Although the course only lasts 5 days, I felt as though I had been away from home much longer than that - partly because I had, and partly because each day was packed with so much it felt more like 3 days.
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| One of our stops in scenic Scotland. Mark, Gemma and myself |
I started my journey on Saturday, when I travelled up to Coventry to stay overnight with another Guyana volunteer, Mark, who was driving up to Oban the next day. For any future volunteers: driving up is much cheaper than flying or taking the train as long as you have people to split the cost with. We picked up Gemma who lives near Birmingham after 2 hours of driving, and after a rest-stop and chat with her parents we set off for another 6 hours of driving! Although, we stopped at service stations every 2 hours (organised-Mark had planned these in in advance), and with the good company and many breaks the 8 hour journey really didn't seem too long at all.
Before we knew it we had arrived in Oban where we checked into the Backpackers hostel, had dinner, showered and got socialising with the other volunteers. We all decided to have a drink at the suitably dingy Irish pub across the street which soon filled up due to some important sporting event showing on the TV there - Spain v Italy Euro Final I think. We ignored it as you can probably tell, instead being very excited to finally meet the like minded people who would accompany us to Guyana, especially our partners! I met my partner, Rosie, at the pub when she arrived from the train which had taken her all the way from Bristol. I think we got on really well - in some ways we are very similar but in others very different which I think is a winning combination, so I think we are going to have a great year together. We got chatting about what we wanted to teach; she really likes Maths and doesn't do Science at A level. I on the other hand would absolutely hate to have to teach Maths and love Science, so we pretty much divided up our curriculum within the first 20 mins of meeting each other! A good match it seems, Project Trust. After a while we left the pub which had become very noisy, and they had started to ask for ID (at the time Roise was still 17) so we wandered back to Backpackers to continue our chat and met two other volunteers, Hayley and Tara (also partners) who, unbeknownst to us at the time, we would be sharing a room with all week and would make good friends with.
The next day we were up early in order to catch the ferry to Coll at 8 am. We arrived at around 11am and begun the course. I won't go through every session because it would take far too long, but we were basically given sessions on both general and specific aspects of teaching, staying safe, and culture. There were a combination of lectures, discussions and activities which made for a very interesting and busy week. A highlight of the course for me was the teaching practice we had to carry out. After being given sessions on class control, lesson planning etc. we had to give a 10 minute lesson and a 20 minute lesson to a small group and an assessor. This was similar to Selection where we had to give a 10 minute lesson, however the stark difference was that on Selection I was worried I would run out of things to say, and on Training I wished that I had an hour because 10 minutes just wasn't enough to get in all the activities I had planned! The 20 minute lesson was a little easier, but I still would have been more comfortable with more time. I found that although I was a little nervous before my turn, I quickly began to enjoy my lesson as my "students" were having lots of fun with the activities I had planned.
Although we didn't get a lot of free time, due to having so many sessions, when we did have free time we sometimes went to the beach which was absolutely beautiful. We could stay to watch the seals play and the sun set. Although the water was freezing I rolled up my jeans and waded in. It was quite a strange experience; the sun was very hot on my skin, and yet my submerged legs were going numb with the cold water, and the air smelt heavily of sulphur due to the rocks.
After words of thanks and grace from the elected volunteers we headed to the bar and the Ceilidh commenced shortly after. The Ceilidh is always lots of fun, especially when people are a bit tipsy (more than a bit in some cases!) so it was a very enjoyable but hot, tiring and sweaty night. Dancing a Ceilidh is very good exercise. Once the traditional band had packed up Chris (our desk officer) cracked out his Guyanese music and lots of the Guyanese volunteers including myself danced the night away in - kind of- the traditional Guyanese style.
The theme of the evening (and indeed the next week - it's really catchy!) was the song 'I am a Guyanese' by the popular artist Adrian Dutchin. If you would like to have it stuck in your head too, please see the video!
It's not long now before I leave for Guyana, I have my plane ticket! I'm leaving on the 25th August 2012 at 11.20am from Gatwick and making a short stop in Bridgetown, Barbados before getting the connecting flight to Georgetown, the capital of Guyana. I'll stay in the Project Trust flat for about a week with the other 22 volunteers whilst my internal flights are organised and more paperwork is sorted out, and then I begin my teaching term on Monday 3rd September.
Thanks for reading!
Charlie
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| The driving crew at the dingy Irish pub (+ Scooby, Mark's mascot ) |
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| L - R: Gemma, Natalie, Tara, Charlotte and me. All Guyana volunteers at the pub. |
The next day we were up early in order to catch the ferry to Coll at 8 am. We arrived at around 11am and begun the course. I won't go through every session because it would take far too long, but we were basically given sessions on both general and specific aspects of teaching, staying safe, and culture. There were a combination of lectures, discussions and activities which made for a very interesting and busy week. A highlight of the course for me was the teaching practice we had to carry out. After being given sessions on class control, lesson planning etc. we had to give a 10 minute lesson and a 20 minute lesson to a small group and an assessor. This was similar to Selection where we had to give a 10 minute lesson, however the stark difference was that on Selection I was worried I would run out of things to say, and on Training I wished that I had an hour because 10 minutes just wasn't enough to get in all the activities I had planned! The 20 minute lesson was a little easier, but I still would have been more comfortable with more time. I found that although I was a little nervous before my turn, I quickly began to enjoy my lesson as my "students" were having lots of fun with the activities I had planned.
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| A group of us enjoying the wonderful but rare Scottish weather |
On the last night Project Trust held a special dinner and a Ceilidh which was the highlight of the week. There was a bit of waiting prior to dinner whilst we drank rum punch and a few of the staff members read inspirational poems and said a few inspirational and well wishing words. We really should have soaked up the punch with a delicious meal then, but we waited a little longer whilst we all stood in front of a camera live to the House of Commons. Project Trust were having a fundraising event there and wanted to connect to Project Trust volunteers all over the world in their projects, and connect with the new volunteers at the Coll headquarters. We all showed our excitement and appreciation, after which one volunteer played the bagpipes beautifully. Finally, it was time for dinner which, in the style that we had become used to all week, was enormous and wonderfully tasty.
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| Our whole country group including our desk officer, Chris, who is in the middle in the blue shirt and black trousers. |
After words of thanks and grace from the elected volunteers we headed to the bar and the Ceilidh commenced shortly after. The Ceilidh is always lots of fun, especially when people are a bit tipsy (more than a bit in some cases!) so it was a very enjoyable but hot, tiring and sweaty night. Dancing a Ceilidh is very good exercise. Once the traditional band had packed up Chris (our desk officer) cracked out his Guyanese music and lots of the Guyanese volunteers including myself danced the night away in - kind of- the traditional Guyanese style.
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| L -R: Rachel, Lauren, Gemma and me. Ceilidh night. |
Charlie
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