Hello again,

Hard to believe we’re already into the 3rd week of the April Team’s placement…time’s flying past! As I mentioned before we spent the group’s first week at Playa doing orientation and planning, the group came with me on a tour of the village (which is already feeling like home from home!) and visited the local City Puerto la Cruz with guide – and have since gone in a number of times by themselves to run errands and check emails etc.

Week 2 - Project 1, helping with beach conservation within the Mochima National Park started very well. The team divided up the  job roles we’d all agreed on the week before and cracked on with the hard work. The beach was cleaned complatetly and rubbish transported back to the main-land by boat, a notice-board presentation was researched, designed and then made, a wooden hut for the beach has been designed and materials were bought then at the end of last week we laid the foundations for building this week.

Unfortuanately the National Park Authorities have since asked us to wait and receive another piece of paperwork before continuing with construction, so we are co-operating. As a result we were not able to finish project 1 in the allocated time, we will as a result continue with hut construction later this week and combine our work on the conservation project simultaneously with the community work that is going to kick start next week. It should be pretty easy to split the group up and keep everyone busy for coming 2 weeks in Playa Colorada and I am confident that both projects will be complete before end of our 5 weeks here in Playa Colorada.

Due to the delay with the National Park, the group decided to invest their donation on another short project. Whilst visiting the local primary school it became apparent that the school canteen had been closed due to failings on hygiene (vermin were climbing all over the food- which could lead to lots of health issues for the school children). The kitchen needed a make-over and the ventilation system needed serious re-vamping to stop rats and mice from coming in. We bought the materials, painted the kitchen and now only have grid to put up. Busy, busy, busy! Thanks to the group the kitchen is scheduled to be ready this Wednesday…maybe we’ll get them in to be dinner ladies for the grand re-opening!

Week 3 – Though project 1 has construction work remaining, this morning the group began with project 2, working at the Jakera Kids Club. Work has begun on putting together a presentation for kids at a local school to promote the team’s plans whilst hosting Jakera Club – they focused on what they will do, when they will host it but also reminding kids ‘why’ they should come and why extra curriculum activities are important – we are the only opportunity for after school learning.

The group also, working with head of Spanish Antonio, have started designing their classes and working on necessary vocab in their language lessons in the mornings.

On the health side of things, there’s nothing much to report, a little bug went through the group last week when a few members experienced stomach troubles, but are feeling better now. The group are getting fitter every day and are in  training everyday for their Gran Sabana Trek by walking up and down the near-by hill! We host morning exercise everyday at 06:30 am…so they’ll be in tip top shape in no time.

Over their weekends the team have been  abseiling at a nearby 30m high waterfall..which was a bit of an event! They are also planning to travel to Isla Margarita next weekend where they will travel without a guide and have a bit of a holiday.

Happy Days!

Brendan (Venezuela project Leader)