Fundraising begins..oooo

Happy Easter everyone! Sorry haven’t had much time to update you guys coz it’s been busy, but all is still good! We’ve started fundraising earlier than planned because we wanted to take the opportunity of a sailing event that’s taking place this Easter. It’s at one of the Grenadine islands, Bequia, so some of our team members have gone out there to fundraise amongst all the rich tourists who will be there ;) The rest of us are carrying out various ‘regular’ fundraising activities such as updating info binders and flyers, checking donation boxes and updating locations, promotion work and garage sales. So the past week we have been preparing for this long weekend of fundraising – I was working on the info binder and donation boxes. The binder was really fun to do because I was learning more about the projects in Africa while working on it. But it was also a bit stressful coz of the tight deadline and having problems like the printer jamming at the last minute! Also getting the necessary material on a limited budget was a challenge, but we managed! Yesterday I went to Kingstown with two others to collect old donation boxes and to find new locations. Although it’s a small city, we had to walk a lot as we needed to walk back and forth to speak to managers who were often at different locations. It was also really hot and busy because Friday to Monday are free days so shops will be closed. Carrying all the boxes was also quite a task (luckily, but unluckily they were not heavy!). Today was the preparation for the garage sale which we are having tomorrow in Kingstown. We have to leave super early to get there on time to set up the stuff. We have quite a bunch of stuff – mostly clothes and shoes – and we managed to get some extras from the ‘camp future’ team who will be leaving soon. At the same time some of us were doing promotion work which includes responding to enquiries from potential future applicants and posting ads on various volunteer sites. Other activities included writing sponsorship letters and producing flyers. So I’m already learning a lot about fundraising which is a vital in development work. I know many of you already sent me off with very generous donations, but if you are still interested in contributing for our cause, please do keep an eye on this blog – see new section on donation tips. Thanks a bunch!
Hope all is well with you all.

Volcano Hike, La Soufriere, 14 March

I survived La Soufriere volcano hike! Check out the pics below.

Kingstown - Thursday 13 March

Yummy Vincentian food!

From Friday until Sunday morning, we have been busy carrying out maintenance of the school building and the grounds – fixing leaks, repainting, mowing grass, cleaning out sheds etc – basically a kind of major spring cleaning. It works very well when you work with many people. We were divided into teams and guess which team I was in? The catering crew – Yey! So in the kitchen again, but this time with 5 ‘meals’ to prepare – including the morning and evening breaks. It was really fun actually as we baked a lot and made some creative dishes for the team to enjoy. We even made pizza! Was a very nice treat! I’m learning lots of new recipes here – and those who know me know that I can’t really cook and I don’t really enjoy it, but it’s been fun here so far – let’s see what I’ll be saying after 6 months ;) Let’s also see if I’ll remember all the recipes later!
On Saturday we had Vincentian food for dinner as it was the official welcome dinner for our team, also known as the March Team as we stared the program in March. So we were welcomed very nicely with this meal made by a lovely Vincentian lady and with some activities prepared by the former students and the teachers.
So I’m learning lots of new vegetables and fruit from this region. For example, the meal that was prepared on Saturday included calaloo (a leaf veggie that can probably best be compared to spinach) and breadfruit which I cannot really describe but is really interesting as it’s not your typical sweet juicy fruit, but instead is potatoey or doughey when cooked and is eaten with warm food – in our case, a dish of salted fish (I’m not such a fan of fish, but I tried it anyway and it was good! But still not fish fan!). There were also coconut dumplings in the main stew and bananas and yam as well. I’m looking forward to trying lots more ;)
Luckily we had the Sunday afternoon off. And of course we went to the beach! We have a very nice spot that is usually not busy, but today some tourists came to snorkel at ‘our spot’ – it seems that it is quite popular for snorkeling. I haven’t tried it yet as we don’t have the gear, but we’ll find some somewhere and I’ll let you know how it looks!
Looking forward to the coming week with lots more to do, including studies – we are also going to be doing regular computer work too so don’t worry! But luckily it’s not all day ;). Also, most of the remaining students will arrive next week so we’ll be welcoming more nationalities yey!
The days are already flying and it’s difficult to keep you guys posted, but I’ll keep trying and if you have any questions, please do let me know. Thanks for all your comments so far – I really appreciate all your great support!
Ciao

B-day in the Caribbean!!

Even though it felt like I spent most of the day in the kitchen yesterday (with kitchen duty in the morning as well as dinner and washing afterwards!), I had a lovely b-day here in Richmond Vale and everyone was super nice to me today (even more than usual!). They made a yummy coconut cake for me and a card written in different languages and very pretty (pink) flowers from the garden in a makeshift vase ;) Today it’s a week since I arrived and it already feels like I have been here for a while, especially since I have already made many friends 
But the best gift yesterday was having running water again! Yey! It was only a few days without but it felt like ages! It was also just in time for the cooking – first time since I arrived – we had to make fresh pasta since we were out. Luckily today was shopping day and I got to go to Kingstown, the capital. It was just as tiring as they said it would be – because it takes ages to get there and back and waiting in lines and shopping for a bunch of people (on top of the food list, we have other lists from people for personal stuff which they cannot get in the village). In any case it was nice to go to the city and have a different kind of day. It was nice to get to know the city a bit (it’s quite small and easy to find your way around) and to see the markets, shops and restaurants. I hope I will still enjoy it after six months ;)
Yesterday was also really important as we started deciding which countries we would like to go to. There are some returned students here doing there evaluation period and they presented their experiences in Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa. These are also the countries we can choose from. Although we do not yet know of the exact available positions in these countries, we already need to choose a country so that we can start with the language classes. Portuguese for those who will go to Mozambique and English for those who will go to Malawi or South Africa. For those of us already fluent in either of the languages, we will tutor the others and there is also the possibility to learn Spanish if we can fit it in the schedule.
I’ve not yet chosen a country, but I am weighing out Malawi or South Africa so I don’t need to join the Portuguese classes, although I still can out of interest. I hope I can still keep my option between the two countries open until I know which projects are exactly available. They are probably the same projects they’ve been working with so far, Child Aid, HIV/AIDS and Teacher Training, all of which I am very interested in! But I’ll let you know which one I end up choosing...
Attached pic is a view of the school from a nearby village. can you see the rainbow? We're at the pot of gold! Will upload some pictures of Kingstown soon.

The training begins...

So we had a nice relaxing weekend (exploring some beaches as well as beautiful waterfalls) and got off to a good start of the program today. Most people have arrived and it's a great mixture of nationalities - Japanese, Brazilian, Austrian, Swiss, Chilean, Finish, Vincentian, and ofcourse me representing Kenya and Holland. Today was mainly introductions and getting to know each other as well as assigning responsibilities. The great thing about this program is that we all take part in the maintenance and running of the school - this is a very important part of the training to develop skills such as building maintenance, gardening, budgeting etc...I got the responsibility of food and supplies shopping - yey! just like my weekly Aldis shopping in Holland ;) But now it's for around 30 people and on a strict budget and only once a week because it's 2 hours to the city! Luckily I'm doing this with one other person, guess who Simona my roommate! And if we forget anything, that's it until next week - stress! I always forget something in the supermarket! But I think it will be a nice opportunity to be in the city for a change ;) There are about 16 different activities which need coordination, which we managed to work out amongst us today - our first 'teamwork' test! I think this first week will be hectic as we try to get organised and find out how things work, where to find things etc and we have a schedule to keep to including theoretical studies as well as community work. The schedule is from breakfast at 7.30am (earlier for those who have to prepare breakfast - taken in turns) until 10pm - most evening are team meetings/team-building activities but also some entertainment eg. a movie, once a week - yey!
Don't worry, it's not like being back in boarding school where everything is organised and taken care of for you - we really have to run everything ourselves. The staff is there to support, as well as taking part and learning from us.
Another good training we've started off with (not planned) is fetching water! The main water pipe broke yesterday morning and it probably can't be fixed for a week so we've been fetching water for the kitchen from the water tanks and we've had to bath and wash our clothes in the river - lucky for us there's a river near by! This has also been great training for team work and survival ofcourse ;)
We're also going to be doing a lot of sport (not like the hilly walks are already exercise enough!). Next to the walks to the community for community work and the hikes in the surrounding areas, we'll be playing sports on the grounds to keep fit. All this is part of the preparation for the projects in Africa which will also be in remote areas with limited resources and poor diets.
Alright, I'll stop boring you. Just one more thing for your general knowledge in case you didn't know - bright blue snails with bright green shells really exist and they are tiny ;)
Take care, till next time...

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