Welcome to the official blog for Expedition 13A. We'll be keeping you posted on all the happenings of life on expedition from 10th January to 11th April. Check back and please send us your comments, it's free and easy. ¡Pura vida!
Showing posts with label host country venturers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label host country venturers. Show all posts
Dos
hormigas en su ambiente en la compañía de hormigas europeas. Las primeras se
sientes distraídas en un principio, pero poco a poco se van a acoplando al
sistema las unas a las otras; las hormigas europeas aunque son mayoría, se
sienten intimadas al saber que no están en su territorio pero no bajan la
guardia y al mismo tiempo se muestran fuertes y confiadas; el no estar en su
territorio no les impide trabajar en equipo y ser amigables como hormigas que
somos en este mundo.
Muchos
errores han cometido los seres humanos, para bien o para mal, no lo sé y creo
que nunca lo sabré; uno de estos errores ha sido el de establecer fronteras y
consigo las divisiones de todo tipo, pero no todo es tan trágico, algo bueno de
las fronteras es la diversidad y el reto personal que implica romper con los
prejuicios y barreras del mundo; y vivir el sentimiento de querer compartir,
descubrir y aprender, siendo consciente de que el deseo humano plasmado como
meta es muy poderoso.
Son muchas
historias más detrás de 14 siluetas, difícil conocerlas a fondo y ¿cómo no? –
Si aún no creo conocerme mucho, son 14 seres humanos, todos de diferentes
países, estaturas, costumbres, personalidades, humores, en fin, humanos.
El hecho de
que naciera en otra parte del mundo, sin conocer en realidad la razón de muchos
para estar aquí (Raleigh CRN) y sin saber cómo se sienten en lo más profundo de
su interior. Es increíble como el leguaje corporal y las ganas de despojarse de
la cotidianidad resultan una buena mezcla para comunicarse y hacer que cada
minuto sea relevante, disfrutar el idioma universal como una sonrisa, chocar
los 5, un abrazo y más.
Estos
gestos hacen del tiempo no sólo algo valioso y memorable, sino que también
traen consigo un sentimiento de alegría, unión y energía positiva, es en estos
momentos cuando prefiero cambiar la palabra extranjero por familia y frontera
por amor.
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...
The HCVs met the Volunteer Manager Team with a conga line
En cada expedicion de Raleigh Internacional, sea en Borneo, India, Tanzania, o aqui en Costa Rica & Nicaragua, estamos privilegiados a tener Ventureros de los Paises Anfitriones (Host Country Venturers/HCVs). Durante la Expedicion 13A, estamos emocionados de tener 14 Costarricences y 4 Nicaraguenses. Keiner, el coordinador de los HCVs, era el mismo un HCV hace un par de anos, y trabaja sin parar para encontrar gente joven de America Central quien quiere hacer una diferencia en su medioambiente y conocer mucha gente de muchos paises diferentes.
On every Raleigh International expedition whether Borneo, India, Tanzania or here in Costa Rica & Nicaragua, we are privileged to have Host Country Venturers (HCVs). During Expedition 13A we are excited to be welcoming 14 Costa Ricans and 4 Nicaraguans. Keiner the HCV Co-ordinator who himself was an HCV a couple of years ago, works tirelessly to find young people from Central America wanting to make a difference to their environment, challenge themselves and meet many new people from many different places in the world.
Nuestros HCVs han llegado, y son/Our HCVs have arrived and they are:
El equipo entero de los Ventureros estaran llegando a Fieldbase el miercoles 30 de enero - les avisaremos tan pronto como hayan llegado, pero con la diferencia de la hora, puede ser el miercoles por la noche para ustedes si estan en europa. Estamos con muchas ganas de comenzar la Expedicion 13A!
The entire team of Venturers will be arriving at Fieldbase on Wednesday 30th January - we'll let you know as soon as they have arrived, although with the time difference it may be Wednesday evening for you if you are in Europe - we can't wait for 13A to get underway.
Most of the Host Country Venturers (HCVs from now on) arrived at Fieldbase this lunchtime - there will be 2 more venturers who will join us on project in Nicaragua. They played a trick on us, which we fell for hook, line and sinker. They wandered down the path looking dejected and miserable, not even wanting to look up at us. We were seriously worried, what could have gone wrong on the way from San Jose?
.. but then they broke out into singing, dancing and music. Wow. These guys, from both Costa Rica and Nicaragua, will bring a real vibrancy to each project group, as well as their local knowledge, language skills and sheer musical talent.
Introductions were made, welcomes extended, lunch offered and gratefully received by our new arrivals. The guys will have the afternoon and evening to settle in before the rest of our venturers arrive at Fieldbase tomorrow morning, when expedition 12L will be ready to get out there.
At approximately 12.40pm this afternoon, 20 eager Venturers from Costa Rica and Nicaragua approached Fieldbase to a massive welcome of whoops and cheers from the VMs...which were quickly beaten by even louder, whoops and cheers from the aforementioned Ticos and Nicas! Led by Keiner, the lively group introduced us to some of the songs and dances they have been putting together during induction (to the beat of Josué's drum) and made us feel more than a little underprepared!
We soon had the opportunity to show off some of our own dance moves though as Keiner introduced us one by one into the middle of a human circle to perform our own 'signature shapes' - as you can see from these pics we hadn't had much time to put them together...
Keiner then helped the groups to settle in with a tour of Fieldbase and some games while we polished up our Spanish to continue our 'Spanish only day' - the pinnacle of which was a 'Can't Cook, Won't Cook' competition to rustle up empanadas and gallo pinto! Everyone was quite literally 'cooking on gas' as Araceli (our amazing FB cook) showed us how to make these local delicacies and then we all split into 6 teams, each with a mixture of VMs and HCVs.
Competition was hotting up as time went on, especially over the 'creativity' section - leaves and flowers were plucked from the garden to jazz up the empanadas - there were even a few pyrotechnics added in for good measure (in the form of birthday cake candles)!
After deliberating, cogitating and digesting (with only a little bit of wincing), los jueces (the judges) Eli, Keiner and Istvan named the winners, who received a bar of chocolate each - to sit nicely on top of the empanadas and copious amouints of gallo pinto served at dinner!
So a fantastic day at Fieldbase courtesy of our latest additions to the expedition team - here's to the arrival of 120 more tomorrow!
Keiner, our Costa Rican HCV Programme Manager, has been
working very hard over the past few months managing the HCV programme and
gathering up an excited group of Host Country Venturers for Expedition 12G/H!
There will be 14 Costa Rican Venturers and 6 Nicaraguan Venturers arriving
tomorrow, which all us VMs are incessantly busy preparing for, making the place
ship shape for our Tico and Nica friends. They’ve been through a lot of their
inductions already and are arriving a day early from the other Venturers to get
settled in and allow us VMs to practice our Spanish and learn a bit about local
ways.
Our Keiner, HCV Programme Manager
Today at Fieldbase we’ve had our final sessions on
sustainable development and now officially finished our VM training! Tomorrow
we have a last Q&A session to make sure we can speak fully with confidence
to the Venturers when they arrive about constructing a basha village and using
different tools, erecting tents and operating tricky trangias. Just shows how
much we’ve picked up in the last few weeks – it’s flown quicker than Concorde
after 2 double espressos...
We’re all fully geared up for what’s going to be an amazing,
life-changing expedition for one and all. Can’t blimmin’ wait (and we don’t
really have to!).
Pura Vida!
Leanne and Mau
Antes de la llegada…
Keiner, nuestro coordinador para los HCV’s ha estado trabajando muy duro
durante los últimos meses organizando y coordinando la convocatoria de los
HCV’s que estarán con nosotros en la expedición 12G/H! A partir de mañana
estarán con nosotros 14 participantes de Costa Rica y 6 de Nicaragua, esta
noticia nos tiene a los VM’s emocionados y con mucho trabajo por hacer para
tener la mejor bienvenida a nuestros amigos Ticos y Nicas. Ellos han pasado ya,
por una serie de preparaciones y capacitaciones que los han preparado para su
llegada un día antes del resto de “venturers”, con el objetivo de conocer a los
VM’s acá en FieldBase, pasar un rato excelente juntos y poder practicar nuestro
español con ellos antes de la llegada del resto de la expedición.
Hoy en FieldBase tuvimos nuestras sesiones finales de desarrollo sostenible
y ahora oficialmente hemos terminado nuestra preparación como VM’s. Mañana
tendremos nuestra sesión final de preguntas y respuestas para estar
completamente preparados y confiados para explicar a los “venturers” todo lo
relacionado a la construcción de las “basha Village”, uso de herramientas,
levantamiento de tiendas y manipulación de “trangias”
En fin, estamos completamente preparados y a la expectativa de lo que
pasara en esta increíble expedición que esta pronta a comenzar, estamos seguros
que será una experiencia que recordaremos de por vida.
Hi to all the parents, family and friends.The road trips have been off visiting the projects and you will be delighted to hear they have returned with some blog entries written by your loved ones.Juliette 3 (as Laura, Amy, Wellard and Cathy have decided to be named) met with X-ray 1 who were on good form and collected these words from Joanna Bartlett:
It was hot, sunny, dry and approaching midday when we, x-ray 1 took our first step of the 250km Turimacho trek across Costa Rica.From Cimarrones Arriba we glanced at the Caribbean coast a few kilometres in the distance and then headed towards the pacific.Kelly reminded us frequently that we would be at the beach soon!While this reward was on all our minds we also took in the waterfalls, stunning views, nature and people we saw on the way.
The first few days we trekked alongside countryside paths.Day 2 also brought with it the mystery of the missing salami, which meant a disappointing lunch for the next day, but also amusing jokes regarding the salamis whereabouts.
We have tackled the muddy slopes in the jungle.The climb was tough and in some places the mud was so persistent that it sucked our boots into it; claiming Darens boots on numerous occasions.
Still spirits remained high and we sang and danced our way through the jungle, yelling ‘pompi’ (in Cantonese) when anybody slipped in the mud, which was quite often.
Our 14 year old jungle guide Juan Louis was very patient with our trudging pace.We parted with him on day 5.This was our longest day of trekking yet, taking us 10 hours to reach our destination, San Joaquin.This was also the day with the best hilltop views and we passed a pulperia (small shop) for the first time, good news for us and the shop keeper!
Tomorrow, day 6 we have a 21km hike ahead of us, fortunately we have some energy bombs(an oats, chocolate and syrup mix) to start the day!
Written by Joanna Bartlett. Photos by Cathy Titterton.
Juliette 3, not lost! Just checking the route....
a rare sighting of the Deputy programme manager Brie out on phase with X-ray 1
some venturers still manage to look glamorous, even on trek!
off they go for a day of trekking 21km!!!
Juliette 3 (Laura, Amy, Wellard and Cathy) then spent last night with x-ray 3 and can confirm the report below from Alfie of an evening of charades with a lively and fun group.
Alfie writes...........
We have been working on Volcan Turrialba (a volcano) and I can speak for the whole group when I say it has been the most enjoyable phase.The working day is made easier by the rangers who are pretty damn funny.
I would say that the best part of the day is in the afternoon when we return to what must from the outside look like student digs.This is the part of the day when we chill out and this period of time has been filled with conversations about what everyone is doing when they go home or are travelling on.This makes it very obvious that it is the last phase.
Also at night we have our daily game of ‘Come dine with me’.This is where there is stiff competition in what is made for dinner.Some so far have seen:
Spicy noodles – Francis
Mac & cheese – Hugh
Curry – Kay
Better than normal pasta sauce – Cam
Cheesy mash – Alfie
Guacamole – Cam
Egg fried rice – Kay
But please don’t get the impression we are living luxuriously!
On our day off we visited a town that had been evacuated due to acid rain and saw a house which had no roof as it had been totally eaten away by acid rain.Although we are loving working at the volcano that day made us realise the destructive power it has.
In the evenings we have had a fair few games of charades and Mafia...... it has started to get a little competitive!
All in all we are enjoying every moment of this phase.There always seems to be laughter from when we wake until we go to bed.There are many different personalities in our group but this helps to bring us together and widen our conversations.I feel as if x-ray 3 has become a type of family!
PS.Keep the blog messages coming, we really appreciate them.
Blog written by Alfie Carapiet. Photos by Cathy Titterton.
Volcan Turrialba
The Rangers use quad bikes to get the heavy materials up the volcano.
Kiwi Cam building the paths.
The road trips are still out there collecting blog entries from the venturers in the other x-ray groups so check back over the next few days for more updates.
Blog written by Laura Salmon.Photos by Cathy Titterton.
For those of you back home we apoogise for the lack of blogging over the last couple of days, we've been having some internet trouble. But we're now back on track and just in time because...(que drum roll)... the venturers arrived at fieldbase today – hooray! Yesterday we greeted our Host Country Venturers as they sang and danced their way into fieldbase... literally! After some long and tiresome journeys from all over the globe the rest of the venturers have arrived safe and sound and Raleigh HQ (head quaters) is now well and truly buzzing!
They arrived yesterday and spent the night sleeping in la Escuela Britannia is San Jose. They awoke at 4.30am to leave at 6am to arrive at Fieldbase in Turrialba at 8am, to then finally relax with a warm welcome from all the Raleigh staff and tucked in to a delicious breakfast of Gallo Pinto! (traditional Costa Rican dish of rice, beans, eggs and plantain). Feeling a little perkier after a good feed, the venturers are now busy settling themselves in their new home and getting to know each other. You could say that there is a touch of excitement in the air.
Still yet to join us after a delayed flight is Luke Smalley, Carla Dunphy, Kelly Robinson and Yasmin Begum who will be flying in this evening to be greeting by the fieldbase team who will then bring them back to base early door tomorrow morning to join the rest of the Raleigh 11G&H team. For the family and friends of these guys back at home we will be keeping you updated as soon as arrive at fieldbase.
The Host Country Venturers arrivng at fb!
Let the celebrations begin!
Day one... and the games begin!
More venturers arriving this morning!
First thing's first - introductions and breakfast!
Next up on the Venturers' schedule... training and jungle camp! We'll be back soon with more news and updates.
Pura Vida
*Blog written by Dawn Tennant and photo’s by Kat Mammone, unless otherwise stated.
