Stepping Stones

End of selection on the beautiful Isle of Coll with good friends

I was surprisingly calm when I opened the letter. It didn't pretend to be anything it wasn't - brown envelope, standard weight paper, no gold glitter or embellished corners (not that I was really expecting that). It's just that when I think about it, that letter has probably changed my life in ways I cant even imagine yet, and yet it was so normal.

Still, the unassuming letter remains unassuming - it's not an achievement. Getting into university will be an achievement. Raising £5,100 will be an achievement. Living in Guyana and making a difference to the lives of the people there will be an achievement. Today was just the first of many stepping stones that I will be hopping along in the next two years. Having said that, I think it was a pretty good start :D

So as you may have guessed, i'm moving to Guyana. After attending a selection course in October 2011 Project Trust accepted me on a gap year (hence the dramatic letter paragraph), leaving me with the task of raising quite a bit of money. I'll be spending a year in Guyana teaching Science (and hopefully not Maths!) to secondary school children up to around GCSE level. I'll be employed by the government and get paid a small monthly salary to cover my living costs whilst working in a rural school. The schools are mostly attended by the children of Amerindian subsistence farmers, and so I've heard, with class sizes of up to 60. I expect the work will be pretty tough, but hopefully very rewarding too.

In the school holidays I hope to get involved in the local village community or go off exploring Guyana and its surrounding countries with my project partner, and hopefully pick up a new language whilst i'm at it!

I'm really looking forward to going away, and also fundraising. I've got some exciting things planned so keep your eye on the Saffron Walden papers, and watch this space!

Windy hill walk on Coll!

Charlie