Camp Maqui has played host to Camp Ecuador’s first “local’ school: local in this context meaning Latin American, they still had a full day’s travel from Venezuela.

The group from Monagas School, from the plains of northern Venezuela, spent five days at Camp Maqui, and a few days with the Otavaleños.  The environment in Santa Marianita is totally different from that around Monagas, which means, although we had the unique experience of all our clients speaking Spanish, they had an experience totally different from there normal lives.

In the middle of the week we had a sports day with Santa Marianita school, at which we provided lunch and the group devised some competitive games and prizes.

The group also helped out with the on-going project of the Guarderia at Camp Maqui, working hard on the loo block and the open area around the playground.  The building is so nearly finished now and we are excited that soon we will be able to open it and use it after all these months.

Their time in Ecuador also included a few days in the Otavalo area, exploring the culture and the making of artisanal products. The idea behind the programme with the school was to give an educational, fun and productive experience and the lead teacher Kristen Ahlers, who travel with Camp Borneo when at her old school in Taiwan, said “the students were provided with a good balance of service/learning/science/vacation, and that this trip has created many lasting memories.”

It wad great to have them here and we look forward to next year’s Peru trip with the school.

Dubai International Academy’s (DIA) trip of Tanzania!

From the sand dunes of sunny United Arab Emirates to the muddy foothills of rainy Kilimanjaro.

I have never witnessed a group so excited about rain like DIA. We have been hosting many School expeditions over the years and one almost expects them to ask “where is the sun” when they arrive and the skies are grey. Well, it all came clear that this lot do not experience much rain, if at all any. It was great to see them celebrating with a little rain dance.

Immediately after exchanging pleasantries and the group had settled in, we took them on a familiarization tour of Mbokomu village and the school that they’ d be working at.
As the Swahili saying goes “Be a good host to your visitor on their first day, the next day give them a hoe to plough”. And so we did. Honeymoon was over, the Team was taken to Kiboriloni School to literally get their hands, shorts, t-shirts and faces dirty. They painted and drew murals on two classrooms in two days. With the short trips, students realize that they have very little time on projects and have targets to meet so what they tend to do is work their socks off on every activity that is thrown their way.

We changed the pace and engaged them in a typical Chagga (local tribe) cultural tour. The tour included helping a local lady with her daily chores such as; tending to her goats, fetching  water from the stream, and farming. Basically the students get to experience a day to day life of the locals. The tour is not considered complete unless everyone is wrapped in kanga’s (sarongs) and put in the mama’s smoky little kitchen to prepare lunch for themselves. Nothing could stop them from their cookery lesson, they were brave enough to stick around the kitchen despite smoke from burning firewood causing tears and sweat dripping from their eyes and faces!  Once in the village, you are considered one of them and you are expected to do what local people do including having your food while seated on a mat and using your hands to eat.

As we still had a bit of time left on our schedule, we  organized a football match with a group of local boys. Although the locals are used to playing all boys teams, they did not mind playing a mixed school and it was awesome to see boys and girls sharing the same playing field, which is a rarity in these parts of the world.

The day that needed everyone to be well prepared was here. The Kidia waterfall trek. It had rained through out the night and morning so the Team woke up thinking they had got away with it. You should have seen their faces when I announced to them that the trek was still on. Whilst we waited it off, they enjoyed a trip into town and spoiled themselves with Pizza’s at Indoitaliano restaurant followed by a supermarket run to get a few goodies before heading off to Kidia. In the meantime, the staff, and especially the local guide, were doing some Chagga rituals to the gods so that they could blow away the grey cloud that was hanging  over Moshi town. All the prayers and traditional chants worked. By the time the students had finished munching on their Pizza’s, the skies had cleared up and the sun was shinning.

The adventure ensued. The team had to take it slow and easy as the ground was still a bit wet and slippery and the trek was steep. With the help of the local guides, the entire Team managed to get down to the falls. Such an achievement and great feeling for the students as it was both fun and a challenge as some of them used their bottoms to climb down and the heavy rains made the waterfalls drop with such force. It was not just the trek down to the falls that took their breath away but the gauges, little farms, the beautiful, plentiful flora and fauna, greenery and the ever friendly locals who smiled and waved at the students whilst going about their daily chores.

   
The next day the group left bright and early to go to Tarangire National park for their safari. They saw loads of wildlife and enjoyed the game drives in their entirety.

On their return to camp, we had prepared a barbecue dinner for everyone as their last meal in Camp Tanzania. The group appreciated it very much as it was a great way to end their expedition. After dinner, the speeches ensued and we had a chance to ask the volunteers to sum up their entire trip in just one word. This is what they had to say;

It was great to see all the activities that we’d organized completed and the students and Teachers taking on all the tasks with a positive attitude and enthusiasm.

We were honored to host you and thank you for a great effort!

Some fervent religion in Quito to celebrate Good Friday.  Heavy crosses, bare feet, intense faith and five hours of procession.

There are times in the life of Camps that we are either starting or finishing something.  Sometimes that involves a bit of a party, and we have had a few of those lately.

Often at the end of project work the community like to say thank you with singing and dancing.  Of course, some projects last for years so occasionally they do this just because a group is leaving so they are saying good bye to those guys.

Late last year we had two of these events, one at Camp Amazon and one at Camp Costa; below are some photos from those two parties.

At the other end of the process is establishing relationships and projects with communities.  Last weekend I had a meeting with, I thought, a few people from a community with whom we are working this summer with the Teams.  I arrived with my family, telling my children we would be there for an hour.  I was wrong.  This was not a meeting with a few people, this was a meeting with the village, complete with local musicians and dancing.  The fact that my son accused me dancing like Mr Bean tells you all you need to know about what followed.  After the dancing we did have great conversations about the projects and the time the Teams will be with the community in the summer.  Among other things, we are hoping that we can arrange a few poncho making sessions, some Quichua lessons and a little more dancing.

Camp Maqui is playing host to its first school team.  The Shore School group, from Sydney, are working hard on a project phase with us before heading off to other parts of Ecuador under their own steam.

The calm progress towards completion of the guarderia goes on.

The team have raised money and that is going towards the materials for the playground equipment and tables they are making: any surplus money will be spent on further resources for the building and its future operations.  The group are playing an invaluable part in making sure that the Guarderia can operate in the new year: the aim is to have the children arriving every day in January and the spaces for adults ready in February or March.

Jorge and Marco of Camp Ecuador’s Crew helping out.

Many stools for the children’s nursery, constructed this week.

Jordey Logan is travelling to Tanzania in the summer of 2013 and began his fundraising in November last year. Since then he has managed to raise all the money for his expedition and is continuing to fundraise to help the other members of his team reach their goal too…

So far I have done a couple fundraising events, some with my school and other students going on the trip, such as a carwash which we in total managed to raise £200 earning me about £30, a year 7 stay awake raising about £400, raising me about £100. Things like this are a good idea as you don’t have to do it on your own and it will provide you with some money. But doing an event by myself has allowed me to raise a lot more money for my trip.

The first thing I did by myself was a sponsored head shave since I had been growing my hair for about 6 years, all the way through secondary school , changing it from big curly hair into dreadlocks. Resulting in most of my friends to have never seen me with short hair, helping me raise a total of £450, as so many people where determined to see me with short hair.

The best way of drumming up a considerable amount of money which I realised, are events that include the following two things; something that nobody else has done or something not many do, and things that make people question if you are able to complete it or not.

One event that I have recently done which included both of these things is something called the Everest Challenge, which involved me climbing 997 feet (304m) from Lynmouth to the highest point of Countisbury hill, 29 (and a bit) times continuously to make up the 29028 feet (8848m) to the summit of Everest, which I managed to complete in 26hours 47minutes. And as this event was something nobody has ever done, I managed to raise £3521.51. Meaning I have practically raised all the money required for my trip to Tanzania in 2013.

So from all of the events that I have done so far, I have managed to raise around £4101.51, meaning that I have raised over my target amount of £4000, £3840 for the trip and £160 for anything I require e.g. jabs. But as I still have just under a year left till my trip, I’m going to help as many of my friends going on the trip as best I can to make raising the money required that little bit easier.

One of the main reasons to how I managed to raise such a considerable amount wasn’t just because it was a remarkable challenge, but because of how well I advertised it/let people know what I was doing. A good way of doing this is to create a Facebook page, even though creating a website looks good, nearly everybody will check Facebook regularly unlike a website. Another good way is to put a write up about the event in your local paper and place posters and fliers around where you live. Anything that grabs someone’s attention while informing them what’s happening.

In case you are thinking that you wouldn’t be able to easily go up to people asking for sponsorship, or going into places and asking for them to put up posters and possible sponsor you. Don’t be ashamed as that was my biggest problem while fundraising, but what allowed me to overcome that problem was since I was determined to raise the money for my trip, even if it resulted in my going out of my comfort zone to achieve it. But I promise you now that even if the first time is hard it does get easier the more times you try.

The best advice I can give to anyone is; don’t set challenges which you know you can’t complete, make sure you let as many people as possible know what you’re doing (not just the event/challenge but what the money’s for and what you’ll be doing during your trip). Last thing I will say, which many people have told me, is that you won’t succeed if you don’t try.

I wish everyone else who is fundraising for a trip all the best and hope what I have said helps.

Hi everyone! Hattie, one of our awesome Camps International people, asked me to write a bit of a blog for you all, in case you’re in need of inspiration. School fundraising  can be done.

My name’s Ellie, I’m from Manchester and I’m taking part in Ecuador 2013 (visiting the Galapagos Islands too as the adventure element of our expedition).

Crompton Car Wash

I found out last December about the trip and the most important thing I’ve found from the start is planning, planning and a bit more planning! After coming up with ideas, by looking at what others have been doing and getting some ideas from the CI guys, it’s so important  that you really think through how your event is going to work; who you’ll have involved, where you’ll hold it and how you’re sure to make a good amount of money.

Although doing a little and often does help and contributes to bumping up your fundraising totals as you go, I found that doing bigger and larger-scale events extremely helpful to bump up your money-raising. For example; so far I’ve held a Quiz Night with a friend (Jacob also going on Ecuador 2013), played Christmas music in supermarkets, written to local companies, councillors, rotary etc. in the hope of receiving some donations, and I held my Changing Lives Music Concert too. I personally, have found that my music has been really helpful in helping me to raise funds through my music concert, playing in the supermarkets and now offering the service of a wedding flautist, so sort of homing in on what you can do is a brilliant start.

Fundraisings to date – Aim £4300:

• Selling Friendship Bracelets in School – £92.66
• Playing Christmas music in two supermarkets – £493.27
• Joint Quiz Night – £244 .00(each)
• Selling buns to a couple of neighbours – £6.00
• Changing Lives Music Concert – £1004.54
• Changing Lives Music Concert DVD & CD sales – £64.00
• Music in Church at a funeral – £20.00
• Recycling old mobile phones – £26.50
• Donations (incl. Initial £430 deposit) – £1453.29
• Bag Packing (Group Fundraising) – £110.61
• Chocolate Cake Sale (Group Fundraising) – £9.95
• Wedding Flautist – £30.00

Total Raised = £3554.82

Other Events I have planned:

• Sponsored Abseil
• Summer Party
• Playing Christmas music in supermarkets
• Wedding Bookings
• More group bag packing
• Group car washes
• Group School Summer Fair

Sometimes getting support and making people aware/interested in your event is half the battle; advertising and getting your name out there is pretty important. I produced a leaflet which told people about me, the expedition and what events I had planned. I also set up a website (www.ellieknott.co.nr), and by ensuring that it’s kept up to date it’s been really useful. By getting in touch with your local newspapers, magazines, to putting posters up in your local area and telling all your family and friends, every little does help. Contacts too are definitely a good thing to have, if you know anyone who works at a particular shop, your local primary school or even for your local paper then, I found it good to reach out to them and get as many of them involved as possible. There are lots of good people out there willing to help and support you!

This whole thing we’re all involved with is so amazing and such a fantastic opportunity that it’s really worth the hard work and pursuing with even if it feels like your fundraising is struggling. You can do it! It’ll be so worth it when you get out there!

Hope this helps in anyway, and if you want to ask any questions please feel freeJ

Ellie