Can you guess which one is brinza, goat cheese, and which one is lard?

Read more about how the two are related after the jump …
Ian, our Senior Programme Executive and self-professed Eastern Europe fan, tells us about some of his favorite food memories from Moldova.

“A Moldovan favourite I remember was when we sat down to the table and there were lots of plates of sliced tomato, cucumber, gherkins etc. etc. I dug in eagerly to what I thought was a piece of fine Moldovan goat cheese, Brinza. As I put it on my piece of bread and bit into it, it seemed a bit strange until I realised that it was a slice of fat which I found difficult to stomach until I washed it down with a glass of vodka. I tried to speak to the mother in my host family who was a Doctor who specialised in heart disease and find out how she could promote healthy eating on the one hand and then lay out some slices of pure fat. She explained it was good for me and to get on and eat it.

Another delicacy well loved is jellied meat which personally I feel to be the food of the devil. I struggled through a piece to be polite at Christmas dinner only to pay the price of my politeness seeing another large piece appearing in front of me. Thinking about it makes me feel ill even now fourteen years later.”

One of my favorite food memories was having a seat mate on a bus across Turkey buy me a kebab at a bus stop in the middle of the country. I tried it and it didn’t taste like the chicken or lamb I was used to. It turns out that it was lamb offal or intestines. But I put on a happy face for my new friend who was so happy that I was eating it.

As many seasoned travelers will tell you, one of the most important parts of traveling and making friends overseas is trying new and usually “different” foods along the way. While the ubiquitous hamburger has made it to most places around the world, the best way to break the ice in a new country is to try the local cuisine with some new friends, whether it be eating street food or attending a fancy banquet. Your stomach might not always thank you but the acceptance of the locals more than makes up for it.

I recently emailed our staff, a very well traveled bunch, and asked them what some of the most interesting/different foods they have had on their travels. Not only did they get back to me quickly but they came back with replies of stuff I didn’t even know were edible. I have grouped their replies by world region and the first installment will be Africa. As always, please feel free to post a comment about the most interesting food you have had while on the road.

Tom, Vice President of the North American Office, enjoyed grass cutter in Ghana. Don’t be fooled by the name which sounds somewhat cow like. You can actually see in the photo above. It is actually just a big rat.

Faye, a Program Advisor at our Headquarters in the UK, reports that when she was a volunteer in Ghana she had fish eyes. Whether she enjoyed it or not is another question!

The cuisine of Eastern Europe will follow tomorrow. So be sure to check back!

We would like to wish our man Down-Under, Will, and all our Australian volunteers, past and present, a happy Australian Day! Are you doing anything special to celebrate?

As of today, January 23rd, Americans flying into Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean will need valid passports to reenter the US. This is a big change as U.S. citizens could previously travel to neighboring countries with only a driver’s license or birth certificate.

One unfortunate statistic is that only one forth of Americans hold valid passports, so if you don’t have one already go out and get one! No matter what your nationality is, a passport is crucial to travel abroad, volunteer with us and to become a global citizen. Get one early and travel often!

If you don’t have one and cannot find information about the application process, please do not hesitate to contact us and we can point you in the right direction.

Here is a bizarre story involving two countries where we work, Nepal and Peru. According to a Reuters article, Royal Nepal Airlines was forced to apologize to the nation of Peru after it used an image of Machu Picchu to promote tourism in Nepal. Peru’s foreign ministry said that the airline put a picture of the country’s icon, Machu Picchu, which is just up the Sacred Valley from our placements in Peru, on a poster under the slogan “Have you seen Nepal?” A Peruvian citizen who was visiting India saw the poster on a wall in Royal Nepal Airlines’ New Delhi office and informed his country’s embassy. I am sure that many volunteers in Peru who have hiked the Inca Trail to see Machu Picchu would be just as surprised to find out that they had wandered into Nepal as our volunteers in Nepal would be to discover the quintessential site of Incan civilization in the Himalayas according to this poster! Talk about a case of mistaken mountain ranges! This advertising flap aside, what is your favorite mountain range? Why would you choose the Andes or the Himalayas? Tell us what you think.

Suzi, a huge fan of Mexico and Central America, recently visited our team in Guadalajara, Mexico and was kind enough to send along a post, enjoy!

Hola from Mexico.

I’m currently in Guadalajara, the hub of our Mexico programme. I love Mexico so much, I could quite happily stay here for a few months. It’s great getting back into the language, the food and catching up with all our Mexico staff, many of whom have visited us in the UK. However, I´ve also ended up speaking some French this visit, as one of the Spanish teachers here is currently giving Marco the Mexico director and some of our other staff French lessons four times a week at 8am, they must be keen! We have several French and Swiss volunteers here at the moment, so it is useful for the staff to expand their language skills.

I’m here doing some staff training and taking the chance to visit some of our Mexico placements and meet some of the volunteers. On Monday I went along with Daniel to take a new volunteer to the Animal Care project. I couldn’t believe how many different types of animals they care for, they have raccoons, warthogs, eagles, snakes, iguanas, owls, parrots, spiders and the cutest tiny deer, that hops around the site. It’s awful that so many of the animals are bought as pets when they are tiny and cute, then are abandoned once they grow bigger. The volunteers are certainly kept busy helping look after them all.

Yesterday I also went to visit our Arts and Crafts project which is currently focusing on working with ceramics. The volunteers have a monthly schedule which takes them through all stages of production from learning how to make simple tiles to hand painting designs on the finished tiles, basins or signs.
We also called in at one of our Care placements, a centre for children whose parents are in prison. The centre is run just like an orphanage and is home to all ages of children from babies to teenagers. The kids were incredibly friendly with the toddlers instantly wanting to be picked up and I had fun with a group of girls who must have been about ten, who wanted to see my blue eyes, then thought they were only blue as I wear contact lenses - the idea of wearing clear contact lenses so I can see, seemed to be a new one!

I´m leaving Mexico this afternoon, to fly on to Costa Rica. So whilst I’m sad to leave the team here and miss the legendary salsa night that staff and volunteers go to each Thursday, I’m looking forward to meeting Luis our Costa Rica director and experiencing some Pura Vida in Costa Rica - will let you know what it’s like!

Suzi

What a fantastic trip that was! One month, 5 countries, 13 flights and 12 time zones ahead of home. The Plan was to document the amazing work of our volunteers in Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, India and Nepal. Breathtaking, inspiring and heartbreaking sometimes but mostly, very rewarding.

I think I met an average of 10 people a day every day who offered me tea. I can now count to ten in Thai, Khmer, Sinhala and Tamil, also I can very politely ask “Can I take a picture of you?” in Thai and Khmer.

Meeting new people, visiting a new placement and taking new pictures everyday, driving every weekday and flying to a different country every weekend, that was my routine for a month.

The most remarkable thing is definitely the work of our volunteers - we behind the scenes don’t normally see their work as we’re too busy organizing their placements behind our desks, but I must say they do an amazing job and I have the best example here with me; Rotanak is an orphan boy who lives in the Lighthouse orphanage in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Please notice how good his English is. The reason is very simple: Volunteers.

Click this link to see the video:
http://www.teaching-abroad.co.uk/expes/rotanak-cambodia.html

The photos show the volunteers in Action, I really wonder how many did I photograph? Teaching English to Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka, taking care of physically and mentally disordered kids in Thailand, taking active part in operations on our medical placements in India, supporting local physiotherapists in Nepal or Teaching English to kids at the Tsunami camp in Sri Lanka. So many places and so many examples of how the volunteers can make a real difference.

I took nearly 5 thousand pictures, I needed a week to classify them all, a selection is already in the UK and shortly you’ll be able to see them at the global Projects Abroad online Gallery, Posters, Brochures, Leaflets and of course our website.

I want to thank all the colleagues and now new friends I met over all the destinations I visited, I really hope to see you all again!

I also managed to take general pictures of the actual destinations, here’s an online gallery, have a look and feel free to criticise them.

Link to photogallery
http://www.flickr.com/photos/60409115@N00/

Thanks very much, Kap kun kap, hapkun, Istuti, Nanri, Danyevat !!!

Claudio

For those of you have called the North American Office of Projects Abroad you have probably been lucky enough to speak to my desk mate and traveler extraordinaire Jessye, a Program Advisor here in New York. She returned from an exciting trip to Shanghai last month and was kind enougth to send along this post without any arm twisting!

Ni hao from China!

Shanghai is an amazing city. Coming from New York I thought nothing could possibly seem more crowded or bigger but I was wrong! Going to the top of the Jin Mao Tower on the first day was quite an experience, as the views of the city were amazing and I could really see how it goes on forever! There is constant building going on all around you, and with so many new shopping malls and office buildings you can really see the city’s amazing growth.

Besides the obvious sights there are loads of amazingly trendy outfits and haircuts to check out, and outrageous Christmas decorations everywhere which are surprising considering it’s not so much of a holiday here. Exploring the city by subway is really easy as the subway system is new and clean with all the stops listed in English and Chinese. Despite its sprawling size Shanghai is relatively easy to navigate with a good map, and it is extremely safe.
The food has been great but volunteers should definitely practice their chopstick skills before arriving! I haven’t tried the chicken feet or other surprising menu items, but everything that I have had has been delicious! Though Chinese food is obviously the main thing available, there are many other options in Shanghai for those times that you are desperate for variety. I even found a real Western breakfast on Sunday morning with eggs and toast!

It has been so much fun visiting our placements and meeting our staff and volunteers. Shanghai is a great place to live and work, and our volunteers are always busy with the huge variety of things to do on their time off! Many volunteers also take advantage of the amazing travel opportunities within China, and a trip to the countryside is definitely worth it as it offers a startling difference from modern, urban Shanghai.

Ian, our Senior Programme Executive, who is in charge of Marketing for Projects Abroad around the globe sent in a post about his recent trip to Argentina:

Hola. Como estas?

I am starting to remember my Spanish just about after four years of not using it. It has been great to visit Cordoba and the projects.

We have teaching, care and medical projects. Within a day of being here I had been made the godfather of a new school which is being built to replace the basic village school we have volunteers working in at the moment. The staff is so welcoming and keen to have volunteers help out. You can make a real difference. Without volunteers they have no one to teach English.

I met the mother superior at Hogar San Francisco orphanage which has had lots of volunteers. She proceeded to get out all her photos of volunteers and tell me about everyone that had helped out. They have created a vegetable patch for each of the children. The literal and figurative fruits of their labour are starting to appear with flowers as well as tomatoes coming to the fore.

At the hospital the main supervisor told me about the volunteers he has had - One even ended up attending a congress of doctors from around the world. Others have presented reports on AIDS around the world. There are some real opportunities to see how an Argentinean hospital works.

One of the first things I realised when I arrived is that it is difficult to starve in Argentina! The steaks are huge and they taste great. I was amused the other day when a lady who saw half a chicken on my plate asked why I wasn’t having meat! There are also lots of Italian influences with pizza, spaghetti and ravioli. Our vegetarians have lots of options although lots of Argentineans are a bit bemused at why people don’t want to eat their steak!

We have a real mix of volunteers with Belgian, Dutch, American and Germans all speaking a mix of English and Spanish. Unquillo where we are based is about an hour from the centre of Cordoba and is surrounded by countryside. It is a bustling town with lots of Argentinean tourists at the moment.

Cordoba is a great place to go travelling from with the Iguazu Falls in the north, Buenos Aires in the south and Mendoza in the west. Everyone that has been to Patagonia says it is well worth the journey.

Henning, a current volunteer, who has been in Argentina for five months, has worked out that if his travels in Argentina were all put together in one line it would take him from his home in Germany to Beijing. That is a lot of bus rides!

We have some exciting developments - moving to a new office in the next couple of weeks as well as Laura joining the team from our Mexican office. We have a couple of new projects that we shall hopefully introduce in the next few months. More on that later.

Ciao, Ian.

Welcome to the Projects Abroad blog! Here at Projects Abroad we have always been a huge fan of the internet, whether Al Gore invented it or not. Since we send volunteers to over twenty different countries on five continents and have staff members in near every time zone, anything that makes it easier to communicate among offices, staff members and with volunteers is greeted with open arms! We have also never been afraid to be innovative, whether it is forging ahead when there wasn’t even a term for a “gap year”, working in new countries where no one has sent volunteers before or just trying out some cool ideas. Consequently, we got the thumbs up from the big wigs at Projects Abroad to enter the blogosphere and create a truly interactive “corporate” blog. Come and learn more about it after the jump!
Needless to say, we are very proud of all our websites (props to Tonio, Claudio and our whole IT team), but they are really formal communication devices, and we wanted to establish an online dialogue that is a little more personal and where you could interact with us. So we are going to keep up with the kids and give this blog thing a whirl.

Just like volunteering overseas often gives you an “insider’s” look at the country you are living in, we hope that the Projects Abroad blog gives you insight into our fantastic staff members that make Projects Abroad tick, the countries that we work in and the diverse set of programs our volunteers take part on. You will get to hear about what our staff members do on a daily basis, updates from the road, travel tips, commentary on the countries that we work in, postings about new programs and zany travel stories that will make you laugh. We hope we keep you entertained and give you a new way to look at Projects Abroad!

Remember, this is your blog too, so we encourage you to participate, and don’t forget to post!