Rich and his trusty stead

By Richard Clowes

Starting on Sunday 1st June I’ll be cycling 1,000 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats (the southern tip to the northern tip of Great Britain) to raise money for Addis Ababa Safe House.

Every £150 Pounds I raise pays for an Ethiopian child to be brought in off the streets and given basic housing, food and education for a year.

You can read more about the project and see daily updates and photos of the trip at: http://richardclowes.blogspot.com/

Any sponsorship you can give will be matched by Projects Abroad so all will be greatly appreciated. Thanks to Peter for Projects Abroad’s support.

Rich in Ethiopia

Kristina, Peter Slowe, Ian Birbeck and Manon Oliver, our 20,000th volunteer!

By Ian Birbeck,

It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was setting off nervously as a volunteer to teach in Moldova. I had just graduated and really wanted to go and work somewhere different. I saw an advert to go teaching in Moldova and before I knew it I was at the bus station in London meeting Peter Slowe the Director of Projects Abroad before travelling to Chisinau. I didn’t imagine that 16 years later I would have an office next to him and be the Recruitment Director for Projects Abroad. I was within the first twenty volunteers to join Projects Abroad.

A couple of weeks ago we had the 20,000th volunteer join us. Manon Oliver has joined one of our two week programmes in India this summer. She will be on the programme with her brother who is the 20,003rd volunteer. It is amazing to think that a football stadium’s worth of volunteers have been away on programmes with us since my time volunteering in 1992.

Kristina and Manon

At the end of last week Peter Slowe and myself met up with Manon. It was great to be able to meet up with her and her mother at ACS International School in Cobham. Also present was Kristina Johansson who helped persuade Manon to join us. Kristina was away on a two week programme with Projects Abroad in Ghana last summer.

I had given a talk alongside Kristina in the middle of March. Kristina had called me to ask if I would mind coming and giving a presentation alongside her. She didn’t tell me that there would be 300 students in the audience! I think it was Kristina’s enthusiasm that persuaded Manon and her brother to join Projects Abroad this summer.

It is a strange coincidence that Manon has chosen to join our India programme. This is the very destination where Peter took his own gap year. On his gap year he met up with Chinasammy Rajendran who is now the Director of our India programme.

Peter and Manon

My colleague Kelsy getting acquainted with an elephant as a volunteer in India

I am notorious in the office for having the messiest desk. It is my claim to fame. But in an effort to clean it up a little I found a newspaper clipping I saved from Earth Day. It was about this company called Mr Ellie Pooh which makes paper from 75% Sri Lankan elephant dung and 25% recycled paper. Sri Lanka has a sizable portion of Asian Elephants but their habitat it becoming smaller and smaller and these great beasts are clashing with the interests of agriculture much more than ever before. Mr. Ellie Pooh is hoping that elephant dung paper will help lessen the human-elephant conflict as people see the economic resource that these elephants can be. On a side note, I just learned that an adult elephant on average produces about 500 pounds of dung a day! That is crazy!

Although we don’t have programs working with elephants in Sri Lanka if you take part in any of our other programs you will certainly see a lot of elephants and please check out Mr Ellie Pooh and all their cool products.

There will be a record amount of volunteers in Ghana this summer taking part in a wide variety of projects across the country. Most have heard of Accra, the capital, or read about Kumasi in a guidebook. But the Akuapem Hills? Where is that?

Of the four regions our volunteers work in the least well known would probably be the Akuapem Hills, a rural area an hour and a half outside of Accra. But once they are there they fall in love with it! Since having a visual helps with going to any new place, I have posted two videos that will give volunteers headed there this summer a sense of the area and will hopefully bring back some memories for alumni. Enjoy!

The drive from the Projects Abroad office in Accra to the Akuapem Hills. Every volunteer in the Hills will make this drive after they first arrive in the country.

A great video of an assembly at the Holy Hills school in Kwamoso, Akuapem Hills. I just love all the smiles and energy of the kids!

Inca Project Supervisor Daniel O’Shea updates us on the latest news from the Inca Projects

Inca Trail - As always the volunteers on the Inca project have kept up their hard work on keeping the Inca Trail in Sicre (not far from Huyro) clear of vegetation. The volunteers have been working with machetes and pruning sheers to carry out this work. The work aims to protect artifacts which may be present on and around the Inca Trail.
 
Cochapata Mountain - Volunteers took another few day trips up the mountain and into ‘sector 3’ of our explored areas to search for more Inca ruins. Although there was not as much found as on some previous trips, any structure that was previously unknown was recorded by means of GPS. This information is then relayed to the INC (National Cultural Institute) via our resident archaeologist Jhon Valencia. The cleaning and clearing of ruins continued in Sectors 1 & 2.

Volunteers working on Cochapata Mountain

Incatambo & Amaybamba - Our close relationship with the INC had enabled us to visit and help maintain previously restored ruins in Incatambo. Volunteers also got the opportunity to visit and help clear ruins in Amaybamba. It was only after a local farmer approached the local INC watchman about ruins on his land that we were made aware of these structures. There will be more exploration and field work programmed in the future in this area.
 
Visit to Te Huyro and Huaymanmarca - Volunteers were taken for an afternoon tour of the local tea factory. Although it is not running on full capacity and hasn’t been for many years the volunteers got the chance to see how the tea manufacturing process works from picking the tea leaves to seeing the tea bag being boxed. Volunteers also got the opportunity to visit Huaymanmarca, an Inca sacrificial site not too far from Huyro.
 
Community House - The main development in the community house this month was organizing an ´Archaeology Area´. This included putting up maps and a white board where our archaeology lessons can be held. We also arranged our books into an archaeology section.

Breakfast at the Community House

Archaeology Lessons - The lessons with our resident archaeologist Jhon Valencia have included ´an introduction to archaeology´, ´ceramics´, ´Quipus´ and general ´question and answer time´ regarding Inca and pre-Inca cultures.
 
Sports - With school starting up again in March we have been able to arrange local soccer matches between the teachers in the local schools and the volunteers on the Inca project. There is also the opportunity to play volleyball with the locals too. It really is a great way to get to know the local people and to practice Spanish. Volunteers also have access to the local outdoor swimming pool at Huyro sports center.
 
Inca Social - All the Inca volunteers were treated to a half week in Cusco where they got to visit a few Inca sites including Raqchi, Sacsayhuayman and Q´enko. Projects Abroad arranged free entry to all the sites through the INC.
 
Volunteer Social - This was held in Urubamba and all the Inca volunteers attended along with other volunteers from Teaching, Care and Sport programs. The evening included a buffet meal for everyone and afterward all enjoyed a few games of ‘sapo’, a popular Peruvian game.

Daniel with local kids

Click here for more information about the Inca Projects in Peru

By Richard Munday, Alumni and Desk Officer for the Conservation Program in Peru

For nearly three years we have been trying to get our foot in the door – so to speak – with the community of Palma Real. Palma Real is a relatively new community, only about 100 years old really, which was set up with the work of Catholic priests that came to do missionary work in Peru and the Amazon.

The Indigenous people of the lower Madre de Dios region naturally lived in small groups with a few families in one place then a few more in another and so on with the main hub in one place, far away from large rivers and lakes. But when the priests came, the first thing they did was round-up all the locals and move them into two areas. One is called Palma Real (with around 300 people living there) which is located about one and a half hours further down river from the Taricaya reserve and one called Infierno, which is located about one hour from Puerto Maldonado itself and is accessible by road.

Volunteers arrive in Palma Real

Typical house in Palma Real

Over the years many NGOs have entered the community with good intentions but little foresight. One of them actually built a cement water tower and fitted tubing to a local fresh water creek, gave them a generator and water pump but failed to provide a daily budget for them to run it all so now it stands mainly unused. The early ones insisted that the community hold on to their native activities and try not to change at all whilst they were giving them western clothes, western food and many other habits that westerners have developed. So the community has developed a mentality of reliance.

Now as you all know this is not the philosophy of the Taricaya reserve. We help those who help themselves. So our first attempt to work with them failed as we were not insistent enough with them. In 2005 we planned to build a dam for them so they could use a water wheel to pump their water. All we asked is that they cut the wood for the structure. We gave them our chainsaw, gasoline and all the measurements. The chainsaw was returned a month later with no sign or news of any wood. So about six months ago we began trying again, this time with something a lot smaller in regards to work but that should have a huge visual impact and give them more confidence in us as well us in them.

So far our plans and negotiations are going very well, we have been speaking with the teachers of the community who seem to have a lot more power in the town (The community actually has a president who rules over the town but seems to be more of a puppet of the teachers) and have decided upon an interesting new idea. Palma Real has a really bad rubbish problem, with no collection system or a place to dump it, so most it goes on to the floor and is left there which you can imagine is a horrible sight. Using one of our donkeys and a specially designed cart we are fairly certain we can help them set up a system of rubbish collection and transport to an area away from the town and we have also managed to get the community to promise to cut the posts for the donkey enclosure and plant them as well as organise a “Community Day” where with the help of Taricaya volunteers, staff and hopefully most of the community we will clean the whole town of rubbish, so in one day they can see the huge difference a clean community can make.

The future of Palma Real

In fact all Taricaya will have to do is put the wire onto the posts, bring the donkey and spend a few hours explaining and showing the community what the donkey can do, which will be done via a variety of demonstrations.

This work will be started and should be completed early next month as there isn’t a huge amount of labour. Then we hope that they will see that we can provide sensible, long term solutions that cost them next to nothing and begin to trust us a lot more and begin putting more and more cooperation into our ideas. We will also begin to slowly start suggesting bigger projects, which as you can hopefully tell means we are potentially embarking on a major new route for Taricaya and hope to bring you some great news on this project soon.

Learn more about Tariaya and our Conservation Program in Peru HERE

By Will Harper, Program Advisor

With a large number of volunteers scheduled to travel abroad this summer to the far reaches of the globe, the Consumerist blog has an important cautionary tale I would recommend to anyone who has not yet purchased their plane tickets for their summer adventures to read.

As the blog post details, several students from University of California San Diego were scheduled to go to Ghana with another volunteer organization and they bought their tickets to Ghana for a “bargain” through lastminutefares.net which turned out to be a front for a scammer.

With airfares reaching historic highs to places like Ghana, Nepal and India, everyone is in search of a bargain but the moral of the story is, like so much in life, if it seems to be to good to be true it probably is. My advice is to make sure you go through a trusted internet site/broker or travel agent, buy directly from the airline or book your flights with the Projects Abroad Travel Team (North American or UK). All of you headed to the developing world will have amazing experiences and memories from your time there but getting there and sorting out your plane tickets will be your first hurdle!

By Elisa Glangeaud, Deputy Director of Projects Abroad’s French Office

At my arrival at Phnom Penh, I was welcomed by the smile of Petro, our director for Cambodia and by the incredible heat, which I appreciated a lot after the last snow falls in Grenoble, France!!

We immediately dived in the heart of Phnom Penh on the way to my hotel, among the famous Tuk-tuk (taxi motorcycles) and a myriad of motorcycles driving in front of us and in all directions.

And the day after my arrival, I also crossed an elephant which was slowly going home among the cars…

Fortunately, the delicious Cambodian food enabled me to recover from my jet lag and culture shock! And after a few days, I could ride on a motorcycle without any problem, according to the Cambodian style. I was even able to smile at the little babies in their mother’s arms, who were quietly sharing the motorcycle together with their father, sisters and brothers.

Life is always different elsewhere and our state of mind tends to adapt quickly to local habits, which is one of the charms of travelling…

I met some very nice volunteers who were very involved with the children at their placements and were always looking for new ideas to make their life better. I had a dinner with them on the roof of their apartment in Phnom Penh. We ate with candles due to a power cut and it was a great shared moment.

Elisa with our Cambodian office

The Cambodian team is also very active. They all work hard and try to develop the placements, which is not always easy.

Cambodia is a fascinating country and it is difficult to get bored there. Everywhere you go you can admire gorgeous pagodas with impressive Buddha’s statues, decorated with orange scarves, necklaces and incense presents. You can also cross paths with many Buddhist monks who survive on the generosity of the local population.

And when you get out of Phnom Penh, you can immediately appreciate the quiet landscapes of the countryside, with nice coloured stilt houses with children playing on the stairs. I particularly like the peaceful vision of the buffaloes drinking in the river at the sunset.

And if you have the chance to go to Angkor Wat, you can then discover one of the most fabulous archaeological sites in the world. I would have loved to spend days there, to get lost in the exuberant vegetation and to change myself in a kind of Indiana Jones and find new temples or lost cities…

My only disappointment during my trip in Cambodia was not being able to eat spiders. I haven’t crossed any spider to eat on my way as I had read in my tourist guidebook.

I will certainly have to come back!!

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