Our adventure is nearly over. Almost 12 months ago we packed, what seemed then to be the bare minimum but now feels excessive beyond belief, and set off to Argentina. When we arrive back in England we will have visited 14 countries and worked on 7 different volunteering projects. We have lived in hostels, hotels, huts, houses, tents, cars, monasteries, schools, orphanages, boats and caravans. We will have dealt with one bout of Gardia, one bout of vomitting on a bus, 3 months of diahera, a few suspected infestations of head lice and countless mosquito, bed bug and sand fly bites. We will have met many people who have shared their homes and lives with us and we would like to thank them all, especially:

Our Argentinian family, Bill, Liz, Christine and Mikey.
Our Peruvian Family Enrique, Pepe, Victor and Eybe.
Our New Zealand Mum and Dad Olive and Graeme and of course Karmin.
Jak and Lynne our Australian family who put up with us over Christmas and all the people from the QUT project who we sweated and swore with from 5am to 8pm for 6 weeks. 
Our beautiful little sisters from Yogaswami Hindu Girls Home in Sri Lanka who we lived with for an exhausting month and Thivaa and Sangeeta who let us recooperate at their house afterwards.

Anyone can travel and see the sights. For me, it's the people we have met who have made this trip special. Volunteering has allowed us to get off the beaten track and meet people and see things most 'travellers' never experience. Hopefully we have given a little bit back to the countries we have visited and I hope that one day we will meet our new friends again. I would like to mention a few of these people who we will never forget and have taught me to try to be more grateful for all the things I have.

Samu and Lucio- Argentina
At our first volunteering placement we met a little family that consisted of mum, dad and twin 3 year old boys, Samu and Lucio. The family was living in a tent through the Argentinean winter, at the foothills of the Andes. At night the temperature dropped to minus 4. They had no income and no home. The family washed in water from the stream. The little boys had to compete with stray cats and dogs at meal times, as their mum tried to feed them lentils from the pan.

Yanet- Peru
We volunteered at a school in Peru for two weeks. The children lived at the school during the week as their families could not afford to transport them to and from school every day. Yanet, the head teacher has her own house and family but lives at the school through the week. She does this as a volunteer to ensure that these 22 children from rural families get an education.

Aki Ra- Cambodia
As a child Aki Ra was recruited by the Khmer Rouge and forced to lay thousands of landmines that killed hundreds of people. Then, as a 12 year old, he was recruited by the Vietnamese army and made to shoot and kill many of his fellow Cambodians. As an adult, after the war, he has devoted his life to the disposal of landmines in Cambodia, first by defusing them himself by hand, then by training teams of local people, opening a museum to raise awareness of landmines and then by setting up and orphanage for children affected by mines. 

Olive- New Zealand
It's a good job this lady is retired. As well as taking in waifs and strays like us, Olive practically runs the National Party single handedly, is in the process of redecorating her house, solves family emergencies, eases racial tensions in the Mangere East area of Aukland, adopts asylum seekers and makes a lot of gluten free food, all whilst recovering from her second battle with breast cancer. A round of applause for our Kiwi mother!

Lynne, Jak and QUT students- Australia
Our Ozzie family who were so kind to us over Christmas have been so kind to many other homeless travellers before us. After surviving the terrible floods of last year and witnessing the death of neighbours and close friends, the community of Murphy's Creek is still in shock. Lynne and Jak spearheaded the project to rebuild the destroyed trail hut this Christmas which hopefully goes a little way to help rebuild the lives of the people who live in this area of Australia. I thought I'd take the opportunity to give a huge round of applause to all the students who gave up their holidays to hammer, dig and paint for hours that wouldn't be out of place in a workhouse to finish the job.....clap clap clap. X

Vino- Sri Lanka
19 year old vino lives at yoga swami girls home in batticaloa. She's lived there since she was 5, after her mother and father committed suicide in a house fire after a family argument. All three children escaped, and we're sent to different orphanages. Every morning she wakes up at 3am to study for her a'levels. She goes to school at 7am come home at 2pm, then goes to after school classes until 8pm. She has dinner and then revises until 11pm. She does this everyday. She's kind, gentle and quiet and wants to be a lawyer. Here's to vino! 

Kavitha and Devi- Sri Lanka
These two ladies run the Girls Home we stayed at. They live there constantly, with the girls. They never have a day off. This is not a Monday to Friday job for these ladies, it is their life. Davi plans to get married next year but instead of setting up home with her new husband, she plans to go home to make his dinner in the evening and then come back to the home to sleep on the floor with the youngest girls like she has been doing for ten years.

Mad Jack- Cambodia
Jack is English. He visited Cambodia 6 years ago and never left. After witnessing the plight of working elephants in Cambodia he has spent that time raising money to buy land for a sanctuary. He now has a team of people working with him, including vets and volunteers. 6 elephants currently live at the sanctuary but dozens more benefit from Jack's outreach veterinary care. It takes on average 3 years to negotiate the sale of an elephant, many of which are suffering not only physically but emotionally from years of abuse. Jack has to save up for 2 years to buy a ticket to England to visit family. 

Debbie, jimmy, Thivaa, Sangeeta and Tom- Sri Lanka and England
Some people just get on with helping make people's lives better without fanfare or expectation of reward. These are some of them.  They are mostly related to Tom in someway or another and spend their free time helping (in the most direct way) countless numbers of children in Sri Lanka whose lives have been blighted by the loss of one or both parents. This is not just a one-off event, their help is on-going, meaningful and savvy. They ensure that the right support is made available, whether practical like buying a generator for an orphanage or emotional such as mobilising a group of grandma's in Britain to knit teddy bears for the children who live there. 

All in all we've met some pretty amazing people on our journey and done things that we never
thought possible. Most of all I'd like to thank Emma who has put up with my whining for a whole year, there's no one I would have rather shared this adventure with. Thanks you for looking after me! What a woman!

R x

Hi,
If you follow this link you'll be able to view our Kathmandu, Lumbini and Bandipur and Bardia photo albums. X

http://photobucket.com/albums/ff385/workerbee30

Nepal Blog

We are currently sitting in a jungle being eaten by Mosquitos, better than being eaten by a tiger but still quite uncomfortable! 

We arrived in Bardia National Park (south west Nepal) this morning after a 16 hour bus journey on a local bus complete with drunk men sleeping on the roof. To be honest the roof seemed preferable to our seats which by hour ten had become harder than the hardest thing ever recorded on a hard-o-meter. Our bottoms had become as leathery as a rhino's and have bruises that rival my worst rugby injuries. Nevertheless we arrived at 5am, and slept until 2pm. We then proceeded to eat our own body weight in carbohydrates including, rice and soup, chow mien, chips and momos. Emma, having recovered from a bout of food poisoning (this time, the cucumber, not the pineapple, is getting the blame) hadn't eaten for 3 days so was pretty hungry! Our room is a little shack made of bamboo and clay with running water, all be it cold, and mosquito nets to keep our old nemeses at bay. We're hoping to stay for a few days and do some jungle treks to spot the elusive Bengal tiger, along with maybe a rhino and elephant!

Our previous stop was Pokhara, the last destination west for most travellers to Nepal, and the start of many of the famous mountain trecks. Having decided we were a. Too skint and b. too scared to attempt any real walking we opted to do a few little jaunts on our own. Armed with our Lonely Planet guide we set off around the lake to try to find the world peace monument, a must see in Pokhara. After a few wrong turns and cross words we found the rickety bridge which crosses the river to the hill where the beginning of the trail up to the monument begins. By this time, both of us had had a sense of humour  bypass and the sign warning about the likelihood of being mugged, was too much to take, so we about turned and went back over the rickety bridge to seek the sanctuary of our luxurious, if a little overpriced, hotel room at the butterfly lodge. The irony of being mugged on the way to the world peace pagoda would have shattered our faith in human kind. The rest of our time in pokhara was spent whiling away our time haggling with shop owners and eating momos (a delicious snack, like steamed dumplings, filled with vegetables, rice, or cheese and spinach, and you get 12 for 50 pence). Like any responsible traveller, we tried to spread our money around by eating/shopping at different places. However (because we are very close to the indian border) we found an amazing punjabi restaurant that we went to twice, where we feasted on mushroom panzer, spinach aloo, garlic nan, curry, riatia, dhal and a huge bottle of Everest  beer! Perfect.

We like Nepal a lot, even though we have been unable to enjoy ANY mountain views, due to the smog which drifts across the country from India and gets stuck between the southern planes and the Himalayas. There are lots of different cultures here. Many Hindus, and Buddhists, lots of Chinese and Tibetan refugees and Indians of course. Hundreds of dedicated outdoor pursuit types come from all over the world to conquer mountains (who drag their infants along too) and there are hippies who never left after arriving in 1975. It's a really chilled out place, with delicious food and prices that make it easy to linger for longer . With the exception of Kathmandu, you can get a decent twin room for 450 rp, (£3) a meal would set you back 250rp (£2), and an excruciatingly painful 16 hour bus journey is a tenner. We don't seem to get hassled to buy things here as much as is some places either, which is a relief! Unfortunately, Nepal is one of the poorest countries we've visited and women are the poorest of them all. The Illiteracy rate amongst women is 70%, and it's still legal for a man to take a second wife if a women doesn't bear him a child within 10 years. Diabolically, over 100,000 Nepali girls have been 'sold' to brothels in India. Girls are considered a burden and if a family can afford to send only one child to school it will inevitably be the son. Despite this, we have seen many a happy family scene and lots of children, both boys and girls, making their way to school, so maybe, hopefully things are changing. 

We have two weeks left of our great adventure. It's hard to believe its been almost a year since we began. It has been the best experience imaginable and we are both so glad we had the opportunity to do it. We are planning to visit Lumbini, the birth place of Buddha and then to Kathmandu ready to catch our 3 flights which will eventually take us to heathrow (Delhi, Mumbai, London).  HOME SOON! 

Love Roo and Emmalington Brown-pants xxx

On our last legs

We left the orphanage and were surprised by our reactions. Just to get sentimental and serious for a moment, we were both in tears (despite what Roo might claim). It's hard to explain why, because leaving was in many ways a bit of a relief, not get bitten on your nether regions every time you 'used the plumbing' (not that there was much in the way of plumbing!) and whilst I love curry as much as the next football hooligan after 11 pints, I was dreaming of something else for breakfast, or lunch or dinner for that matter. So, as I say, we were rather surprised to be overcome with tears as we said our goodbyes. 

It's the children, you see, they get to you. Of course you want to strangle them sometimes, but when it comes to it, you care about them and worry for their futures and yep, you miss them. Maybe this is what being a parent is a bit like. Roo (bless her) had her patience tested to the limit, as she was woken every morning with a slap to the face, and a pinch of the nose whilst being presented with milk tea (the milk was still warm from the cow). To be fair to the little thing, it was usually around 6am, which the girls considered an extreme lie in. They were fascinated by Roo, she was a bit more mysterious and different than me. A blonde giant in a world of short dark haired children. She could literally pick two or three children up at a time. We promised to go back, correction I promised to go back, but Roo will come. It will be great to see them again and to stay in touch and follow how they're doing. They're a real inspiration and lots of young people in britain would, I'm sure, think the same way.

We visited another 4 orphanages with Debbie (tom's sister) her husband jimmy and two people we thought were thivaa's parents (after a confused conversation) who it transpired were not. I met thivaa's mum a few days later. Anyway, the other orphanages took our breathe away too. One in particular seemed quite a special place. The plaque on the wall declared it a home for the 'mentally retarded'. Language which of course seems very outdated to our ears. It was run by a couple of catholic nuns and had 75 children living there. All but 9 of them had some sort of disability or another. The children were taught by a special education teacher and the nuns, with the assistance of the 9 children who also attended main stream school. It seemed  a happy place with some really exceptional kids there. There were some terribly distressed children though, including a little girl who was blind, deaf and unable to speak.  She  had recently had a cochlear ear implant, but the intrusion in to her otherwise dark silent world had proved too distressing and she wasn't able to keep the earpiece on. There were other kids there, who wanted to be doctors, teachers, and nuns, testament to the work that the nuns do. Pretty remarkable stuff. 

One thing we we're asked to,do that filled us with dread, was to talk to the girls about family planning. Through our broken English, we had thought that one of the older girls had been studying sex education at college, but she had actually said secondary education. Back to square one.  There was certainly no shortage of bananas at the home  but the thought of trying to explain why we wanted condoms was too much to bear. Instead we waited, and in time it became clear that the main method of contraception in the girls home was the threat of being beaten with a big stick if  you should so much as  glance at a boy! Our problem solved, their problem just beginning! We did have a chat, using our dictionaries about the subject of families and none of the girls wanted children. Perhaps it's something to do with having 32 sisters that puts you off a bit. 

We finally arrived back in Colombo laidened down with  at least 3 tonnes of going away sweets, made by Kavita and Devi, for the journey and for our families back in England. It was a long journey and rained the entire time. We were very relieved to arrive at thivaa's house and meet his lovely wife and her sisters husband brother (who also lived there, at least we think that's who Raj was). Thivaa is the nicest bloke you could wish to meet and he can eat a plate of food faster than anyone we've ever seen! He spends all his free time helping at the various orphanages in Sri Lanka and india and really means what he says. His wife was so kind to us too and presented us with two saris to take back home. She even gave us a lesson on how to put them on. They also managed to sort out a flight to Nepal and back to Mumbai for us too. We are very indebted to them and hope that they do make it to England where we can repay it a little. 

And so we are in Nepal and enjoying our last few weeks of this big adventure. Nepal is as you might expect, hilly. The people are lovely and enjoy the sport of bartering with tourists but not to the extreme. We stayed in a pretty dire place in Kathmandu for a few days and were shocked by the cold (20 degrees c) Then we headed to bandipur a quaint little place in the foothills of the Annapurna range. The place we chose was a bit like bit Shakespeare's house in Stratford, all woody and moth-eaten. I liked it's quaintness, Roo wasn't sure, but at £2.50 per room, you can't really complain. We are now in the most luxury we've been in since we left home, in Pokhara. It's expensive at £10 per night, ,but we were rather desperate for a warm shower after 2 months of colds ones. From here we are planning to trek a little, venture to the world peace memorial and check out some Tibetan refugee villages. Our thoughts however are mainly about home and the people we've missed and the people we've met whilst travelling. 

We'll see you very soon.....eeeeek

Love Emma (and Roobarb)

Sri Lanka photos

http://photobucket.com/albums/ff385/workerbee30/Sri Lanka

A blog we wrote in the orphanage!

Sri Lanka is a very beautiful country. We discovered this as we whizzed past it in a hired minivan. 

We arrived in Colombo from Vietnam, ready for our month of volunteering at Yogaswami Hindu Girls Home in Baticaloa, on the East coast of the country. We were met by Thivaa and his work collegue who had the van ready and waiting to drive us the 8 hours to our destination. Tired, hot and smelly we were chaufered from coconut stall to coconut stall, to various food outlets and cash points until we arrived at the home. And there we have stayed ever since.

We are the only white people ever to have visited Sri Lanka, or so it seems when we occasionally make a break for it to buy water from the local shop. People literally get out of their cars, off their tractors, tuk tuks or bicycles to stare at us. Mad people gravitate towards us and children either laugh hysterically or breakdown in tears at the mere sight of my face. The children at the home, after two weeks still haven't got bored of touching my hair and playing their favourite game, 'stop the blood flow from Roo and Emma's hands' (they like to see the pink colour drain away and then rush back- hours of fun!) They constantly touch our faces, stroke our arms and legs and examine our hands closely. More than once I have awoken to the sight of dozens of little faces watching me sleep. Emma, blessed with dark hair, brown eyes and stunted growth, blends in and lucky for her doesn't get treated so much like an alien invader.

A Sri Lankan custom seems to be to force food on visitors until they vomit.  Luckily we both like rice and curry, as this is the staple diet of all Sri Lankans, 3 times a day, everyday, but sometimes they order in food from elsewhere. For breakfast we have experienced raw onion and whole green chillis with rice, what seems to be crumble topping-dry and uncooked,  thick pancakes made without eggs, curried chick peas, sour rice pudding and a banana sandwich. Kamala, the 'cooking mother,' is a fifty odd year old lady with arms like a WWF wrestler and a penchant for having her photo taken! On average she cooks 12 kilos of rice and 4 different curries everyday on wood fires. She scrapes 6 coconuts, chops 50 chillies, 10 beet roots, 15 carrots and 20 onions, feeding 33 children, 4 staff, us and some waifs and strays who wander in. 

Embarrassingly we are treated like royalty. No matter how much we protest, or how green we look from over eating, our pleas for less food fall on deaf ears. We have taken to hiding leftover food in the kitchen for the children, who have obviously been told not to take food off us. We're all too scared of Kavita, the warden, to do this in public. Everyone here is amazed that we know how sweep and chop vegetables, apparently white people have servants to do these things for them! The fact that we have eaten rice and curry before, let alone cooked it, was just too much for them to take. We still aren't allowed to wash our own plates, put up our own mosquito nets, clean the floor, carry our own chair or cook anything- including make a cup of tea. 

The children here are all lovely. They work their little socks off (if they wore any) and get up at 4am to do prayers. They go to school at 7am, return at 2pm, have lunch then go to after school classes. They have 1 hour in the afternoon to play and then it's prayers, more study, dinner and revision. For us, this timetable is impossible and despite our best efforts we can't get up until at least 7am! That doesn't mean that we sleep however, as the lights are on, people are talking and the warden is shouting from 4am! There is no sense of personal space here, children wake each other up with a slap to the face. However,  If one child is given four peanuts, she'll give three away. She will break her chocolate biscuit in half without being asked if there aren't enough to go around. What a difference to kids in England.

 The children here age between 6 and 19 and live here because they either have no parents or their parents cannot afford to look after them. The stories of some of the children are appalling; fathers and brothers killed in war, mothers forced to go abroad to find work, some children have siblings with them in the home and some children have no one at all, except each other. Remarkably they are, for the most part, very happy, chatty, confident kids with a real keenness to learn. They are healthy, safe and in a place where they are encouraged to learn and achieve. They all want to come to live in England for a better life but are children in England with their play stations happier than these kids? Here, doing handstands against the wall, putting on a silly voice and making a farting noise has them rolling on the floor in fits of hysterics. A trip to the beach is so exciting, collecting shells can last for 3 hours and Chopping vegetables is done with enthusiasm. 

Hello - just emma. There are more than one or two characters here that deserve a mention and we wish we could bore you more with tales of them all,  but we can't let you go without mentioning Usher. She is the most intense 6 year old we have ever met. She looks about 4 and wears dresses at least three times her size. She is however hilarious and despite being the baby of the gang, she holds her own against them all. Her sole purpose in life is to get roo and I to count to 10 in Tamil. We exasperate her with our ineptitude and she pulls a face mixed with despair, constipation, constenation and disbelief which has to be seen to be believed. Then there is 17 year old Yali, who, at almost 5.3  towers over the rest of the children here. She is also the class clown and can always be relied upon for silly face or ridiculous noise at moments of stress (usually involving shouting wardens). She's also devoted to Roo and has spent too many hours laying at her feet  in floods of tears at our imminent departure... in 3 weeks time.  A lot of the girls look a bit like boys here, except for their dresses. One little 11 year old, Kamalese, is a whizz at sport and follows Roo around with a ball, in the hope of a quick game of footie, after Roo  taught her how to kick properly. Individual attention from adults is understandably hard to come by in an orphanage of 33 girls and 3 adults, so we have spent our time trying to povide a little bit  of 1:1 time where we can, but it all seems a bit meagre. 

Anyway I'm sure we will go on more about this rather special place, but thats all for now! 

Vietnam photos

http://photobucket.com/albums/ff385/workerbee30/Vietnam