You can do anything, if you set your minds to it!

After just few days of arriving home in UK from Borneo, Hope Carmichael emailed us on behalf of Sponne School team, a wrap up blog of their trip.

There are many things that Sponne School have done on this trip including… cry, laugh, sing, attempt to dance and become a family. We’ve done things on this trip that we never thought we would and over come obstacles that have made each other and ourselves proud.

The last time you heard from us, we’d just left the jungle and were on the way to Bongkud where our final camp awaited. We left the jungle after a night of cultural celebrations with the locals and a night of sleeping on the jetty which came as a welcome relief to most of us. We said goodbye and left the jungle with heavy hearts – something that we really weren’t expecting!

After 4hours on an air-conditioned bus (something of a luxury!!) we had arrived at Camp Bongkud. We were given coconuts with the tops off and straws so that we could try the local welcome of coconut milk. While drinking our milk, we were introduced to our new home. Eve, the camp manager, also introduced us to Michael who was the conservationist who would be helping us with our project work. We quickly realised that our time at Bongkud would be taken up by project work. There were 2 main projects at Bongkud, one was the water project that once completed would provide clean water for the village and the community centre project where we were helping to rebuild the community centre. Our time doing project work was spent primarily doing the community centre as there was a massive hole that needed filling and that required shovelling, hoeing, wheel barrowing, pick axing, stomping and the power of 17 students, 2 teachers and 1 expedition leader! We worked very hard on our project work and were proud of ourselves when we managed to fill the hole. Of course, we had rubble to help!! We had a lovely 2 days where we got to go to pouring hot springs and have our feet nibbled by fish. It was only supposed to be one but our bus was late! It was Malaysia and things don’t always go to plan…

The days R&R gave us the incentive to work harder on the projects for our final days and we managed to make a substantial contribution to the projects at Bongkud!

Before long it was the final night and we were up to say goodbye. Half of danced the bamboo dance we’d been taught by the locals and half of us gonged like the locals had taught us! We were never going to be as good as them but we certainly gave it our all! It was a sad thing to say goodbye to Bongkud, we’ve made some really good friends there. They’ve got our names and are waiting to add us on FACEBOOK. We played guitar, sang and took photos with them and all too soon the camp was shutting which meant that they had to leave and it was fast approaching the end of our last night in Bongkud.

The next morning, it was time to leave. We were up and breakfasted at 7 and ready to leave at 8. We watched the other school leave for project work and wished that we could go and help. We could hear the kids shouting for us so we went up for one last play. We sang and took photos with them and they were just as sad when we got on the bus and they waved us off.

It didn’t take long before we arrived back in Kota Kinabalu. We went shopping bought the final souvenirs and then went back to Step In to get ready for our final night!

We were all glammed up and ready to party the night away by 7pm – the girls were even wearing make-up for the first time in a month! We all headed down to the sea front and went to the restaurant that we had spent our first night in; it was becoming something of a regular haunt for us! We had a lovely meal with numerous toasts to things that had happened throughout our trip and awards being handed out for what people said about us on a piece of paper. It got quite emotional as we realised that we had spent a month with these people and we’d shared so many life-changing experiences together. After Pappin (our team leader) had handed out the awards to us and our teachers, it was time for us to thank Alex. He’d been a really good team leader to us and we couldn’t have asked for someone who would have been any more fun and helpful than Alex. Now, thanks to his famous phrase “Antiseptic and plaster!”, we all know what to do when we get an injury. Thank you Alex!!!

After our meal, we headed to The Loft where we met up with some of the Camps staff who helped us celebrate the end of our trip.

The next day we had a chance to do some last minute shopping and packing before we had to head to Kota Kinabalu airport to catch our flight. It was a sad moment when we said goodbye to Borneo but I’m sure the memories we’ve had and the friends that we’ve made will stay close to us for a long time.

It’s hard to put into words what Borneo meant to us. There were times when we loved it and didn’t want to leave and when we did we felt homesick and then there was a night when all we wanted was a dry set of clothes and a proper cup of tea, not easy to get when you’re in a rain storm in the middle of the jungle!

But all in all, we’ve had the most life changing experience and memories that we wouldn’t trade for the world. We’ve become a family and for people that didn’t gel too well before the trip, it will not be the last time we meet as a group of 20 – and that includes Alex Pappin!! He won’t get rid of us THAT easily.

So thank you to Alex, who was a fantastic leader and the one best suited to us. To LG and Woods who were fantastic teachers, worked very hard and got us through from start to finish. To US! We are proud of each other and ourselves who have done things that we never thought we would. To the communities, who made us feel so welcome and have made us promise to return!

But finally to Camps International – both in the UK and in Borneo who have helped us through the expedition. From the planning stages to the times in country where we met up with them and helped Alex deal with us.

Thank You Camps – you’ve given us an experience we’ll never forget!!

Love,

Sponne School

We just love your stories! Our guest star blogger this week is SPONNE School !  Having spent the last few weeks on Camp Mantanani, Batu Puteh and currently at Camp Bongkud , they have some amazing experiences to share here….. (this blog were supposed to be published over the weekend but due to poor network service, we were only able to receive this in the old fashion way by hand from our Camp messenger today!)

Mantanani – Diving

Getting on the boat to Mantanani Island, none of knew what to expect but we knew that it would be something special. After about an hour on the boat, Mantanani came into view and it looked like a picture off a postcard. We had our briefing and then half of us were straight into scuba diving. We learnt the basics in the sea and before long it was time for dinner. There were no surprises as to what it was – RICE! Something we have become accustomed to during our stay in Borneo…

Over the next few days, we had many more dives and completed our PADI Open Water course and the paperwork which went with it. The sea life we saw whilst on our dives was amazing and seemed to have no fear when we were swimming along beside it. It was sad when we realised we couldn’t dive anymore but we wouldn’t change the dives for anything, and some of us even purchased additional dives because we enjoyed it so much!!

The project work was by far the most rewarding aspect of our stay on Mantanani, as we managed to complete the foundations for a kindergarten attached to the local school. But don’t get us wrong, it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t hard work in the hot and humid climate! We dug the holes, mixed and put the concrete into the holes and trenches and moved over 500 concrete blocks and thousands of stones. We are all looking forward to seeing the finished product knowing that we helped to start it off. It wasn’t all hard work and no play though. There was time to relax in the hammocks and even learn how to build them. We also arranged many volleyball and football matches against the locals and are ashamed to say that they absolutely thrashed us at all of them! But our skills have come on in leaps and bounds since the beginning of the weeks when we couldn’t even hit the volleyball over the net!

Coming in a close second to the project work was the MCP – marine conservation project – where we first learnt and then taught the programme to the children at the local school. There was such a sense of achievement when finishing a beach clean up with the children when we realised that they had understood what we had taught them and knew that they would continue to do this long after Camps International leave Borneo. Some of the children made a real impact on us and as we walked back to school with them, hand in hand or with them on our shoulders we knew that we didn’t want to leave them and they didn’t want us to leave. Before we knew it, our time on Mantanani was up and although we were sad to leave, we were also all very excited to start the next leg of our Borneo adventure.

Batu Puteh – Jungle

After a brief stop in Kota Kinabalu to freshen up, we were on the way to Batu Pateh, the jungle part of our trip! We had a 7-hour (yes 7!) coach journey for which most of us slept. Once we got to the jetty we had our briefing by the awesome Bart and Win and were soon on the boats heading towards our campsite. We got there and set our hammocks and settled into our new home before it got too dark. We had our dinner and got a brief history of the jungle. As it gets dark so early, we sat round the table playing card games like “Slam!” or “Cheat” and chatted before heading to bed for a fairly early night. You think it’s later because it gets dark so early.

The next day, we went for a walk, 4 hours through the muddy and wet forest floor. We collected seeds that we would plant later in the week. We came back and had lunch which was… rice! With pygmy elephant!! Just kidding – it was actually chicken. After lunch we had a little bit of free time and then we were on the boats heading for a river cruise, however, it was unfortunately cut short because of rain! Something which happens a lot in the jungle… We complained whilst it was still dry, but would later see why it had to be cut short because of the sheer strength of the rain!

That evening we sat round the table, writing journals, reading books and playing cards. We had another early night as the jungle really knocks it out of you. We were woken the next morning by the sounds of the jungle and once breakfasted we were soon back out on the boats on another river cruise heading towards our new site for the day, off to do project work. Once we got there we walked through the jungle to begin our work. The task? To cut the grass; with machetes! It was good fun and we all got really into it – it was actually disappointing when we had to finish. While 6 of our group walked back the way we came to collect our lunch the rest of us made ourselves comfy and began a sing-along. The heat must be doing something to our brains – none of us could remember the words to any songs! Once we’d eaten our lunch we walked deeper into the jungle and began to plant trees as part of the reforestation programme. It wasn’t long before the rain started and some of us had to abandon work… a few kept going though and finished the tree-planting in the rain. As this rain was really heavy, a couple of us decided to wash our hair in it. As crazy as this sounds, I swear it was a good idea at the time!! We called it a day and headed back to the boats and back to camp but not before it started to rain again. Once we were back on the boats we sang rain-related songs all the way back, (essentially so we wouldn’t cry!) and really pulled together as a team. That’s the best thing about trips like this – you leave home with a group of people you don’t necessarily know and during the course of the trip, become a family. We certainly have.

As we write this on our last day in Batu Puteh, with just under 2-weeks to go, its amazing to think of the things we have accomplished, the memories we have, and excitingly, the memories and friends we are still to make.

Let’s see what the next few days in Camp Bongkud holds in store for us!

Yours,

The Sponne School, Borneo Expedition Team 2010

As their trip has come to an end, ST. SWITHUNS SCHOOL gave us some amazing insights of their once in a life time experience in the jungle, the project work  and their bond with local communities had enable them to spend a lot of time with. Thank you for all your support and hardwork guys! [...]

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