There's no denying it, these bloggers are bound to make you jealous. Whether it's their guts, their energy or their tan you admire, overseas volunteers have got plenty to share with you about their remarkable work in fascinating countries. Read on to find out what you could be missing.

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Thursday Oct 27, 2011

Spanish Adventure

I'm Abi. I am currently doing a 'Youth in Action' European Voluntary Service project in Valencia, Spain. Although it's a bit of a mouthful, what this equates to is the opportunity to live and volunteer abroad with funding being provided by the EU for your travel, accommodation and food.  I had been living in London since I graduated in 2010. Since graduating, I have undertaken several internships in the field of Advertising, all of which I had enjoyed. However, given the current job climate for graduates, landing my dream job has proven difficult.

I had always wanted to travel and I thought a 'Gap Yah'might not be such a bad idea. However looking around at the various voluntary opportunities on offer were not financially viable for me. I was also dubious about some of the voluntary projects I saw, where the volunteer pays £3,000 to move some bricks around for a sense of well being.

I was given a book for Christmas which explored voluntary options in Europe. I had never thought of staying a bit closer to home as it sounds far more exotic to say you are visiting South America, South East Asia or Australia. Yet having looked into this a bit further, I was excited to find that there were voluntary options through the EU available to all young people between the ages of 18-30. The scheme is called European Voluntary Service and it allows any young person, from any background, to go and volunteer in another country. In return for your time, the host organisation will provide you with accommodation, money for food, your flights and even pocket money.

Having found a sending organisation in the UK, Concordia Volunteers, with their help I began searching for a placement. Each week I would send 6 options to my Co-ordinator and she would apply on my behalf. I wanted to learn a language at the same time so I looked for projects mainly in France, Italy and Spain. After a few weeks of hunting, I was accepted on to a programme working in a youth centre in Valencia. And here I am...

I have been here for 2 weeks next Monday and it has all been a bit of a blur. After landing from a very early flight, I was picked up from the airport by my co-ordinator and shown around the small town, Silla, where I will be spending the next 9 months. I felt apprehensive and excited all at the same time.

I am living with another volunteer from Poland; she is fluent in Spanish and has a boyfriend in the town where we live. Her boyfriend undertook a voluntary program in Poland through EVS and this is how they met. It seems that EVS also can sometimes act as a dating service too :P

We are both working at the local youth centre which provides advice and services for local people. The weeks are very varied but tasks include going in to local secondary schools to encourage young people to use the youth service, teaching English to those people who require lessons, administration in the office and helping to work on youth campaigns. Needless to say the last few weeks have been busy, getting to know my new surroundings, trying to speak Spanish (badly I might add) and engaging with local Spanish people to understand their culture a bit more.

The only problem I have found so far it the difference in eating times. As an English traditionalist, I like to have three square meals a day. At 9, 12.30 and 7. However, the Spanish have breakfast normally but don't eat lunch until 3, and have dinner at 9. I think this is going to take some getting used to.

Every morning, before we start work, we have a coffee in a local cafe with the other employees of the youth centre. It is nice to start the day with a 'Cafe con Leche' and a small lesson in Spanish verbs.  I am hoping my Spanish will get better with time but people are very patient and happy to let me attempt Spanglish.

I will update soon with how the Spanish adventure is going.

Best wishes

Abi

 

Posted by Abi ( 9:52 AM )
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Thursday Oct 20, 2011

A tale of tango 6

So I'm back at Fieldbase after joining one of the groups on the beginning of their trek and I've got lots of stories for you. I was lucky enough to spend the first three days with them and now I know why the treks are called the Adventure phase!

We all left Fieldbase at 6am last Friday, and settled in for a day and a half drive down to Kerala, where the trek started. The drive took us through three states: Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Each state was absolutely beautiful but also increasingly different. The further south we travelled, the lusher the scenery got; with the greens of the countryside getting brighter and richer the closer we got to Kerala. As we travelled down the dusty roads, the vegetation became more tropical with the palm trees and banana groves becoming more common than we were used to around Mysore. 

We drove through national parks on our journey and saw lots of monkeys which everyone loved - although we did all get a bit concerned when they climbed onto the roof of the bus!

We stayed the night in a small town, called Udumalpetti, and then continued our journey to the Silent Valley Tea Estate to begin our trek.

We started the trek in a beautiful mountain village. As we walked past the huts, the locals where playing music, which soon became our trek soundtrack! After a quick lunch stop, and of course a cup of chai, our packs were on our backs and we were ready to start. And then it happened, the heavens opened and we started our trek in a complete monsoon! Apparently, this time of year, Kerala gets a second monsoon – which would probably account for all the lush green vegetation surrounding us!

A chorus of leeches

Along with the rain came a chorus of leeches, all rearing their heads and trying to jump onto us with every step. The village music was still playing in the background and it seemed as if they were all singing along with it...as they crawled up our legs! After a few squeals, mainly from me, we all had our 'finger flicking' action perfected and it was heads down, fingers ready and a quick march for 4km until we reached our camp for the night.

Now, although they're pretty gross, leeches can't actually hurt you; so after we had all got used to the fact that, whatever we did, we were pretty certain to get leeched, everyone started to see the funny side.

When we reached our camp for the night, our lovely guides set about making us a fire for the night. The boys did the manly thing and battled with the elements to put the tents up, while the girls set about making a delicious supper of pasta, baked beans and tinned cheese – just what we needed!

After a couple of hours, the rain subsided and we were all able to venture out from our shelter and see where we were spending the night -it was breathtaking.

We were nestled on the side of a mountain surrounded by peaks wrapped in swirling mists. The mountain tops looked like the white cotton candy machines you get at fairs, surrounding each peak with a delicate mist. The campsite had a lilly pond and crystal clear waterfall to gentle lull you to sleep – it was stunning.

After supper, and a lot of sock drying around the fire, it was an early night for all in preparation for our 5am start the next morning.

Reaching the peak

Sunday was our big day. We were going to climb Misapullimala Peak, South India's second highest peak at 2,637m. One thing was for sure, it was definitely going to be a challenge! 

Fuelled by energy bombs (a mixture of porridge oats, condensed milk and chocolate powder), we started out on what was to be the toughest day of trek. We were told by our guides that we had three 'hills' to climb before we reached the top. Now, I'm quite a fan of mountain climbing but these 'hills' were certainly not the sort of hills you might take a stroll up after a big Sunday lunch...in my view, they were mountains in their own right!

We trekked through open fields surrounded by mountains, across make-shift bridges and up some pretty steep paths! After our second 'hill' we stopped for a rest and then we saw it... Misapullimala Peak. Everyone was feeling pretty shattered by then, but seeing the top gave us all the spurt of energy we needed to keep going.

After a quick break and a few snacks, it was rucksacks on and best foot forward. We could see the top and we were going to get there, every single one of us.

Before we knew it we were in the cotton candy that we were looking at the night before. The mist surrounded us, sometimes it was so thick that we could barely see in front of us, sometimes it cleared and we got a peak of what was around us. It was like the mountain was showing us a window into the world; we were literally on top of South India.

The last 200m to the top was along a narrow ridge. By this time the mist was so thick we couldn't see either side. It felt like if you took one wrong step you would fall into a never-ending abyss. Now trek isn't called an 'Adventure challenge' for nothing and this bit was certainly a challenge! Some of the group loved it, spurred on by the adrenaline rush of being up in the sky. The rest of the group, me included, were petrified! However, we all did it – the group came together, encouraged each other, gave words of support and offered welcoming hands to help people up over the tricky bits.

Soon enough we were all at the top. For many, it wasn't just the mountain they'd conquered, but their fears as well. They had proved to themselves just what they could do when they put their mind to it – just the way Raleigh likes it!

The tea factory

As they say, what goes up must come down and in our case it was time to get going. Next stop was the Silent Valley Tea factory for a very much needed cup of chai. As we headed down the mountain, the scenery changed from the rolling green hills that we saw on the way up, to perfectly manicured tea plantations. I'd never seen tea grow and was surprised at how flat the plants were – they looked like Bonsai trees.

As we got to the final stretch the heavens opened again and it was a quick march through the tea plantations to our final stop. The Silent Valley Tea Estate is the highest organic tea plantation in the world and proved the perfect end to our trek. As I'm sure you can imagine, the tea was delicious, especially as by this stage we were all soaked to the skin! After warming ourselves up with multiple cups of tea, we jumped into some jeeps which took us to our campsite for the night.

Huddled around the fire, spirits were lifted as we had a much-needed meal of noodles, sweetcorn and tuna (a Raleigh special). Everyone agreed that although it had been a very tough day, the highs definitely outweighed the lows and, as we curled up in our sleeping bags with full tummies, there were smiles all around (and a few sore feet!).

The next morning the rain subsided and we were treated to some more spectacular views before heading off to our next camp for survival day! Just as we got to the campsite I saw the car waiting to take me back to Fieldbase so, unfortunately, I left this part of the trek. However, I can tell you that the group were about to have all their kit taken away from them and, under the watchful eye of the guide, were going to be taught how to survive a night in the mountains without any of their kit! Exciting! 

Back to fieldbase

Back at Fieldbase, I'm catching up on what the other groups have been up to while I've been away and furiously typing away at my computer. Joining the group on trek has definitely been a highlight of my time here so far. Apart from the obvious physical challenge it was personally very challenging to keep my fears hidden in front of the venturers. At certain points of the trek all I wanted to do was curl up into a little ball and teleport myself home to a hot shower, comfy sofa and large glass of wine. Looking around me at the wide eyed venturers fresh out of school or university I could see that the trek was possibly one of the scariest and most challenging things they had done in their life.

I had to put my fears and feelings aside and help them get through it. And, amazingly I did. I'm not quite sure how, but I put one foot in front of the other, held out my hand and, step by step, we all got through it together.

So that's the first challenge over with then...I'm already looking forward to the next. 

 

Posted by Sarah ( 11:41 AM )
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Wednesday Oct 12, 2011

And so it begins

After three weeks of training our ventures have finally arrived and boy were we pleased to finally meet them! I went with the 'meet and greet' team and picked up 40 very excited, if not slightly wary, 18 to 24 year olds from Bangalore Airport at 5pm on Sunday morning.

Now I've done the airport journey a few times, first for my own arrival into India, and then to pick up the rest of the project manager team. Arriving at 5am and starting your journey before it gets light, feels almost like you're watching the country wake up, rub the sleep from its' eyes and put on a morning cup of chai.One of things that I find most interesting about people is how quickly they can adapt to different situations and environments. It's amazing how you can get used to cows on the road and even goats on motorbikes and not give it a second thought. It's India after all!

Watching the venturers faces as, through their sleep deprived eyes as they slowly realised they were in India was magical, and reminded me of the first time I came to this amazing country. They laughed at the free-roaming cows, waved at all the smiling children and closed their eyes every time a motorbike or auto-rickshaw swerved in front of a bus (to be fair I still do that). Half of them licked their lips as they tasted their first cup of chai, and the other half screwed up their faces at how sweet it was!

After the four hour journey from Bangalore to Mysore, we were finally back at Fieldbase and they were all straight into unpacking, admin, tours and being told that they were going out on a three day trek the next day, oh yes, and that it was a 5am start.

All the PMs and I were watching with anxiously to see how they would react to sleeping in a dorm with wooden mattresses, having cold bucket showers and being told they had to get up at 5am the morning after arriving in India. I was trying to remember how I reacted to all of the above when I went on my gap year, many years ago, and I have to say was pretty impressed with their resilience!

It's a big thing being taken out of your comfort zone and plunged into an unknown world. One of things about being a volunteer manager is that you don't only have to manage your own feelings about being in a strange situation, but you have to manage those of others around you. You have to be the strong one, the grown up, the friend to listen and the person to make things better when things go wrong (which inevitably they will at some stage!) No matter what you're feeling inside, you have to be the one with the answers, the endless energy and the never-ending smile.

It's a tough job that's for sure and each one of us is panicking about that time we see a huge spider or massive snake and have to keep a cool head! It is however, one of the reasons why we're all here and will no doubt be one of the most rewarding things about the roles we've all volunteered to fill.It's pretty quiet around here now as everyone is out on trek training.

They'll be digging long drops, building shelters, cooking under the stars, swimming in rivers and experiencing the people and country they've come to see. For me it's the calm before the storm and I'm busy catching up on work back at the office before they all deploy on their various projects on Friday.

I'm joining one of the trek groups for the first few days of their adventure. We're going to Kerala to climb Misappulimala peak in the Silent Valley Tea estate. The peak is 2,637m and is the second highest in South India, just under double the height of Scotland's Ben Nevis. I can't wait, for me it's definitely going to be one of the highlights of being out here. I' m already looking forward to telling you all about it.

Posted by Sarah ( 6:36 AM )
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Wednesday Oct 05, 2011

Reflections on our achievement

 

TWM

I wonder what I'd be doing if I weren't on this trip. I'm fairly I wouldn't be writing this, watching the Polish countryside on a sleeper from Moscow to Cologne. Whatever I'd be doing, it certainly wouldn't have been as rewarding, productive or as memorable as this trip.

Memorable is certainly the word when describing some of the things we've been doing. One in particular is the last workshop we gave to school children in Bulgan, roughly 10 hours from Ulaan Baatar. I felt that that workshop was the ideal thing to present to those children, eventhough we had to adapt the workshop a lot in order to present it outside with the beautiful mountain backdrop. For me that showed us that we could think on our feet and adapt to any situation. I also felt that the group was a unit reliant on each other whenever any of us needed help.

Though there were some moments where that group dynamic was off. These tended to happen when one of the group felt left out or felt unsupported in some way, when these feelings became apparent they permeated through the group and really flattened the group dynamic. I think this proves how close we are as a group. Though we have all come from different backgrounds, we've all come together complementing our differences and relishing our similarities.

Ipso facto, in conclusion, I feel like I can use the skills I've learnt and developed on this trip to tell our story not only after getting off the train but to use it to help future generations to create their own stories.

ANTHONY

I am really happy I came on the trip. It has been a great way to spend a month; I've enjoyed delivering workshops even though we had minimum time to prepare. It has been a a pleasure to be part of the group even when we were stuck on a train for 8 days and shared a room with everyone for the duration of our stay in Mongolia. I hope I can stay involved with Dyfodol. Mongolia is an amazing country with many religious beliefs. It was a pleasure to experience the nomadic life and ride horses, play chess, see the palace, meet Green bell, visit museums, go to the traditional music concert, meet the Minister, meet the nomadic children and much much more.

If you've enjoyed the snippets that you've read about the Project Mongolia story on Do-it, head over to http://www.dyfodol.org/ for the full story in either English or Welsh!

 

 

Posted by Project_Mongolia ( 11:27 AM )
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Monday Oct 03, 2011

The same, the familiar and the different

Second week into my volunteering experience and so far so good! I’m getting to grips with my role and slowly but surely planning out my time and working out what to do when.

It’s been a pretty hectic two weeks to say the least. I was part of the advance team out to Fieldbase so as well as doing all my own Communications work we have been preparing for all our Project Managers to arrive. As I mentioned in my last blog, Raleigh organises a number of projects for its venturers and each project has between two and three volunteer Project Managers (PMs).

Our role at Fieldbase is to essentially support these guys and work behind the scenes to make sure that everything runs smoothly for them during Expedition. They arrived on Sunday and it’s been full steam ahead to make sure their equipped with all the skills they need to run their project sites and manage the venturers.

I’ve been joining in on the training and have to say I’ve been incredibly impressed. In my London life I was sent on all manner of leadership, team building and other such corporate training courses. Some of them I liked and some of them my mind turned to which type of biscuit would turn up at the next break within about five minutes.

Suffice to say I haven’t been concerned about biscuits in the slightest over the past week!

Instead of having a swimming assessment in an over chlorinated pool I’ve been swimming in a reservoir surrounded by mountains.

Instead of doing my shopping in Sainsbury’s I’ve been buying fresh fruit and vegetables from local markets in Mysore and learning how to make chapattis.

I’ve swapped the London underground for auto-rickshaws (and taken to praying to all of the Indian gods every time I’m in them!).

I’ve swapped my boardroom meetings for meetings in a hut with a traditional Indian roof made of cow dung and straw.

Oh yes, and probably most importantly, I’ve swapped my morning coffee for a morning chai.

Along with all this, I’ve managed to squeeze in a 27k trek. The trek was part of our training as one of the projects that the venturers will be going on is a 19 day trek through the Western Ghats of Kerala. For our trek we walked through rice paddy fields and lots of Indian villages. The scenery was stunning and the villagers were incredibly friendly, stopping to talk to us and ask us where we were from at every stop. It was a tough day and by nightfall there were certainly a few blisters and stiff backs.

Once we got to camp we practiced all the camp crafts that the venturers will be learning. This involved digging a short drop, a slops pit, cooking our supper and building a fire to keep us warm while star gazing.

A slightly different camping experience compared to the luxury of my boyfriends pimped out VW back in the UK!

I’m back at Fieldbase now and we’re preparing to send all our PMs to visit their project sites ahead of the venturers arriving. It’ll be strange Fieldbase being quite over the weekend, but a good chance for me to catch up on some work and maybe pop into Mysore for a quick massage...

...well you know what they say about all work and no play!

Posted by Sarah ( 4:39 PM )
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Thursday Sep 29, 2011

Career break

I was delighted to be asked to write for the do-it blog. I’ve been planning my volunteering experience for around a year and can’t wait to tell you all about my experiences, both good and bad!

I’m Sarah and after working in London for 7 years I wanted a break. I considered the ‘pack on back’ option but realised it wasn’t for me. I wanted to do something that benefited both me, my career and others (in no particular order!). I also wanted to use this opportunity to see what else the world had to offer and make some truly magical memories.

In my ‘normal life’ I work in communications, first as a journalist and then in the creative department of a large PR firm. My most recent job saw me working in a communications consultancy, managing the production of an internal magazine as well as consulting on employee engagement and other projects. Although I loved it and worked on some great projects and meet some fantastic people it was time for a change.

So after a lot of internet searching I found Raleigh, a youth and sustainable development charity who run expeditions in Borneo, Costa Rica and Nicaragua and India. They had a role for a Communications Officer in their in-country Fieldbase offices so I got in touch.

A year later I’ve rented out my flat, quit my job and am writing this sitting in an office just outside Mysore in South India.

I’ve just been here a week and I already know it was totally worth it.

I’m working with a team of volunteer managers including, admin, logistics, medics and a photographer. We all have one aim, to make sure that the expedition we’re running for our venturers is the best experience they ever have – and to have a bloody good time ourselves!

So far we’ve been shopping in Mysore for supplies (Indian style!), trying lots of delicious curries, learning how to make chapattis and making sure that we’re all up to speed with our roles for when the rest of the expedition come out. Oh, and I’ve been updating the blog (yes another one) so that friends and family back home can keep up with our antics.

My role here is writing the blog, writing and producing the end of expedition magazine, producing presentations to explain about my role, working with the photographer to create slideshows, indentifying potential PR opportunities and well, pretty much anything else I want. I truly can make this role my own and can put my skills to as much use as possible – and of course learn some new ones!

While I’m out here, we’re running four projects, including one adventure project which sees our venturers and volunteer managers trekking through the jungles of Kerala.

Raleigh works on Community and Environmental projects. For the Community phase this time we’re making eco-sanitation units (or toilets to you and me) in a rural village and bio- gas units (sustainable energy using methane from cows) in another one. For the Environmental project we’re building an anti-poaching camp and a pathway to a beach where turtles lay their eggs.

One of the things I’m most excited about my role is that I get to visit and participate in all of the projects and the trek so I can gather content for the magazine and blogs. I’m also going to be writing a number of case studies on the venturers and volunteer managers for Raleigh to use for marketing and PR.

Oh, and I had a few problems with my visa so have to leave the expedition three weeks early – one thing’s for sure I’m going to be pretty busy!

Posted by Sarah ( 4:46 PM )
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Wednesday Sep 14, 2011

Desertification

So I went to a conference in Mongolia, same format as other international conferences, except you get served sliced cow tongue for lunch.  India, Turkey, Korea, Kazakhstan, a few other 'Stans and reps from embassies in Mongolia gathered together to share information on how to combat desertification in Asia.

It's a big problem... A huge problem.  Especially in Mongolia.  90% of land in Mongolia is vulnerable to desertification.  It's landlocked, mountainous terrain with high altitude.   There is a moisture deficit, low humidity and high temperature fluctuation.  Not a good start.

The word 'Desertification' is pretty self explanatory = Places that weren't deserts are turning into deserts because of climate change and other human activities.
What's exactly is causing it?

Climate Change - As the planet warms up the areas already hot are getting hotter, especially around the equator.
Climate change is also intensifying extreme weather patterns.

Sand storms in Mongolia are spreading deserts far and wide.

Less rain is falling in Mongolia because of climate change and more is evaporating.

People - For a start there are a lot more of us and the population is still rising.

We drink a lot of water and we use a lot doing other stuff like farming and industry.  Development in an area where water is scarce already, is a bit of a no-no, but we do it anyway. In Mongolia the mining industry is using a lot of water where there isn't much already.

When we use the land we often 'over-use' it.  This is called land degradation.  When the land is depleted of nutrients, plants can't grow.  Deserts take over.

Overgrazing is also a big problem - especially in Mongolia.

Developing industry in dry areas often reduces soil productivity - vegetation decreases.  Building stuff like roads and industry doesn't help with the dust.

How does it affect us and the planet?

Desertification affects the ecology on the ground. Plants and animals find it really hard to cope with the changes.  Species are becoming extinct every day.

Humans too are suffering from the lack of water, soil fertility and lack of green cover.  If less food can be grown, less people eat.  Respiratory diseases are on the up because of the atmospheric dust.  People are having to move to places where they have a better chance of survival.  Climate Refugees.  Where do you go?  With huge amounts of people expected to be forced to move due to climate change and the resources wars that it ignites, we're going to have to be  very nice to each other, another thing that historically we ain't very good at.
So a lovely bit of light reading for you, full of joy and inspiration... sorry about that.  But it's all happening, and seeing it first hand was what we did on the 2nd day of the conference.

You see I can hide away in Wales.  It rains ALL THE BLOODY TIME and don't I complain about it.  I long for the sun most of the time but in fact we're pretty damn lucky.

My refugee friends in the Western Sahara, although they don't live there by choice (Morocco is illegally occupying their homeland...), live in the harshest conditions on earth.  They rely entirely on foreign aid.  Not a sustainable situation.  It's a desperate situation.  They certainly don't want to be there.  Most people and plants can't really live in the desert.

Anyway, so the second day was a bit more upbeat.  I snuck onto a field trip to check out some positive action on combating desertification.  It was interesting to hang out with these diplomat types in less formal times.  They behave rather like children, not helped by the Kurkistan delegate cracking open the vodka at 9:30am.

Phase two of a major reforestation project is underway.  A huge 'green belt' of trees is to be planned pretty much across the whole of Mongolia to stop the spread of it's deserts.   This consists of a lot of testing, planting, monitoring, research and training and we went to check out some of the research sites where all the activity was happening.  It's a joint project with Korean and quite impressive.  They've managed to up the survival rate of saplings to planted trees to 90%.

They've done a load of research on the right indigenous trees to plant (Seabuckthorn has risen to great heights in my like list), they seem to have put in a lot of effort and employment into the local community (with a local family looking after the site we visited, in exchange for a bit of space for agroforestry.  
Plus they know a lot about their local trees) and have trained up a load of people to keep the project full of momentum.

Trees take root, they support life, encourage rain fall.  
They are a physical barrier and they break up wind.  They provide shade, habitat, employment, food if managed properly.  All over pretty amazing.
It's not just planting trees that stop deserts from spreading. Stopping the causes in the first place is a much better way.  Sustainable agriculture, better grazing management,greater respect for nature, tighter laws, better technology that has less impact, monitoring, international support and action... these are a few of my favourite things....

Oh and on the way home it snowed and we saw wild horses, something previously eradicated in Mongolia (not snow - that still comes every year, more extreme than ever before).  They are doing well, being looked after.  Efficient management, care and thought has meant that they are thriving and on the increase. See there is hope.
I'll put some more photos up when I don't have to get up in 4 hours
- Kirsti

Posted by Project_Mongolia ( 12:09 PM )
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The initiation

Isabel, 21, has grown up on the beautiful coast of West Wales, Aberaeron. She is studying law at The University of Bristol at the moment, but she also runs her own organisation called UNfairplay and is a director of Dyfodol. She loves the sea and cycling round Bristol on her speedy bike. Pancakes are her no.1 food.

So, today was our first day in Mongolia getting down to the nitty gritty. A massive day by anyones standards, and one we definitely pulled off.

Chimgee, our main Mongolian contact, has planned our 12 day visit, starting with today. Our first meeting of the day was with the Mongolian Environmental Civil Council (MECC)  which is a council of over 500 Mongolian Environmental Non Governmental Organisations (NGO’s for short), that is groups or organisations that do not belong to the government of Mongolia.

I was totally impressed when I heard the sheer number of groups under their umbrella, and by their setup of being funded by donations, larger international organisations, and some funding from the Government (although they stay independent)

What was especially great to see was the number of people who came to meet us, and the fact that except the head honcho, they were all under 30. I learnt a lot about how the MECC lobbies government to amend and create laws to protect the environment, e.g they lobbied to pass a law protecting all water sources and basins in Mongolia from contamination by their VAST mining industry.

Another focus for the day became how mining is affecting Mongolia. According to the MECC, mining for coal, gold and lots of other metals in Mongolia is conducted entirely by corporations from outside Mongolia. Not only does all the profits exit the country via these corporations, the Government has made their life even easier by charging a mere $500 per hectare of land mined, and $1000 a year for access to a source of water!!! Let me repeat that: the profits do not stay in Mongolia, the government makes next to nothing on taxing these wealthy corporations, AND the mining companies import thousands of Chinese workers to work the mines.

Chimgee also nabbed us a meeting with the top climate change scientist in the whole of Mongolia. Sweet. 

He actually said that mining only took up 0.4% of the land in Mongolia. Remember Mongolia is a biiig country though. He was more concerned about land degradation from desertification (where land becomes desert, and then spreads), heavy rains in desert areas washing away further land mass, forests being cut down/degraded, and the degradation is being added to by the nomadic pastoralists whose animals increase degradation by eating everything!

Desertification deserves some focus in Mongolia, what with the Gobi desert in the south set to expand if climate change carries on affecting Mongolia as it has so far. According to this guy Mongolia suffers from the effects of climate change at 3 times the intensity of the world average. The Gobi will spread northwards and will likely desertify the areas where the forests no longer exist because trees are very good at keeping deserts at bay, but without them the conditions are good for desertification. Add to this the water level is consistently dropping in the Steppe area of Mongolia and a recent water census found 100,000 lakes to have dried up already.

To those of us sitting in that office for 45 minutes we learnt a huge amount about the challenges ALREADY facing the Mongolian government and its people. I think it starts to hit home how much of a negative impact we, that is us in the UK, have already contributed to causing.

Last but not least was a rather raucous, although productive, get-together with both Green Bell members (the youth environmental group Chimgee belongs to) and Green Wave members (another environmental group set up amongst university students in Ullan Baatar). I couldn’t believe my eyes when it turned out we were meeting to eat and plan their 350 day of action (Moving Planet, 24th September) at the Loving Hut, which is owned by the ‘The Supreme Master’, a vegan cult leader!! She is a weird weird lady leading an international vegan cult where her minions call her ‘supreme master’ and she gets them to hand out disgusting vegan sandwiches at UN climate talks. I’ve come across her minions and her freaky animal books many a time, and now I’ve discovered her restaurants! 

I have to say I sat there reading the strange menu of ‘red coma’ and ‘summer son’ getting quite freaked out that if I ate the food I would be brainwashed into her cult. Anyway, three hours later we appeared into the cold air light-headed from the soy meat protein and the calamitous but exciting meeting with 19 Mongolians all with different ideas about the subject of their 350 day of action. The meeting had to be ended without any decisions made as they were closing but, hopefully, with some spreading of consensus decision making and basic campaign planning tips. Let’s see how tomorrow’s meeting (also at the Loving Hut) turns out!

Posted by Project_Mongolia ( 11:57 AM )
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Final thoughts on Trans Siberian by our Rosie

Rosie is 17, from the Cardigan area. She has just finished her GCSE’s at college and is going on to study dance, art (her two favourite things) and world development (inspired by Project Mongolia) at Llanelli College as soon as she returns.

I felt a bit emotional on our last day of the Trans-Mongolia. Beginning our journey on Saturday 27th August traveling here to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, required 7 train changes and moving the clocks forward 7 hours. Living for five nights on the same train I think we had all became quite attached to it. The clunking of the wheels 24/7 and the random jerks, jolts, and halts all seemed so familiar and friendly by the time we left it's hard to imagine how very strange it feels to be sat here in the 'Golden Gobi' guest house, not rocking too and fro.

I mistakenly imagined spending 5 nights on a train as boring and dull - wrong!

As well as having a group of 10 amazing people with me, to share skills and stories with, there was also the other really cool passengers who kindly gave their time telling us their individual stories, about why they were on Trans-Mongolian, through interviews using our newly acquired camera and audio skills! 

Of course, there was also the absolutely spectacular and often unusual scenery: 

• Poland - flat, green fields with occasional farms and minimal trees. 
• Belarus - less farms but more little 'cabin-esque' houses and trees. 
• Russia - expanding, spartan, dusty plains and Peter and the Wolf style looming forest with scattered little villages of oddly shaped houses, painted bright blues and greens.

I doubt any of us will miss that 'creepy Russian guy' (that's another story..), the rancid toilets and the flying inches out of bed in the night. I think that most of us will miss our fellow passengers mainly. 

There was an older man named Jeff, from Denmark, who I first met when he nearly fell over me when I was collecting footage of the sound of the train (it's really noisy where the trains attach to each other). He asked me if I made movies - I wish! He let me interview him and told me all about his job - he travels with his daughter (who I was pleased to meet) to make movies about the world - was became inspired by his daughter who has Downs. The movies are at a pace that suits people like his daughter and introduce the different ways that people can live, etc. he also went on to tell me about the environment in Denmark and how people and the environment affect each other. He was a fascinating person to interview as he has an obvious passion for what he does and about the environment/climate change.

We also all met a young man named Tim from Thailand. He was traveling from London, England, back to his home country after 5 years of studying English at University. We also interviewed him. He even played us tunes on Twm's ukelele. The evening before we all parted he produced 11 friendship bracelets - hand-made, one for each of us! 

I (almost) can't wait for the train journey home!

Rosa X

 

Posted by Project_Mongolia ( 11:52 AM )
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Monday Sep 12, 2011

Taliesin's thoughts on arrival

Editors note: The following blog post was sent to us in Welsh. It has been kindly translated by James Proctor to English, but the welsh version is still intact below.

Taliesin, 16, from Dinorwig enjoys playing rugby and riding his bike. He plays cello for the North Wales Youth Orchestra.

At half past six in the morning we arrived in Ulaan Baatar. Chimgee was waiting for us with a taxi and a car at the station, ready to take us to the hostel. After having breakfast at the hostel we went to our rooms to unpack before going to the nearby park and shops. Before we met up with Chimgee later in the day for dinner, everybody went for a shower and checked Facebook for the first time in 8 days! For dinner we went to the supermarket and bought picnic food which we took the park. In the park some local kids were skateboarding, one of them really stood out. He was really talented and spoke very good English. His name was Batbayar (but he let some of us call him Bill), and he used to live in Virginia for 15 years before he lost his visa and had to return to Mongolia two weeks ago. Bill talked about the scary situation he found when he returned to the country. The people he knew were drinking from 11am, stealing and assaulting women. He saw animals being run over for fun and saw poverty all around. He really wanted to do something, he wanted to get young children away from drugs and drink and onto skateboards.

After returning to the hostel, Sannan and I decided to go to and see Bill again. We got there just as Bill was leaving to go to a different area, we decided to accompany him. When we got to the new place we were persuaded by an old man to drink 'atar', some kind of drink made out of horse milk. It tasted like a mixture of vinegar, urine, sour milk and lemons. Bill told us, "If someone older offers you atar you have to drink it." After this we went to a café, where we were told that Mongolia was the only country in Asia that didn't have a proper skateboarding park. Russia built one in the 1908s and a skateboarding company constructed one too, but the wood was stolen and burnt for heating or sold. We were also told that there were only 25 keen skateboarders in the whole of Mongolia, and only 10 of them had proper boards. Bill told us that he wanted to set-up a skateboarding shop in the city, but he knew it would be a long and hard journey. It was hard to ignore his passion, and we felt like it would be good to help him, so after swapping email addresses we're hoping to be able to post some of his videos on the internet soon and perhaps meet him again!

                                         ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Heddiw nathni cyradd Ulaan Baatar am hanner di chwech yn y bore. Roedd Chimgee yn disgwyl yn y gorsaf, gyda taxi a ceir i mynda ni i'r hostel.  Ar ol cael brewcast yn y hostel, aethom i'r stafell, a dad-pacio cyn mynd i'r parc a'r siopau cyfagos. Cyn cwrdd a Chimgee am cinio, aeth pawb i cael cawod a checkio Gweplyfr am y tro gynta mewn 8 diwrnod! Am cinio aethom i'r arch-farchnad a prynnu picnic , cyn mynd i'r parc . Yn y parc roedd plant lleol yn sglefrfyrddio, ond roedd un y sefyll allan fel bod yn hynod talentog, ac yn siarad saesneg da. Ei enw oedd Batbayar (Bill i popl sy ddim yn dda efo enwa), ac roedd o wedi byw yn Virginia am y 15 mlynadd diwethaf cyn colli ei Visa pythefnos yn ol. Roedd Bill yn son am y sefyllfa ofnadwy yr oedd wedi ffeindio wrth ddod yn ol i Mongolia. Roedd pawb yn Feddw o unarddeg yn y bore, ac yn dwyn a ymosod ar merched ohyd. Roedd o'n weld anifeiliad yn cael ei redeg drosodd am hwyl, a yn weld yr holl dloti o'i amgylch. Roedd ysu i wneud rhywbeth i cael y plant ifanc oddi ar y cyfrifiaduron a alchahol, ac ar i fwrdd sglefrio. Ar ol mynd nol i'r hostel, penderfynodd fi a Sannan i mynd i'w cyfweld, a cyrheuddom y parc fel oedd Bill yn gadael i man sglefrfyrddio arall, lle cafom ein gorfodi, gan hen ddyn i yfed 'atar', llefrith ceffyl wedi ei eplsu, oedd yn flasu fel Vinigr, iwrin, llefrith sur a lemonau. Dywedodd Bill 'If someone older offers you atar you have to drink it'. Ar ol hynu aethom i caffi i ymweld ac o, lle cafom gwybod mai Mongolia oedd yr unig gwlad yn asia heb parc sglefrfyrddio, er gwaetha'r faith i rwsia adeiladu un yn yr 80au, a i cwmni sglefrfyrddio adeiladu un hefyd. Cafodd y pren ei llosgi, ar gweddill ei gwerthu. Dwedodd bod 25 o sglefrfyrddwyr yn holl Mongolia, a dimond tua 10 oedd gan fwrdd iawn. Roedd Bill yn dweud bod o isio dechrau siop sglefrfyrddio yn y ddinas, ond roedd am bod yn taith hir a anodd. Roedd ei angerdd yn anodd anwybyddu, ac roeddem yn teimlo fysa'n da ei helpu, ac ar ol cyfnewid cyfeiriad e-bost, rydym yn gobeithio cael ychydig o'i video's i'w postio yn fuan, ac ella ei cwrdd eto!

 

Posted by Project_Mongolia ( 9:42 AM )
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Wednesday Aug 31, 2011

Poland - Belarus

This morning we woke up in Poland having slept through Germany overnight on our first sleeper train experience!

After a night of mixed rest, some enjoying the rocking motion, others with an added earful of Polish snore, we all wake up slightly aching from our heavy rucksacks.  The train feels familiar, we've made it our home already.  It's comfy and clean. As you can see, we were all packed into the first sleeper train from Koln to Warsaw]

Poland is somehow different, OK, it's very flat, but there's something else that I can't pin down that gives it that underlying feeling of foreign.

Out the window we saw loads of small holdings, tractors, corn, fields to the horizon and big huge skies…  

The few towns that we do spot are colourful and look relaxed and every now an again we speed through big ugly industrial factories.  People seem to mostly live in flats, using the ground around as a communal outside area.

We quickly arrive into Warsaw, where we are hit with a barrage of smells - fags, piss and exhaust fumes. Luckily we decide to leave our very heavy bags at the station and explore as we've got some time before our connection.  

The further we get away from the station the more beautiful the buildings get.  We head towards the old town on wide pavements and pass through occasional squares that are beautifully ornate.  The buildings have amazing detail, yet seem sturdy and indestructible, everything's spotless.

We found a little square to eat in, whilst trying to persuade Kyle not to spend half his money on a fox fur hat!  People are really friendly and curious, it's a shame we don't have more time...
The tram takes us back to the station, past the huge Palace of Science and Industry (?) a present to the city from Stalin!

We find our way to our next train which will take us from Warsaw, through the rest of Poland, Belarus and eventually to Moscow, Russia.  First impressions of the train: thank god it's only for one night!
A rather larger than life Russian beauty literally pulls us on board and barks us down the corridor.  It smells like old men and more fags and the decor fits nicely with the odour...

After settling it's really not that bad.  Three beds in a cabin along with a handy sink-come table.  Izzy and I get the place to ourselves and spread out.

The hardcore Russian stewardesses get softer and nicer as we trundle through the rest of Poland.  I think they scarred us at first to set the tone.  They supply us with hot water and a few taps on the bum!

At the border between Poland and Belarus they bark us back into our cabin, we obey and in come 2 sets of passport control.  The guards don't smile and don't give anything away when they stare you in the face to check your ID.

After the passport guards have done their thing we come to the strangest train experience of my life!  Because the tracks are different widths in Belarus and beyond the whole train shunts into a warehouse.  Men scurry around below attaching, detaching, bolting, unbolting bits of the train.  Bizarrely this is also an opportunity for some ladies to sell raspberries!  Then all of a sudden the carriage lurches and we slowly begin to rise up into the air!  The train is lifted up so that they can get underneath and do their thing.  Unfortunately this business takes a while and because the toilet flushes straight onto the tracks, the loo is locked shut for a couple of hours, so I can't remember much detail as I was concentrating on other things!

Anyway, after the excitement of hanging in a train wears off, we begin to see some of our team occupying themselves in activities only performed when you're cabin bound e.g. waxing mens legs for fun and breaking things (how do you say 'sorry - it was an accident' in Russian to a big scary lady)!

We eat a meal of nearly cooked noodles, miso soup, some nice fresh salad and finish off the raspberries.
It's easy to feel tired on the road and although we do a lot of sitting down on trains, somehow we're all knackered quite early.  I sleep really well apart from a few times when I'm lifted in the air by a bumpy bit of track…

Next stop Moscow… Can't wait!

Posted by Project_Mongolia ( 2:55 PM )
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And it begins...

Some of us started in Aberystwyth, some in Borth, some in Mach and some in Cwmbran, what matters is that we all made it to London Euston by the same time!

We arrived in Morden (south London) to enjoy some overnight hospitality from Kirsti’s aunt and her partner.

After an unbelievable feast, which might carry some of us through the entire 8 day journey, we set-to discussing guidelines for the trip (no shaving other people, always wear protection, don’t drink in the day etc) and filling capsules with turmeric. Reminiscent of a scene seconds before a drugs raid, in a front room in Morden last night was a table of people happily lining up their pills and counting them into sandwich bags, excitedly discussing how not to miss a train and how best to deal with rabid dogs. No one can say we are not prepared.

Anyway, turmeric capsules at the ready and each with our rucksacks we traversed the London tube system, some of us for the first time, to the National Science Museum. Through crowded noisy hot tubes and up escalators we emerged in the cool calm of the museum to go on a whirlwind, all-interactive tour of climate change.

After our brief visit to the museum we hopped back on the tube and set off from St Pancras station to catch, as Taliesin put it, our first ‘real train’ from London to Brussels.  We’ll then get a high speed train from Brussels to Cologne and later on tonight the overnight sleeper from Cologne to Warsaw, expect a nice little video tour from our budding film maker Anthony!

Post by Isabel.

Posted by Project_Mongolia ( 2:39 PM )
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A Welsh and Mongolian Team

Who are we?

We are a team of Welsh & Mongolian young people who are passionate and optimistic about our future. 8 of us are young people from all over Wales, we have 3 fantastic youth workers and the rest of the team we will meet when we get out there.

What are we up to?

We are embarking on a journey to Mongolia by train, brought together by a shared passion for positive youth action whatever our backgrounds.

Why?

By taking on issues head on we believe that outbursts of frustration, like the riots we have just seen, can be avoided and empower young people to feel more able to participate in decision making and in their community.

How?

In Mongolia we will be sharing our collective skills with the Mongolians keen to start a youth environmental movement in a country already affected by climate change.

Us Welsh lot will have a unique opportunity to see the effects climate change first hand which we will use when we get home to inspire others to take action and get involved in the sustainable development projects of Dyfodol (our parent organisation).

Also, we are an organisation core funded by the Welsh Assembly Government so we are trying to use our contact with the Welsh Environment Minister to benefit the young Mongolians relationship with their Government and Environment Minister.....we'll see!

We'll be blogging individually, some in Welsh some in English, and if you want more info on Dyfodol or our other projects check out www.dyfodol.org

Isabel, Anna, Kyle, Rosie, Melody, Sannan, Twm, Kirsti, Robin, Taliesin and Anthony

Posted by Project_Mongolia ( 2:18 PM )
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Travelling - close enough for comfort!

The journey to and from France was integral, not just because, otherwise, we would have never arrived or made it back, but because a group of fifteen of us were put into vans and a ferry for about 12 hours of travelling time. When you're stuck with people for that long, you do bond!

We were lucky enough to have a few meet ups before this trip so we weren't strangers but we were by no means best friends. Suddenly I had found myself stuck in the YMCA's Motivate Van at four in the morning with a group of people I didn't really know!

People's spirits aren't normally that high at 4am but there was an empathetic feeling between us of I'm tired, you're tired, let's get this show on the road so we can all get some ruddy sleep, yes?

So the group split, we all found our seats and prepared for sitting in the same position for several hours. The first thing I seemed to bond with people about was travel sickness. Three of us in the van had taken tablets with us and rather than settle your stomach, they just seemed to knock you out for several hours so you're oblivious to travelling at all. I have to admit I probably missed out on a lot of bonding opportunities while in the van due to feeling I had just taken Ketamine.

It took four hours to get to the ferry, and when you're stuck like sardines for several hours conversation does start to flow, even if it is forced at first. After everyone had had some sleep, the humour started to flow, instead of individuals on their iPods we were all listening to the radio and singing along or quoting Family Guy jokes. This may all seem rather dull in comparison to the fact we were going to France for the week but in some ways it was the best part. It was the part where we had started to get to know each other and started discovering the dynamics of the group. We were all getting a rough idea of how this group of people were going to fit together in France.

After four hours to get to the Ferry we could all finally stretch our legs and both groups could get together. This was now the second hurdle of bonding. Two groups had travelled in separate vehicles so now was the chance for everyone in the group to connect.

Once again more sleeping was done but the main subject of discussion between us all was our agreement that the food and drink was overpriced and tasted less than pleasant. There is nothing like a good old rant to get everyone to unite. People had started to get their cameras out now, we felt close enough to take pictures with each other and actually tag the other person when it was inevitably uploaded to Facebook.

One such example:

Amy Cooper and I sitting on the Ferry.

I think I was coming round from the effects of the horse tranquiliser travel sickness tablets.

So after a relatively calm journey across the sea we all piled back into the cars ready for the Sat Navs to direct us to Agon-Coutainville. This is a minuscule town in Normandy, a place so tiny that every other French person I've asked has not even heard of it.

Our driver Ron stayed the perkiest out of us all and despite driving on the other side of the road and missing turnings we all finally made it and were on the road to start our Case for Reconciliation.

We all felt much more comfortable together. We had made it and it was the start of a truly exciting week. However, before we knew it, more vans had arrived. They contained a group of French young people and one German girl. We had almost forgotten that the Case for Reconciliation was not just about us...

 

 

Posted by Sheila ( 1:47 PM )
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Thursday Aug 25, 2011

From boredom to enlightenment

Hello my name is Sheila and I'm 20 years old. To be brutally honest, I started volunteering out of boredom. I wish I had a more momentous moment or some sort of epiphany that led me to volunteering but alas, I did start because I felt I had nothing else to do. (I know that's not particularly inspiring yet but bear with me.)

I had just finished my second year of university and going from such a hectic schedule to suddenly three months of nothing was quite daunting. I did consider a part time job but wanted to spend my summer doing something I would enjoy with people I love. One of my friends works at my local YMCA and during one of my "I have no idea what to do this holiday" rants, he suggested I join some projects they were doing.

There were many different aspects to the YMCA projects I was involved in. One feature was the talks we were given. Each week a speaker came in from a charity or organisation and we learnt about what they do and how we could help. We received talks from a representative of a local women's refuge, the housing department of the local council, the citizens advice bureau and a spokesperson of the charity 'Save The Children' to name just a few.

One task that we undertook from these discussions was to write a booklet about leaving home for the first time. Many young people had said that although they wanted to leave home they had no idea where to start. It felt brilliant to be part of something that was genuinely helping young people.

As I do creative writing at university I thought it would be helpful to get some real experience at copy editing. So as well as being inspired I was also getting experience to put on my CV. The booklet was published and distributed to local charities and organisations and it is very valuable to my CV that I have been credited as a copy-editor on a published piece of work.

I was completely inspired by these talks and felt enlightened after each one. The world isn't considered that friendly a place most of the time, but being spoken to by these inspirational people reminded me how much good there is in the world. Volunteering has reminded me how incredibly lucky I am and definitely made me a happier person!

My favourite project that I took part in was a cultural exchange to France which was a Youth In Action project. A group of young people from the YMCA took part in A Case for Reconciliation – a project which aimed to unite different cultures and discuss common issues that we felt young people had. We spent a week in the small town of Agon-Countainville in Normandy and I never would have thought that in just a week I would have learnt so much and made real friends for life! It was a life changing trip.

 

Posted by Sheila ( 12:18 PM )
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