Raleigh Costa Rica and Nicaragua

Tuesday, 12 January 2010

The world's greenest, happiest country?

Great news for anyone heading out to Costa Rica on expedition: if you're reading this under the gloomy grey skies of London or you're sadly snowed in Scotland - or even battling traffic in head-melting Hong Kong - Costa Rica is not only gorgeously green, tropical and warm, but it's officially the happiest place on the earth!

The Happy Planet Index (HPI) was published in July 2009, and measures how much of the world's resources a nation uses against how long and happy a life their citizens enjoy. Costa Ricans - or 'Ticos' as they call themselves - report highest life satisfaction in the world, and also have one of the lowest ecological footprints. Not a bad place to start your 2010, eh?

So what makes them so darn happy? Looking out the window from field base, it's not hard to see why the people here are smiling. Costa Rica is a playground of natural beauty and biodiversity. Straddling the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, this Central American jewel is sandwiched between Nicaragua and Panama, occupying an area slightly smaller than Scotland. The country's backbone is an avenue of lofty peaks complete with thermal pools, waterfalls and volcanic mud pots, plus the spluttering magma of mighty Volcan Arenal. The capital city San Jose perches up in these highlands too. From here, you descend into a world of national parks: swathes of cloudforest packed with quetzal and scarlet macaw; deliciously dense rainforest where jaguar prowl among a hundred different shades of vegetation and tropical flowers bloom. Finally the jungle tumbles down to palm-fringed beaches, where the surf is almost as spectacular as the sunrises and sunsets.

Now switch your minds back to the lands of ‘plenty’ - high consuming nations such as the UK or the USA, by comparison, actually scored badly in the HPI – 74th and 114th respectively. And their HPI scores are dropping as fast as they charge ahead with aggressive economic growth. What Costa Rica seems to be getting right is a sustainable model of living: they consume less and look after their patch of the planet. Life on a Raleigh expedition in Costa Rica is ten-week-taste of this brilliant way of life – we’ll be living simply and sharing our resources carefully as a team, we’ll be engaging in a range of sustainable development projects to improve the ‘happiness’ of the communities and the environment around us, and – by the end of April – we aim to improve the personal happiness of everyone single member of the 10B team. Stay tuned to the blog and we’ll do our best to share a bit of that sunshine with you too.

Next time: Meet the team at Raleigh's Costa Rica fieldbase!

Monday, 11 January 2010

The first blog of the decade

Hello - and a warm Raleigh welcome to the inaugural Expedition 10B blog!

Over the coming thirteen weeks we’ll be providing you with a window into the first Costa Rica and Nicaragua expedition of the decade! This website will be packed with the very latest news and pictures from all our project sites, and will feature our brilliant team of 136 Venturers plus the 40 Volunteer Managers (VMs) they’ll be working alongside. We’ve got our hands full with some incredible projects for 2010: from building schools and piping safe drinking water to isolated communities, to trekking hundreds of kilometers across rainforests and volcanoes to impossibly perfect beaches; from creating a breathtaking viewing platform in a national park to releasing hundreds of tiny turtle hatchlings into the deep blue sea. Will CR&N 10B be the best expedition of the decade? We certainly think so.

Most of our project sites are hidden in pristine, remote places with no internet facilities or public phones, so the expedition journalist and expedition photographer are responsible for bringing friends, family and supporters on this incredible Raleigh journey via our blog. I’m Sarah, your writer and reporter...

And I’ll be working alongside Oliver, our fantastic resident photographer, to provide you with updates as often as possible – daily where we can. But we won’t be doing this alone…

Many of the volunteers will be helping us create these pages: we’ll have guest bloggers, get live news from the heart of the action via daily radio reports; we’ll also be posting plenty of images and video diaries, plus many of our volunteers will be popping in during changeover to record their own stories on these very pages. Please do bookmark the blog and check back regularly. The ‘comments’ section below is a great way to get messages to loved ones – they’ll be processed by the field base team and delivered to the project sites the next time a Raleigh vehicle is dispatched. Don’t forget to include the FULL NAME of the person who you’d like to receive the message. Or just let us know what you think of the blog – we’d love to hear from you!

Next time: find out tomorrow why Costa Rica is the happiest country in the world…

Friday, 18 December 2009

Adios

Field base has been a whirlwind of action over the last few day since the Zulu groups returned from their various projecta. They arrived to find field base looking very Christmassy, and got straight into the usual round of swapping stories, skits and parties. There were also some additional surprises to mark the end of 09L . Raleigh project partner and all round legand Brigido Sosa came all the way down from Achuapa, Nicaragua to perform a concert for us and had everyone on their feet dancing.

There was also the Christmas banquet, where super chef Sandra, with the help of the pms, whipped up an amazing Christmas dinner complete with gravy, bread sauce and stuffing!

The evening was topped off with the prestigious Golden Mess tin awards. Winners included best comedian Mo, Margarita with the spirit of Raleigh award, best male venture Felix, and Rachael with best female. Below, Julian and Rich present the award for most ridiculous outfit!

The next morning there were many tearful goodbyes as everybody left for San Jose and beyond. Hopefully, everbody has arrived home safe and sound by now, and are having a great time catching up with friends and family, end enjoying the creature comforts that they have been living without for the past 10 weeks.

So all that’s left to say is a massive thank you and well done to all of the venturers and staff of 09L. It has been a fantastic expedition, and it’s success has been down to the hard work, energy and dedication of all those involved. Thanks also to all of you who have been following the blog over the last 3 months. It’s been amazing to read your messages of love and support and to see how much they meant to the people who received them.

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas!

Adios!

How to send your loved ones a message

It's easy. Scroll down to the bottom of the most recent entry and click the comments link. A box will then appear where you can write your comment - please don't forget to tell us who the message is for including the full name and project group of the recipient. You can select name/URL from the dropdown menu to tell us who it's from (you can leave the URL blank if you wish). Finally, click on 'Post Comment' and you're done.

As you can imagine there are 180 volunteers so hundreds of messages for loved ones, no comments go live immediately and have to be moderated for appropriateness, so please do bare with us.

All comments that are pertinent to the post will be publshed and all personal messages will be delivered (even if they don't appear published). Messages mean a lot to all the volunteers; thank you for your continued support.

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?”