Update from Forest Lake/Springfield Team A

The team has successfully finished their trek and community project.

The past couple of days have been both rewarding and exciting. The days in Halong Bay have were very much enjoyed as well. Currently the team is seeing the sights of Hue.
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Update from Canberra Girls Grammar - B

Team B has arrived safely in Borneo and are currently enjoying themselves in Sandakan.

The group will be heading off to their community project soon, with much excitement.
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Update from Canberra Girls Grammar - A

The girls have arrived safely in Borneo and are thoroughly enjoying themselves in and around Kota Kinabalu for a couple of days sightseeing before heading off to their project and trek.

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More new from on the ground in India

Written by Elizabeth Hardby - GapBreak 2009, India

Today has been really good so far, we went to the day care and it was so fun! The little kids were jumping on me and my favourite kids were there, but they are all a little sick, one has a really bad ear infection and another had a tummy ache. They are so cute, when we sit down, Laxman and Puran (2 boys) run over to me and drape themselves on me, its great.

I have taught them different faces and they will do them randomly now. They are really cheeky.
Yesterday we went into town and brought some clothing because my nice pants got a rip in them, so I got some cotton ones which are really nice.

We have finally organised 2 trips, which we are doing through our in-country agent. We are going to Jodhpur for 3 days and we are doing some sight seeing and going on a camel safari with the new volunteers and Gaurav. Which will be so much fun. We will be staying in the desert with a tribal family and we are going on a camel ride for 2 days. We are so excited. Then in August we are going to Ranthanborne National Park (tiger park) and Agra (Taj Mahal) for 4 days.
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Heartwarming experiences and emotional goodbyes

Written by Georgina Kempton - GapBreak 2009, Ghana

We're leaving Swedru on Monday morning to go travelling up north for 2 weeks before heading back to Accra to fly out to our various destinations (London via Joburg for me!). There's been a very intimidating sense of finality growing.

The weekend after that was spent at Akosombo, up in the Volta lake region. The drive there was beautiful - if you ignored the tro tros/locals, we could have been in the hunter valley!!! On Saturday we did a Volta cruise for 6 hours, which was very relaxing. We stopped halfway at Dodi Island where we were met by lots of local kids who led us across the island and back. On Saturday night a whole group of us went camping to Boti Falls - we stayed behind because Claudia was feeling crook but we had a fantastic girls night, went out and bought Ghanaian street food, the equivalent of junk food - Ghanaian chocolate, popcorn and milo sachets!! Just to indulge ourselves because everyone had had a bit of a tough week. Then we decided to go all out and on Sunday morning the 4 of us headed to Accra and saw a movie (angels and demons - loved it!) and had pizza for lunch. So we had a lovely indulgence day :)

The weekend after that (last weekend) we headed back to Kokrobite to Big Milly's for a last weekend on the coast. The boys aren't travelling with us so it was a nice last group weekend too. It was beautiful to go for a big swim in the Atlantic and just chill out. There was a huge reggae party on the beach on Saturday night so we had a great time mingling with Ghanaians and other travellers, and dancing to old songs like 'celebration' that the band was playing on the beach. Lots of fun!!! All in all an excellent weekend.

The weeks have been speeding past and I just finished my last day at school a few hours ago. Very sad - Phoebe and I found ourselves tearing up on more than one occasion. We've donated 20 desks and chairs to the school as well as a beautiful cupboard with about 60 books, clocks, games, a soccer ball, encyclopaedias, posters, maps etc. When we presented everything they were stoked, and phoebe gave a little impromptu speech which was returned by ma (who is not only our host grandma but also the founder of our school). We then had our classes to ourselves as usual for the next hour or so, and after break we did P.E. in the form of dancing...macarena, hokey pokey, nutbush, musical statues etc!!! We went and said goodbye to our kids after lunch which was awful. In Ghana when someone is coming back or coming over or anything they just say 'I'm coming, I'm coming ok?' and one of my beautiful KG2 girls Francisca said to me 'Madam Georgina, you are not coming?' – I almost burst into tears. We had to spend a few moments collecting ourselves! I can't even imagine what leaving our family is going to be like on Monday, it makes me sick just thinking about it...so let's avoid that!!!

My big project at school has been teaching the kids in my class to write their names. I bought them all exercise books and wrote about 13 times in each book their names in dots so they could trace and then copy. It's been so heart warming to watch their progress - and the fact that they now know what different types of weather are and can distinguish different shapes is so amazing. It's hard to believe I’ve taught them that stuff - we all started off with so little confidence in our teaching skills, and now it just feels natural. I'm going to miss my class so much!

Other than that, not too much to say. We're starting our trip with 3 days in Kumasi, a big city about 4 hours north west of Swedru. We’re thinking of skipping back down to Accra on the 10th because Obama is visiting Ghana....we think it would be amazing to see him!!! But we'll see how that turns out. Other than that we're exploring the north...will tell you about it!!!!
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Jambo from Kenya

Written by Joanne Cranney - GapBreak 2009, Kenya

JAMBO!
It is amazing over here, too much to tell already! The plane trip was hectic. We got to Nairobi ok however it took so long to get through customs that we nearly missed the plane! We only got to our connecting flight as the last couple of people were boarding. We were also delayed because loads of people were trying to help us then trying to get money from us! We arrived at Mombassa and got on this old truck with no walls it was the scariest trip of my life!!! So we got to our little village a bit overwhelmed and tied. I am in a mud hut with 7 other girls. We all have nets around our beds!

Sunday we went for a walk around the village then headed to 40 thieves beach- the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. There were camels there too. So we all (28 of us) went for a swim for hours and there was hardly anyone else there. Monday we started our project work and built this massive fence. I must have gone weak as I was buggered by the end. However, I still had enough strength to play with the kids and a game of soccer with the villages, which we lost miserably! Today I am so sore and can barely move so luckily we had a restful day- we walked about 30 mins to another village and they cooked us lunch, which was so nice. So I am now back at the beach for the afternoon.
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Hills, Gods and the Orphanage in India

Written by Emily Fischer - GapBreak 2009, India

It was a little cooler here today, which was really nice. Last night it rained for the first time and I got so excited I was dancing in the street. When it started raining me and some people from the house walked to a shrine at the top of a mountain. Actually the mountain is more like a big hill. It looks like a small temple. I think the Maharaja built it somewhere between the 15th and 18th century. It kind of looks like a small temple, its so nice. Anyway while we were walking up to it, we all got stuck because the hill is covered in all these super prickly bushes. So when we were about halfway up this little Indian guy sprinted up the mountain and started speaking really fast in Hindi. None of us really understood but he showed us the way up and when we got to the shrine he said the Maharaja used to shoot at animals through the archways. It was so nice up there because whenever you go up high you get a breeze.


Today day-care for Liz and me got cancelled because there was a wedding in the village which the kids went to. So we went to Jagdish Temple in the old city, it’s this ancient Hindu temple with big statues of elephants and lots of beggars out the front. When we got inside it was actually the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen…there were about a hundred people from toddlers to 80 year-olds all singing in front of a shrine. I’m not sure which God they were worshipping because they have 330 million different ones, but when we walked in the two village elders at the front smiled while the group belted out this song in Hindi. Their hymns are so good I’ve had it stuck in my head all day. Afterwards one of the elders handed out food to all the worshippers, and he came up to us and explained that it was the food of the Gods and he asked us to have it :D I was so excited to eat the food of the Gods especially because it was actually condensed milk and sugar cake. So yummy!!

I had my first class at the orphanage today! It was fantastic…the kids were really shy at first, they wouldn’t even tell me their names. But then they started to warm up when we learnt about colours and fruit and body parts and everything…I sang to them for most of the lesson but they love singing so it was ok. After the lesson all the kids from the orphanage came and gave me a hi-five, and they all wanted to have arm wrestles so I let them arm wrestle me…they were trying so hard it was hilarious. The orphanage is in a pretty poor state…soon they’re starting a renovation project, which new volunteers are coming to work for. So hopefully I’ll be able to help out a bit with that.

That’s about all I have to report! Thanks so much, we're having the best time!!!
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