Coconuts, Canoes & Coco Leaves

Posted on October 20th, 2006 by Jess.
Categories: South America.

Where to begin? It’s been another week of sweaty tribal hecticness, fiestas and muchos bonding with our honorary indigenous extended family! Work this week has entailed yet more leaf collecting, which is far from the megre activity that it sounds, as it involves splitting and hauling tarantula-ridden palm leaves, which are equal to myself in both height, weight and smelliness.

Coca leaves appear to be the main booster of team strength, energy and morale during labouring hours, and are dished out in handfuls by our indigenous colleagues… I’m slightly concerned that I may develop a pricey dependency by the time I return to English shores. I’m even contemplating reserving myself a precautionary place at The Priory for just such a instance.
There was a second Leaper birthday this week and it was yet another corker, and a prime opportunity to slack off for the day. We spent the afternoon tubing which entailed gently bobbing down the Amazon in the massive inner tubing of a lorry tyre. It was all very tranquil until the end set of rapids carried off the least aquatically-capable volunteer another 3000m down stream (minus a tube for approx the last 2500m) but we had no fear as jungle Rambo Hector (our guide) came to her rescue in his big phallic man canoe… what a hero.

We also had the opportunity to don some of the traditional beaded (yet also worryingly revealing) clothing and partake in a bizarre local dance which as far as we could tell consists almost entirely of foot shuffling and the dramatic reenactment of fishing. Alice was definitely shaking her jungle coconuts, which did in fact pop out of her costume on more than one occasion. The children of the family then gave us an exclusive performance of the dance as it should be done, definitely putting our white, sinewy booty-shaking to shame. The day was crowned by some very energetic bopping at the local disco-cum-shed followed by a two hour walk back to camp in a torrential Amazonian downpour, definitely one of those classic ‘the journey is the destination’ gap year moments!

Wednesday afternoon involved lots of kiddy bonding, as we were designated the ´responsible´ elders of 25 local children for two hours, whilst the local parents held a community meeting. We met in the open air church and busted out numerous renditions of ´Hokey-Cokey´ and ´Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes´, along with a nifty round of ´Duck Duck Goose´ and a brief introduction to ‘How to say your name in English´. The kids had such a good time; the parents are apparently going to make the activities a weekly occurrence. We were slightly concerned in the beginning, however, when the head grandmother set fire to all the surrounding land, which consisted entirely of a dry grass and other highly flammable crap… We initially thought that they were taking slightly irrational precautions to stop the kids from escaping, but luckily they were just carrying out a routine land clearance.

We’ve spent the past couple of days in our weekend haven, Tena. Yesterday was epic amounts of fun as we went white-water rafting. Fortunately for us, we met another English girl who is teaching at a school in Tena as well as romancing one of the rafting instructors. This resulted in a full day of rafting fun, waterfall sightseeing, guacamole picnic and a touch of jungle canyon exploration, all at a very agreeable price. I did, however, manage to swallow a few gallons of river water whilst I was continually tipped over board by the guides… I’m bracing myself for some serious puking out of both ends… but it’ll all be worth it.

We’re preparing ourselves for some immense fiesta fun tonight in Tena, as today is the final day of elections. Ecuador has apparently had to make it illegal to drink for 48 hours before voting, as so many people have turned up inebriated to vote over previous years. I have a sneaking suspicion that people will be fully compensating for the weekend liquor drought from about 7pm onwards. So if you don’t mind I must depart to line my stomach in preparation! Ciao!

Love Jess x

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Arrival at Meno A Kwena Bush Camp, Botswana

Posted on October 15th, 2006 by Christelle.
Categories: Africa, Botswana.

Wednesday October 5th, after 22 hours, some little ‘detours’ by London and Jo’burg I finally arrived in sunny Botswana. Oh, and by some miracle, my bags arrived at the same time as me! After a short drive (1.5 hours! Everything is relative isn’t it?), I arrived at the safari camp, Meno a Kwena, my home for the next 3 months.

The camp is divided in 2 sections; the Guest section with all the guest tents and the main tent and a bit further the Researcher Camp where I’m staying. I’ve got a tent there and I’m sharing the kitchen/living room and bathroom with 5 other people (3 guides and 2 other volunteers), the elephants and the lions!!!!!!!

When I’m in my tent at night, I can hear the lions roaring. It’s amazing! They are sometimes very close. Last night, I could hear one walking by my tent… Head under the blanket and I was saved! No need to say that I have stopped doing my midnight trip to the bathroom……

I’m still getting accustomed to my new surroundings, learning the bush rules (no running in front of the lions! Spiders are good, snakes are good, yes, yes), trying to remember every 20 or so staff names; all in Setswana! By all the laughing I’m getting back when I try to say a few words, I’m getting the idea that this French accent of mine is not only a problem with English!

My 1st mission in the village will be to teach the school teachers how to use their computers… there’s no escaping from IT, is there?!?!?! Most of the camp staff are from the nearby village, they are all super cool and very friendly. They all welcomed me with open arms and I cannot wait to start working in their village.

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Welcome to the jungle : )

Posted on October 8th, 2006 by Jess.
Categories: South America.

The place we’re staying in for the next two weeks (Chichico Rumi) is possibly the coolest place imaginable. The Rainforest is picture postcard beautiful and we’re still half expecting to bump into David Attenborough or Michael Palin and their accompanying film crew at some point! We’ve been temporarily adopted by the most welcoming indigenous family who have loads of exotic pets and children running rampage throughout the day.

As well as maintaining the land as an educational spot to teach tourists and fellow Ecuadorians the fast-dying native traditions, the family are also striving to create a small nature reserve, which currently comprises a caiman (mini crocodile), two terrapins, a mini monkey, a baby owl, wild boar, two chickens, two dogs and dozens of hallucinogenic plants in their ‘medicinal garden’ (which we’re definitely hoping to sample).
We did actually arrive with a gift of two baby chicks to add to the animal empire, but sadly one died on the first day from a mystery sickness and the other rather unfortunately was trodden on by one of the volunteers ending in a rather messy head explosion.

We’ve been helping the family thatch roofs, lug canoe loads of heavy rocks (I’m still not entirely sure why), harvest ginormous palm leaves and build bamboo bedding… we’re complete beef cakes in the making. There’s also plenty of time to play though and we’re enjoying daily splashes in the Amazon, and kick arounds with the locals. They’ve been so kind to us since our arrival and despite the language barrier always have a joke to share (cue lots of confused smiles all round!) The grandmother of the family treats us exactly like the rest of her brood, whipping out homemade ointments and potions at the merest mention of illness! One of our crew came down with the runs this week and was ushered off at regular intervals to sit in an incense fume filled hut and be wafted with leaves!
It was my birthday yesterday and probably the best one to date. The other volunteers had organised a cake and mostly food-related prezzies wrapped in banana leaves…it was quite a breakfast spectacle! I was bestowed with handcrafted jewellery and decorated with tribal patterns on my face using the natural paint from a bizarre prickly plant grown in the medicinal garden!
We worked a bit in the morning but then visited a stunning waterfall in the afternoon (although I nearly killed myself a number of times on the treacherous trek there). By coincidence they were also holding a big fiesta in the main village in aid of forthcoming elections, so we gatecrashed that and showed them how to party Brit stylee…oh how the tequila and embarrassing salsa moves did flow! The whole Leap team is utterly embracing the jungle filth and I have apparently already gained myself a not-so-secret nickname of sweaty…to be expected I suppose. This is however probably doing little in my favour to woo some of the hot local men, although the fact that they are generally less than half my size doesn’t do much for the cause either!
Can’t quite believe we’ve only been here one week, it feels like so much longer but we’re both really excited about the rest of our time here, possibly helping in the local school and with the elusive piranha…although we may have our work cut out with the current brood of animals!!

Keep you posted! xx

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Jambo!

Posted on October 1st, 2006 by Alice.
Categories: Africa.

Jambo Leapers!

Here’s your chance to tell us all about your African adventures so far. From the bush to the bar, we want to hear your stories!

Safari Salama!

The Leap team.

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Hola from Ecuador!

Posted on September 27th, 2006 by Jess.
Categories: South America.

Well, after potentially the worst flight either of us has ever has ever taken (eleven long hours of no drinks, no peanuts and the same rubbish film repeated three times for our viewing pleasure…) Alice and I arrived safely (if slightly frazzled) in Quito. But it’s all been worth it! First impressions are of how clean the city is - or at least the parts we’ve seen so far). From previous experiences of traveling in the developing world we’d expected dog carcasses to be littering the road, massive amounts of street hawking and dirty concrete as far as the eye can see! Not so, in fact the only hawkers we’ve really seen are street performers who leap into the middle of the road as soon as the traffic lights change to make dare devilish human pyramids and back flip around the waiting cars!

We were collected and brought to our hostel to meet the rest of the group who have made us feel really welcome and clearly made it their mission to give us a baptism of fire into the seedy world of Ecuadorian nightlife! Two hours after we arrived we found ourselves hopping around energetically to jungle beats in a salsa lesson. Though it should be stated that major physical exertion is not the best activity after a 11 hour flight, two days of minimal nappage and altitude sickness - I had to be frogmarched home through the streets to avoid vomiting on the pavement!

Last night, to celebrate our final night in the big smoke (read ’smoke’ literally, it’s very smoggy in Quito!), we got dressed up in a colourful array of tacky fashion jewelery (all the rage in these parts), visors with sunglasses attached to them and gangster gear and danced into the wee smalls… in fact, I don’t actually think the boys have been to bed yet and it’s midday!

In about 20 minutes we’re off to the Rainforest to start breeding piranhas… woohoo! We’ll be in touch soon!

Love Jess x

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