tonight before they head off for the start of phase one tomorrow morning.

Delta 4!

Delta 3

Delta 1!

Delta 2 setting off this morning

Private message (or not so private anymore...) - attention the girlfriends of Cyrus and Nick - a little message to you both, with love.

Awww!

Just another quick reminder for those of you who are leaving comments on here – if you could put the name and Delta/Alpha group of the person you are writing to that would be much appreciated. Muchas gracias amigos.     

For the friends and family of Abilasha and Catherine White, please note that Abi has moved from Alpha 1 to Alpha 4, and Catherine has moved from Alpha 4 to Alpha 1.   

From everyone here at Raleigh Costa Rica, Pura vida!

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