Gap Year 2010-11

New plans….

martinahuzell — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 02:09:43 +0000

The two months I’ve spent in Singapore have gone by so quickly… but I’m quickly getting restless and am excited to be leaving for my next gap year project very soon! On the 18th of Feb I’ll be flying to Melbourne, Australia with my friend Monica, where I’ll be staying for 4 months working at the IKEA store there (yup, following the parental footsteps). I’ll restart this blog ASAP when I get there!!!

The rest of Thailand…

martinahuzell — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 10:53:36 +0000

I know I’ve been completely useless at updating this blog recently, but to be honest it’s because each week of PREM and adventure is the same as the one that proceeded it… and that doesn’t make for very exciting blog writing (or reading).

ANYWAYS. The last week in Thailand I spent with Wallace on adventure week, and it was my favorite adventure week of the trip! Since it’s dry season, the water levels have gone down significantly, and thus the river is much rockier and SO MUCH MORE FUN TO RAFT IN! The first two days rafting we were made victims of “gappie punishment” in the form of a ridiculous inflatable canoe that we had to use instead of a proper raft… to my extreme frustration and rage it was much harder to steer, and on the first day we were really behind for the first hour before we got the hang of everything. On the plus side, I had thighs of steel after two days of depending completely on my legs for balance in the death-boat (my knees, however, decided very early on that they would not be cooperative to the amusement of all the children on the trip). Another joy to the children was how easily we were knocked out of our little joyous ride. And because Wallace had victimized so many of the kids that week, I became collateral damage when they decided to get back at him… I was pushed out into rocks, hit in the face with a paddle and had ALL my rafting gear hung up into the top of a bamboo bush since they thought it was Wallace’s stuff (I did sometimes question why I had gotten myself into this job…).

Despite my slightly negative tone, the week was really great. It felt great to be on the river and get some (much needed) exercise. I’m back in Singapore again enjoying some time with the family. Expect an update after I get back from my family trip of sailing around Phuket!

Gappie beer tower!

Trekking on the ridge

CSt class

Staff raft down the rapid

I had to fake being unconscious, and the class had to “rescue me”… needless to say, I’m so glad we had an ACTUAL rescue team since they basically battered me to death.

More photos from Adventure Week!

martinahuzell — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 06:10:58 +0000

Crossing a river on the trek

On our way to the rafting

View from inside the raft

Rapids!

Adventure Week

martinahuzell — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 08:04:53 +0000

I LOVED ADVENTURE WEEK! The first two days were “trekking” days. We stayed the first night at base camp, where the kids slept in tents and Jan and I stayed on benches outside in the dining area. It was a really nice campsite and the food we got was really good! Since this weekend was Loi Katong (a very important festival), the Thai guides decided to spitroast an entire pig! The kids obviously didn’t get any, but Jan and I ate so much… I love being a gappie! Two of the six nights we stayed in traditional Thai “long houses”, and the rest of the time we slept outside while the kids either slept in tents or built bivies for the night. Although the nature was absolutely breathtaking during the trek, my favorite part of adventure week was the rafting. In total, we spent half a day raft training, and two and a half days rafting down the river. The last half day was the best since we got to raft down huge rapids… I managed to not fall out of the boat! WOO! The students also visited a local Thai school and spent a morning playing with the children. They got along with them really well, regardless of the fact that the local kids had thrown fireworks at the students the night before.

I was really surprised how much the children changed during our week away from PREM. The first week I really had a different perspective of everyone, they stayed in their tight-nit groups of friends and didn’t seem like a very close tutor group. On adventure week, however, they all became a lot closer to one another, and I really enjoyed getting to know them all better. On Friday we woke up at 3am and got the kids to the airport before heading back to PREM. It’s our last weekend off, so it’s time to PARTY!

Preparing for Adventure Week

martinahuzell — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 04:42:38 +0000

After another week at PREM doing the same thing as last week, I’m now preparing to go off on adventure week! We leave tomorrow sometime in the afternoon and go on a two hour bus ride into the hills. Until Friday next week I will not be contactable because I’m going to be rafting and trekking with the grade 8 classes.

I’ll write a more interesting update as soon as I get back from my week of adventure!

Second half of PREM week

martinahuzell — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 04:09:21 +0000

I know I’ve been terrible at keeping this blog updated, but I’ve been pretty busy.

Anyway, the days after the River Study were as busy as all others. Wednesday morning we took the kids around to the local industries in the village by PREM. The four industries we visited were: a basket factory, a rice mill, a pottery and finally a buffalo farm. The kids were really interested in everything and asked a lot of questions, but I think their favorite stop was the buffalo farm. There the kids got a chance to ride the buffalos and even plough the rice field and plant some rice. Even if they got really dirty, everyone got really into it and seemed to enjoy themselves a lot.

We spent the afternoon working on crafts. The students were divided into four groups, and each group worked on different crafts for 40 minutes before switching and trying out the next craft. We all learnt how to make traditional “kratongs”, a flowery candle thing that we would later put out onto the lake, how to decorate traditional umbrellas, how to make banana sticky rice and also decorated lanterns. Most of the things we made in the afternoon were going to be used later that evening at the Khantok dinner.

We all got “dressed up” in the evening for the “Khantok Dinner”, a traditional northern Thai style dinner where we were served traditional food outside on mats. After the delicious food, we got to watch four traditional performances before putting our kratongs on the lake and lighting our lanterns. Everyone really enjoyed the evening!

Thursday was the last day for the tutor groups at PREM, but it was as busy as always. In the morning we took buses into Chiang Mai, were shown around the wall and finally ended up at some temples where the students had various art tasks. The students had to pack all afternoon, but around 4 everyone got back onto the buses to go to the night market. We spent a couple hours in the chaos and enjoyed a really yummy dinner at a food court before heading back to PREM for an early night.

First days at PREM

martinahuzell — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 06:50:52 +0000

After a short stop in Singapore, I was on my way to Chiang Mai in the early morning of November 6th. I flew up on the same flight as two tutors who were on their way to meet their tutor groups for adventure week. When I got to the PREM center (the school that we live at on the week that isn’t adventure) there were SO MANY CHILDREN because all the tutor groups were there changing over. I got to see all of my fellow gappies (Kevin, Jan, Wallace and Donovan) before Jan and Kevin joined the other tutor groups on adventure week.

My initial thought was: HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO REMEMBER 45 NAMES? I have a terrible enough memory as it is, and when there are 45 new kids every two weeks… GAH you can imagine my slight worry.

The day I got to PREM was basically an introduction for the new tutor groups that had arrived, so there was no real work. The first full day started (like all other days here will) at 6.30am with breakfast at 7. The food here is so good! Then the tutor groups were split, and Wallace and I joined JaC for their village study. Our hard work that morning was to cycle around the village and make sure the students were managing We’re in the countryside and it’s so beautiful! Definitely cannot complain about the work we’re doing. After lunch we went to the village Wat (temple) and learned lots about Buddhism. When the students are in the classrooms our job is to update the blog that has been set up for the parents to read, so we’re not that busy then. Otherwise we supervise all their free-time.

Yesterday was fun- we went to an elephant camp where we got to feed the elephants, watch them bathe, watch a show where the elephants demonstrate how they worked in the logging industry and finally ride them! The elephants were so beautiful! But the students were mainly obsessed with the amount of dung they pooped out… On the topic of dung: after visiting the elephant sanctuary we visited a “factory” and shop where they made paper products out of elephant dung. Some of the stuff was really quite nice!

Today, we spent the whole morning out doing field work: the Mae Sa river study. We went to three different sites and the kids had to collect lots of data. I don’t really know what we’re doing for the rest of the day other than blogging and supervising free time…

Pokhara and Trekking

martinahuzell — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 11:20:57 +0000

Pokhara is the most beautiful city in the world! Our trip here was interesting to say the least… the 5 hour bus ride turned into 9. Even if the trip was really long, bumpy and hot, it was cool to see the countryside. In Pokhara we live on “Lakeside”, a strip of road with shops and restaurants, and it’s right on the lake. The lake reflects the mountains, but apart from that it kind of feels like Thailand.

For the past 5 days we’ve been on our “Poon Hill” trek. The first two days were really foggy and rainy, so it was hard to see the mountains, but the last couple days became really clear and we could see the whole Annapurna range. We’re really tired, but all good and back in Pokhara for the next couple days before heading back to Kathmandu on the 23rd.

Last Day of Work and Pokhara Departure

martinahuzell — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 08:53:21 +0000

Yesterday we officially finished our last day of work… we both can’t believe it, it feels like we just started! The day before was the Dashain celebration at the office, which was really nice. Everyone that works for CWIN was invited to come and bring their families to join in celebrations by performing, watching performances and eating. The performances ranged from a 4 year old singing to speech reading to more singing… even if we didn’t understand anything, it was really fun to watch. They are really talented singers, too! We were amused by the music that played when we were eating though… one of the songs went something like this: “I like to respect my elders…” It definitely made us laugh. Since Andrew was so sick last week, he’s still having issues eating large meals, and this became the center of conversation for the staff who now are convinced Andrew is on a diet trying to lose weight… probably didn’t help that I agreed with them. It was a really nice day!

Yesterday, as I mentioned earlier, was our last workday… We held another English lesson, and thought everything had gone really well until we were in the taxi home and I realized that I was wallet-less… this was a huge mystery to us since I had paid for the taxi to work and had only been at the office. My wallet was no where to be found, but we realized that a random stranger had been in the office asking for donations that day, and my bag had been in a room without anyone else in it… very stupidly done by me. Oh well, life goes on. Today, we’re getting ready for our departure to Pokhara. We leave by bus early tomorrow morning and come back on the 23rd… we’re really excited! We’ll have one and a half day to relax when we arrive, and then the trek starts on the 16th. We have absolutely no fitness, so it will be interesting to see how this goes for us. I’m also very excited because today I bought a sari! It’s so beautiful, I’ll post a picture as soon as I come back from Pokhara.

We won’t be able to post anything until we get back from our trip, so you’ll hear more for me then!

Work and Nagarkot

martinahuzell — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 04:48:55 +0000

This week hasn’t been too eventful. Everyone is back in the office, which has been fun since everything is a lot more lively and exciting now. Apart from office work and lesson planning, we’ve done a second focus group discussion. This time, the kids were from the area we live in, so we recognized many of the faces. Although the stories they told were shocking to us, Sammy told us that the discussions had actually been a bit disappointing… apparently the kids had not even begun to open up about the real horrors they faced in terms of sexual exploitation. Considering the stories they had told us were so awful, I cannot even begin to imagine the extent of the atrocities that are committed against these children. We’ve seen the kids around in Thamel a lot after the discussion, and they always come up and talk to us and call us their friends. It’s really nice until one of them asks if we can get them food… we aren’t supposed to buy them anything, but it’s really crushing when we start walking away and one of the kids pleads: “No dahl baat?”’

Other than the focus group discussion, not much has happened. The naked Dutch guy across our hall has moved, and today our friends from Singapore went home. On Friday, we had yet another public holiday here… its holiday season, so they are quite frequent, and we spent almost 5 hours at the Israeli restaurant OR2K doing some work, reading and just hanging out The only really exciting thing that we’ve done this week has been going to Nagarkot, a mountain village about one and a half hour away from Kathmandu. The village is located at the top of the mountain, so we went up to the viewpoint to see the beautiful view. It was nice and cool at the top, even cold whenever there was a breeze… and the view was amazing! I can’t wait for our trek, because if this is how nice the view can be from so close to Kathmandu, it’s going to be incredible from the actual mountains.

Tomorrow we’ve been invited to join the CWIN crew to celebrate Dashain, the biggest Neplai festival of the year! It’s going to be fun to actually experience a real Nepali celebration… although we both really hope that the dancing will be kept to a minimum.