This is a funny song dedicated to all our UK volunteers and many others that will need to transfer through London’s Heathrow airport. Things have gotten better since the opening of British Airway’s brand, spanking new Terminal 5 but be sure to allow yourself enough time to check in or make a connecting a flight. I hope you enjoy!

Trainee journalist, prolific blogger and Projects Abroad volunteer Chris Gaynor has just returned to the UK after getting his teeth into an unusual stint of work experience - on a political magazine in Dracula country

By Chris Gaynor

I was thrown right into the deep end when I arrived in the Romanian town of Brasov to work on an English speaking political/cultural tourist magazine The Brasov Visitor. Just hours after I was dropped off at one of Brasov’s former Communist neighbourhoods, Fanionului, at 10 pm in the evening after a five-hour journey, I was starting work. It was a culture shock trudging up the stairs of a level four block of flats with a huge suitcase – considering I live in the quaint Surrey suburbs of Oxshott, where, if I’m honest not a great deal happens.

A picture of our intrepid journalist’s new neighborhood

I was awoken early on the Sunday morning, 2nd March, by my Projects Abroad supervisor saying we would be going to watch FC Brasov at their home ground and do a match report. My arrival at the stadium must have been lucky for the second division leading home team as they demolished lower ranked Intergaz 3 – 0 on a freezing minus 10 degrees Sunday morning.

And the fans are very proud of their football team. In fact, they love them to death. Every time they score a goal, they chant the famous Western song ‘We Are The Champions,’ by Queen. After that it was all go. Magazine editor, Catalin Badea-Gheracostea, an experienced journalist of 17 years, who worked as a chief news editor on the newspaper The Translyvania Express, kept me on my toes, but also gave me some useful tips throughout.

Anyone looking for an easy career in journalism should think hard before leaping from the frying pan into the fire. Alongside my work on the monthly magazine, I also wrote a travel blog for the popular growing citizen journalism website The-Latest.com.

Editor Mr Badea-Gheracostea, 40, decided to leave the mainstream media and set up his own tourist publication, where foreign wannabe journalists can write while they experience life in bustling Brasov.
I had been flitting from one place to another, interviewing a Scotsman who owns a Scottish pub in the old part of town, interviewing an indulgent Irishman with a passion for jazz music who formed his own Big Band, attending a Romanian press conference on the role of women in Brasovian society, climbing up the not-so-spooky steps of Bran Castle (Dracula Castle), and sampling some of Romania’s fine cuisine, including Sarmone (fried meat wrapped in cabbage leaves with rice.)

Mount Tampa

Mount Tampa towers over Translyvania, where the Hollywood style Brasov welcoming sign leans at all angles over the city. It can even be seen when watching from the huge FC Brasov stadium, where proud fans cajole their team to victory. The town is steeped in former Communist intrigue, and Communism is very much alive in the architecture in some neighbourhoods. Fanionului’s roads need repairing, but it still doesn’t stop workmen from digging up more of it to make way for car-parking spaces. It looks a mess.

Brasov is, of course, home to the spooky Count Dracula myth, Bran Castle – where the warrior Vlad Tepes was said to have passed through – not lived. The latest on the castle is that an American owns it, but leases it out as a tourist site. He is looking to sell the castle, but rejected a bid of £80 million from the government. He is looking for over £130 million for the site.

The Dracula myth is big business out there. And it has been sucked into the commercialism of the West. As you enter the front gates of the castle, Bran’s peasants set up their stalls selling anything from Dracula mugs to I Love Vampire T-Shirts.

But you don’t have to travel from Brasov to Bran to seek out Dracula memorabilia. In fact, in the old part of town, a Dracula mug can be easily obtained as a gift for folks back home. But there is more to Brasov than just the blood-sucking vampire myth. Poiana is a scenic ski-resort. Tourists flock to ski there.

The town boasts a flurry of new wave restaurants and, of course, older traditional Romanian eateries. Romanians are eager to catch up with the West. Some have fallen in love with the high-powered, expensive gas-guzzlers.

Although Romania has joined the vibrant European Union club, the economy is still volatile – but they hope to join the Euro in around 2011 or later. But that still does not detract from the high aspirations of Romanians wanting to show the rest of the world they are now worthy of EU status.

Teenage Romanian Parasca Alexandru, 19, who works for Projects Abroad, told me the most important thing he thinks about living in Romania is survival. He said: “It is the least poorest city in the country. Brasov is a beautiful city.”

Chris and Catalin

On the final day, the editor treated me to Romania’s national tipple, the sweet but strong Palinca, which was a cross between gin and whisky. It was served in a medicine style cylinder and really did taste like cough medicine!

The retired couple who looked after me, the Irimia’s, Olga and Matei, who are in their 60s, were welcoming hosts. But they are very cynical of their new so-called democracy since the fall of Ceausescu, less than 20 years ago.

Olga and Matei

In what little I understood, Ms Irimia told me that although Ceausescu was not good, the current government were not either. She said they were wasting a lot of money trying to catch up with the West.
Their small but homely flat can cater up to two volunteers at a time. I was given a breakfast and evening meal – typically Romanian. At times, it was frustrating not being able to communicate properly with them. But I was grateful for their simple food and hospitality.

Contact Chris BA CPE

Learn more about the Projects Abroad Journalism program here

By Shanika Bennett, Assistant Manager in Nepal and Tiana Van Ooosten, Physiotherapy volunteer

Due to the current lack of physiotherapy jobs available in the UK at the moment, it has resulted in a dramatic increase of physiotherapy volunteers coming out to Nepal.

Many volunteers from all over the world have come here and found that having this valuable experience has actually helped them later on when applying for jobs.

Over the past few years that I have worked for Projects Abroad in Nepal, I have seen so many people passing through. Most of who I am actually still in regular contact with and it has really touched me the way these volunteers have been captivated by this country and its friendly warm hearted people.

We have a number of physiotherapy placements here in Nepal. Most are in hospitals. HRDC and Scheer Memorial hospitals are in Banepa which is 28km outside of Kathmandu in the countryside. These hospitals see many interesting cases. The injuries are mainly from working manually in the fields and falling from trees! They also see a lot of club foot and physical deformities that need extensive treatment to help improve their form. HRDC is a children’s orthopedic hospital and Scheer memorial, a general hospital.

In Kathmandu we have another orthopedic hospital and a Spinal injury hospital as well. Most of our other Physiotherapy placements are in care centers. There is a centre for children with cerebral palsy and also a centre for boys aged below the age of 11 living with muscular dystrophy.

What the volunteers find very interesting as well is the different methods used here. At first you might be shocked to see the ways in which they treat their patients due to the lack of resources here. However you will be amazed at how well they manage with what they do have and it really does work for them!

All of the staff in Nepal feel very proud of the variety of physiotherapy placements we have out here. One volunteer, Tiana Van Oosten talks to us about her physiotherapy experience at the Muscular dystrophy centre:

“From 5th of January till the 8th April 2008 I worked as a volunteer in Nepal at the Duchenne Musculair Dystrofie Centre. This is a small placement in Bhaktapur with 7 children who have Duchene dystrophy disease. Six days a week they come to the centre during the day. Here they get physiotherapy, education and enjoy themselves with playing games. Some of the children’s family are also living in the centre - they take care of the children and are very involved.

I worked there as a physiotherapist. Together with the Nepali physiotherapy assistant we treated all the children. Preventing contractures, giving tips how to do the daily activities the best way, maintaining the muscle strength and body balance were just some of the therapy goals. But the most important one was having fun with the kids during their exercises and during the day. My goal was to do something new every week with the children. This could be something small like a new game or eating together orange but also doing handicraft and Yoga.

Spending time with these children was very special for me. Goofing around, playing games, laughing and talking, I could see that the contact improved day by day. In the beginning two of the children were very quiet. I really thought they were not able to talk until their family said they could. Seeing them changing and feeling more happy was great. The day I first heard them talk was one of the most special moments in Nepal. I really enjoyed working in the centre. It was a good experience as a physiotherapist but most of all as a person. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun. I miss the centre, but I have a lot of memories that I will treasure.”

Shanika visiting a placement