Trip to the Zoo

By Harry Kent, Programme Advisor

I had barely even caught my breath from my stint as Desk Officer in Ghana before being told I was heading off to Sri Lanka to help with the new office development. Immediately I was excited about my first trip to Asia and was curious to compare it to my time spent in Africa…

On my arrival I was greeted with such hospitality, after an hour’s taxi ride I pretty much knew everything about my driver, which varied from his experience over the Tsunami to how he had a wife and two girlfriends all of which knew each other, my look of disbelief somewhat puzzled him as he then said “what your wife doesn’t want you to be happy??”.

Shyamelee and Harry, all smiles

After a long but successful conference the following day we set out to see the placements. Over the last year I have been to many orphanages but none had compared to the Mother Theresa home in Kandy. This was the most difficult but rewarding placement I have ever seen which really benefits from our volunteers help.

My overall impression of Sri Lanka was that is was a country full of potential with not enough people there to enjoy it. The Sri Lankan people were great and I especially loved the head wobble and the vague use of directions. I soon found out that left in fact meant right and I can only but hope that a certain man was confused in the same way when calling me a pretty girl hmmm…

Beautiful Unawatuna beach

Although Sri Lanka is clearly lacking on the tourist front, I could not help but see the huge amount of potential it has with palm fringed beaches, amazing local food (a little better than fufu in Ghana I must say), and possibly the best hospitality I have ever encountered.

My advice is let’s put Sri Lanka back on the tourist trail, they need and so do we….

November sees the first Projects Abroad Information Evening being held in Scotland. This is your chance to come along and speak to ex-volunteers and our Projects Abroad staff members about volunteering opportunities abroad.

Our ex-volunteers love having the opportunity to talk about their experiences overseas and hopefully it will give you plenty of information on how we operate, the projects and destinations available and how to get involved.

The event is being held on Thursday 6th November, between 6-8pm at Stewart’s Melville College in Edinburgh.

We will be running many more Information Evenings around the country in the New Year, so keep your eyes peeled!

The full details are as followed:

Wallace Dunlop Hall, Stewart’s Melville College,
Queensferry Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3EZ
6th November
6 - 8pm

You can also RSVP HERE. We look forward to seeing you there!

Historic Route 66

By Scott McQuarrie, Programme Advisor

“It changed my life like it changed everyone else’s”, read the endorsement on the back of the book. The endorsement was by Bob Dylan and the book was ‘On The Road’ by Jack Kerouac. Since I’ll listen to pretty much anything Dylan has to say, I picked up the book and began reading. The book is essentially about a set of road trips across 1950’s underground America at the height of the Beat generation. The major appeal of the book is its themes of friendship, travel, possibility and music. With this in mind and in view of the fact that one of the main aspects of Projects Abroad is cultural exchange, I thought a short piece about my recent US road adventure would be relevant.

I looked at a map of America, then drew a line through 14 States – New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California. The objective seemed quite simple - I had to drive from New York to San Francisco in 15 days. It was only when I bought a bigger, more detailed map, that the enormity of the task hit me. However I wasn’t alone, my friend David from Edinburgh was with me. I nicknamed him Sat Dav for the trip on the basis he was in charge of directions and had vetoed getting a GPS system! After a few meetings to decide our specific route we were set - New York to Chicago, then old Route 66.

A real benefit of being part of the Projects Abroad community is you have the chance to meet up with friends in different countries. This trip was no exception! First stop after touching down in New York was the Projects Abroad office to see Tom Pastorius, Vice President. One thing I have always maintained from my volunteering days is you have a far better experience if you have a ‘native’ to hang with. It worked for me in Ghana, why not everywhere else? Once we got Tom to stop laughing at us for trying to travel distances like NYC to Chicago in half a day (it is roughly the same distance as the length of the UK apparently, who knew?), we re-arranged our route on his advice and hit the road.

Over the next 15 days we travelled roughly 3,500 miles and like any good trip I learned things about the country and the people. It would take far too long for me to write about each place I visited, so here are my top tips to help survive on the road in the US:
* ALWAYS weigh up the pro’s and cons of renting a SUV
* TRY to get off the interstate roads - the smaller highways may not be as quick but they are much more fun
* ALWAYS try the deep dish pizza in Chicago
* DON’T visit the mini Stonehenge in Rolla and think of Spinal Tap
* ALWAYS take a crash helmet to bar’s in Tulsa when watching the visa presidential debates on TV - the crowds can get quite rowdy
* ALWAYS order the apple pie and milkshake at Ted’s diner in Albuquerque
* NEVER turn on to the wrong side of the road in Santa Fa when a police car is facing you
* YOU MUST visit Zion and Yosemite National Park - simply stunning
* STOP in the middle of the New Mexico desert - like every Western movie you have ever seen
* THINK of Mars as you drive through the red rocks of Monument Valley in Arizona - this State has the most breathtaking natural beauty I have ever seen
* NEVER bet in Vegas. The House always wins!
* STAY in San Francisco as long as you can
* REMEMBER a motorway is a freeway, petrol is gas and a car boot is the trunk - easy, right?
* ALWAYS take out insurance - don’t worry if you don’t though, you’ll see a few adverts on TV for it
* ALWAYS stop to chat - America is one of the most unique and friendliest countries I have visited, especially the families and workers on old route 66

and last but not least….

• NEVER go out with Will Harper, US Deputy Director, the night before you set off on a road trip. His dancing, rapping skills and Dave Chapelle impersonations meant a late night for yours truly

To finish off I’d like to leave you with a funny quote from an Adam Sandler film I saw whilst in a small motel in a place called Bishop. The film was Mr Deeds and the lines are delivered at a funeral. I thought it was a fitting end to our Beat style trip…

“Now Brother Preston is soaring with eagles high above, because he lived a life of love.
Yes he’s flying way up high, because he was a supercool guy.
He’s gone away, too soon it seems, leaving behind his unfinished dreams.
Yes we remember Preston Blake, a man with faith no man could shake.
A strength no man could break.
A character no man could fake.
For goodness sake, let’s eat some cake.”

A big thank you to all in the US office for their hospitality and advice.

USA!USA!

Claartje and kids

By Claartje van Wayenburg, Programme Advisor

I’ve never felt more welcome than here in South Africa. I’ve only been here for two months and feels like I’ve lived here my whole life! Everybody who I have met gives me the feeling that I’m part of their big, happy family. Living in a host family gives me the real African experience, it has been so wonderful. I sometimes wish I could stay here forever! My family is so warm and friendly and takes care of me just like their own daughter.

As a Dutch woman here in Cape Town, working for Projects Abroad has a lot of advantages. I’m able to hop on a train or mini-bus and go to the beach, the city or the mountains, so there is always much for me to do even though I am far away from home. One special aspect is that there is a large population in Cape Town of people who speak Afrikaans, a language quite similar to Dutch, so I’m able to understand most of what they are saying and chat with the locals! Many Dutch volunteers that come to Cape Town find that being able to understand and speak a bit of Afrikaans is really important, especially when working in local communities where it is spoken more widely then English.

Claartje hard at work

I am assisting with Marketing and Recruitment of local South Africans, so my job is establishing contacts with many Universities and High Schools in the Western Cape, doing presentations and answering questions over the internet and phone about Projects Abroad and what we are all about! It’s wonderful to be able to tell South Africans about all the different possibilities that Projects Abroad has to offer around the world. They are already becoming very enthusiastic about our projects and I think we will see more South African volunteers around the world soon!