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 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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