P R O J E C T T R U S T ’ S

NOV. 2010

HI GUYS!Hello and welcome to the November circular. I can’t believe it’s that time of year already! Lots of the shops (on the mainland of course!) have Christmas trees and decorations galore. I hope the accompanying handout gives you a few ideas to get you in the festive mood.

Some Desk O�icers will be out on their respective visits by the time you get this so I can’t wait to hear their interesting bits of news when they get back. There has been a change of plan so Jez and Susie will not be heading out to Uganda this month. Remember what I said in the last circular about the purpose of the visits. In the mean time, on the left is a glimpse at what some of you have been up to.

AROUND THE

WORLDWITH PROJECT TRUST

SAM WILSON has wri�en an interesting blog about a Village Manaur which he explains: ‘A Village Manaur is a kind of self help scheme with a twist: like back home, all work is voluntary and the work can be of any type, this is decided by the person who holds the Manaur. The twist is that heavy drinking is a major part of Village Manaurs. Para kari, a local drink made from fermented Cassava, is served by the women to the working men. If you accept the donation, it is your way of saying you will carry on working for a bit longer’. Really interesting look at a Guyana tradition! Thanks Sam!

GUYANA

DUNCAN WRIGHT told us about his teaching experiences so far. ‘Teaching has been a mix of great moments and

essentially killing time with classes who don’t care about learning’. Kids are the same all over the world then!

SU RIPLEY is really enjoying her quite challenging project in La Paz. She’s been describing her job in her latest newsle�er saying her ‘main job really is to keep them (the kids) happy and laughing, which when it involves hours of tickling fights or playing ‘it’ can be pre�y exhausting’. My favourite part of the newsle�er was Su’s description of La Paz – ‘It’s such an amazing city- I don’t know who ever thought of building a city on the top of a big mountain but somehow it works, and the views are always mind blowing’. Sums it up!

Although TOBIAS HODGES finds the work quite draining, he’s been very lucky to be able to have some ‘in-depth talks about Evo Morales and changes to the constitution regarding the relationship between indigenous and state law’. He states how this has given him ‘a genuinely interesting insight into the cohabitation of westernized and traditional juridical systems within a country sporting the largest indigenous population of Latin America’. A great start for a community report I think!

BOLIVIA

HOLLY O’DOWD and SIOBHÁN FOY were asked to be in a Bollywood movie on their recent travels. They played the part of tourists being shown around a theme park – it was great fun, despite feeling a li�le dizzy after a big wheel scene took a few too many takes!

INDIA

CLAIRE CAMERON and TAMARA VAN DER KRAATS have been exploring Peruvian culinary delights over the last few months. They had chickens feet for their first dinner and ate ducks that had been running round the orphanage during the day! It’s incredibly hot in their project at Piura at the moment so this is how they’ve decided to combat it: ‘Our long, thick, brown hair was a bit to warm, so we decided to cut each others hair in layers. This is where we found out that being a hairdresser would actually be a good job for us if university doesn´t work out’. Brilliant!

PERU

GILLIAN PATTERSON has been ge�ing creative in her project in Zithulele. She made a fish tank with paper fish in it with the preschool children and flying bugs on sticks. She’s slowly ge�ing into her work at the local hospital although the language barrier is still proving an obstacle. Keep at it Gillian!

SOUTH AFRICA

ROSIE HAYES and APRIL GOODWIN are se�ling well into a brand new project in eastern Cambodia. They’ve been cycling round their town, Prey Veng, exploring the area and meeting new people who are keen to teach them Khmer and trying to get them to eat ducks eggs with half formed foetuses inside. Rosie and April politely declined their kind o�er!!!

CAMBODIA

BULLETINBOARD

FOOD, FOOD, FOOD...Thanks so much to those of you who have sent their recipes in.

I’ve already received quite a few from di�erent areas of the world but there’s plenty of room for more. So get your pots and woks out and send me your

favourite recipes!

ACCOMMODATIONIt’s really important that you are happy with the safety and standard of your

accommodation. We would like your feedback because we take our risk assessments very seriously.

KEEPING IN CONTACT WITH YOUR SCHOOLSIn the previous circular we mentioned that making an e�ort to write to your

sponsors was something you should all be doing, after all without their support, you may have struggled a great deal. The Bulkeley-Evans HMC

Scholarship Fund have recently sent a le�er saying they have already received some news and postcards from Cambodia, the Dom Rep and Honduras, and

really enjoy hearing what the volunteers they’ve sponsored are up to This is a reminder to do the same with your school/college/Sixth-Form too. They really appreciate hearing about all the hard work you’ve been doing, so they can see

that all their hard work paid o�!

RETURN DATESYou should all have received an email from Gill regarding return travel.

Remember that return travel will be booked at the end of December so please let Gill know by 3rd December if you do not want to return with the country group. If Gill does not hear from you, we’ll assume that you want to return

with the general group booking. If there are any changes after December, there will be a charge incurred. Your Desk O�icer will confirm your return dates

when they are booked. Email Gill at gill.roberts@projec�rust.org.uk

TRAVEL ITINERARIESFor many of you, holidays will be coming up and I’m sure you’ve already been

planning your travels and adventures. Please remember to let your hosts know where you are going and what date you will be back. Also please send an

itinerary to both your Rep and Desk O�icer.

PHOTO COMPETITIONAlthough I’m enjoying writing these circulars, hearing all your tales,

and Ross has done a grand job snazzing this up, I’d still love to see moreof your photos and share them with other vols.

So… I’m starting a photo competition! Send in your photos every monthand we’ll choose a winner which will be put in the next circular.Imagine that, you could be on the front page of the Project Trust

circular. The photos can be of whatever you like;we just want to get a glimpse of what you’re up to overseas.

So get snapping and emailing your favourites to Ross at ross.evans@projec�rust.org.uk

Life on Coll...Things continue as normal here on Coll. One quite exciting thing is a new shop has opened in the village selling lots of organic products. It’s the kids’ Halloween party at the Island Cafe at the weekend which all the children are incredibly excited about.

Next week is Bonfire Night so volunteers have been helping collect wood in the village. This is always a fun night!

A group of volunteers who were on selection in August threw a bo�le with a message in it out to sea from the ferry on the way back to Oban. A few weeks later, the volunteers received le�ers and drawings from the primary five class in Tobermory Primary School on the Isle of Mull, after a li�le boy found the bo�le next to the fish and chip van! A great story!

It’s always nice to hear what volunteers get up to after they return from their year overseas. Recently, Julian Sayarer (Vietnam 03/04) cycled around the world, 18,050 miles in 165 days, which is frankly pre�y impressive!

Here at Project Trust we’re busy as always with selection courses and numbers are looking great again this year. As some of you already know, Ali M is leaving us in early November so we are having a leaving party next weekend. We all wish her the best of luck with her new job on the mainland.

to send in your pictures, stories/blog sites and tales of adventure to be featured in the next edition of

the PT Circular.

That’s all for now. Take care!

Nadia

A cholera outbreak has killed nearly 300 people in Haiti. Although the number of new cases has slowed, this week alone, thousands of people have been infected.

Last week a tsunami hit the Mentawai Islands in Indonesia. The death toll currently stands at 311 but they expect this to rise.

The government announced this years’ Spending Review earlier this month which has been met by opposition all over the country. The retirement ages has gone up and thousands of public sector jobs have been cut.

After Wayne Rooney announced he wants to leave Manchester United earlier this month, two days later he signed a new five-year contract (surprise surprise)!

Celebrity octopus Paul, aka the psychic octopus famous throughout the World Cup for correctly predicting all of Germany’s games as well as the outcome of the final, has died of natural causes.

SportFOOTBALLPremiership: Chelsea top the league 5 points clear ofArsenal. Things are looking a lot more hopeful for Liverpool this month after they completed their sale to New England Sports Ventures, who are the owners of Boston Red Sox. However this honeymoon was short lived when the following day they were defeated 2-0 in the Merseyside derby.

Things were made worse the following week during their Europa League match in Napoli when a number of Liverpool fans were stabbed in a�acks after the game.

SPL: It was the Old Firm match over the weekend and Rangers managed to come back from a goal down to win the game 2-1 at Celtic Park.

Dutch Eredivisie: PSV are 2 points clear of FC Twente at the top of the league.

RUGBY UNIONLondon Irish are a point clear of Northampton at the top of the Aviva Premiership whilst Leeds Carnegie struggle at the bo�om with only 2 points.

FORMULA 1Fernando Alonso won the Korean Grand Prix at the weekend which puts him 9 points clear at the top of the Drivers Championship.

COMMONWEALTH GAMESAustralia topped the medals table with a total of 177,with India and England coming in second and third.

In the News...