Chenapou

After months of tentatively answering questions like "when are you going" and "are you definitely going to Guyana" with grunts of "um not sure really", it is a relief to finally say my project has indeed been confirmed and that my estimated departure date is the 17th August.

Chenapou will be my destination, a remote village of about 500 inhabitants on the banks of the Potaro, 3 hours journey by speedboat upriver from the famous Kaieteur falls. Here there is a primary school of 170 pupils, where Project Trust volunteers have been teaching for four years, as very few qualified Guyanese teachers are prepared to work in such a remote area.

There is very little information to be found on Chenapou, although a google search returns a page from the government website about Kaieteur National Park. In summary, the local people are from the Patamona Tribe and have their own dialect, although English is also spoken. Their way of life is still very much dependant on the forest and the river, with a considerable amount of their diet consisting of different forms of the root vegetable Cassava. They make Cassava into a powder called Farine, they make bread from it, they even make drinks out of it.

My accommodation will be a semi-detached house on stilts, presumably shared with my partner, which is even fancy enough to have a flushing toilet and solar panels to provide electricity.

Not that it reveals anything at all, you can view the location of Chenapou or Chenapowu as it seems to be alternatively spelt, on google maps here. The satellite image reveals it to be in the middle of a mysterious pixelated cloud. I find this makes it all the more exciting!

For now it is a case of getting vaccines, disclosures, references, letters... filling in all the paperwork and waiting for training in July when I'll find out the full details about my project and find out who I'm going with.

Below are some photos taken by a current volunteer in Chenapou who has a blog here.

Gig for Guyana (and the Arctic)

In some ways reaching the fundraising target for Project Trust in January felt like a bit of a disappointment. I thought I was just getting into the fundraising mindset, starting to enjoy the challenges it presented. For me it was a completely new skill, and that £5432.10 countdown figure provided a goal to strive for, providing some extra motivation when the pressures of school or music were not enough. And of course, it is always working towards the goal that provides all the satisfaction, not achieving the goal itself- it is about the journey, not the destination. So "completing" the fundraising seemed like a dead end. Until I realised that it wasn't.

For a start, any further money I raise for the charity Project Trust can be used to help other volunteers who have been less fortunate than myself with their fundraising for any reason. This is something that I see as a good cause, and I do not doubt that Project Trust will use the money wisely. Secondly, there are plenty of costs associated with my year overseas that are not covered by the £5400, including vaccinations and  travel to and from the Isle of Coll for my training course. For this I have set up a second fund, so that donations can still be made that will directly go towards my project. And, if nothing else, fundraising can be great fun, and I didn't want to see all my plans go to waste!

One such plan that I felt was too good to ditch simply because it was no longer necessary, was a fundraiser gig at a music venue close to my school in the centre of Dundee called "Non Zero's", (I have the owner, a great guy named Dave, to thank for letting me hire the place for the night, and for his professional live sound engineering which is a crucial part of any musical event). This event soon became a collaboration, after I talked to Katie Lumsdaine, an adventurous girl in the year below me at school who is spending her summer in the Arctic with the British Schools Exploring Society.

The Courier- Katie's Arctic Expedition

She was looking for events to help her raise the money for this expedition, and I was someone with an event, looking for somewhere that needed the funds it could raise. We decided to split the profits, but I reckon that her help in publicising the event meant that I personally raised more for Project Trust than I would have if I had been on my own for the event.  My strength was providing the music, finding the bands, hers was spreading the word, selling the tickets. Together we made it quite a success.

The photos below were taken by Jamie Ford and Linzi Peters and show most of the musicians performing. I'm sad to say I have none of the headlining act- two members of the Dundee band Seams played a stunning acoustic set which was the perfect atmospheric ending to the evening.

Alison Ross

Honolulu Circus

The finale of Lewis Davie's set, including brass section and saxophones!

Katie and Harry, going to two very different places!

Bedford Rascals

After expenses, the gig raised around £250, which I was incredibly pleased with. I know that our target audience- teenagers- is not an easy one to raise money from, as most of them are pushed to find enough cash for themselves. Seeing so many people turn up for the gig in support of both my gap year and Katie's expedition was fantastic, I hope they all enjoyed themselves as much as I did!

In total I have now raised over £7000 for Project Trust, which is something that I feel proud to have achieved. All that is left now is to start putting that money to good use.

First Shot at my New Job

Teaching a Lesson at Viewlands

Going back to visit my primary school, almost six years after I left, seemed at first like a journey back in time, with many familiar faces welcoming me back as if I'd only been gone for the weekend. On my way across I eyed up the little forest of saplings behind the hockey pitch of Perth Academy, and remembered that I helped to plant those trees whilst in my last year at Viewlands. I've grown a lot since then but if it were a race the trees would be winning. Once inside, the corridors seemed an awful lot smaller, the ceilings a lot lower, but there was still the same atmosphere of business, the same clatter of voices and plates in the lunch hall.

After my visit last term to talk to the whole school about my Guyana project, the children took part in a dress down day and managed to raise over a hundred pounds for Project Trust to go towards my fundraising total. I hoped I could thank the school for this fantastic contribution in some way, and it just so happened that the P7 teachers had already come up with the perfect idea. Seeing as their pupils were studying the rainforests in class, I was given the opportunity to teach a lesson on the geography of Guyana and link it to what they had been learning. This would also be good practise for me at being charge of a class of children, something that will effectively be my job for most of next year.

It turned out that the children knew a lot more about rainforests than I did, so I left that part of the lesson for them to teach me, and after a bit of map-work locating Guyana, I focussed on a couple of ideas they will soon be meeting in secondary school geography; population density and climate. You may be interested to see what they discovered: 

Population Density of Guyana = 3.5 people/km²

Population Density of UK = 256 people/km²

If this seems like a huge difference already, try taking into account the fact that 90% of Guyana's population lives along the coastal strip (10% of the land), leaving a very sparsely populated interior indeed. In the lesson we discussed the various reasons for this.

I was incredibly impressed by the willingness of the P7 classes to learn and participate in the lesson, with bucketfuls of enthusiasm, thoughtful answers, interested questions and respect. It was really this that made my visit a success, as well as the generous support from Mrs Gellatly and Mrs Oliver who photocopied my worksheets and ensured I had everything I needed for the lesson.

Thank you so much to the teachers and pupils for a rewarding and encouraging teaching experience. I hope to be back, perhaps with a bit more first hand knowledge of the rainforest for you next time!

The Land of Many Waters

An introduction to the little known worlds of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana...

'Guiana' has long been the name given by the native people to the mysterious, mostly unexplored land of dark, dense rainforest that lies behind a 900 mile stretch of muddy coastline, just above of the Equator on the north east flank of South America. However Guiana is not only a name, but also a description, a reflection upon the most influential feature the country has on the lives of its people- it means the 'Land of Many Waters'.

Today Guiana consists of three territories, marked by vague, disputed boundaries. The largest of these is Guyana, which lies to the west, bordering Venezuela, and has roughly the same surface area as Britain. Closest to the mouth of the mighty Amazon river is French Guiana and sandwiched in between is Suriname.

The sheer abundance of water in Guiana previously led people to believe that the country was nothing more than a closely packed collection of islands. Solely in Guyana, over 1500 rivers gush through the forest, racing to the Atlantic Ocean. They do so with such turbulence that no ship bigger than a canoe makes it further than 90 miles inland along even the largest rivers, without being torn apart in the torrents. These rivers define boundaries, isolate tribes, block passage through the country and act as a lifeline, a source of food for those who are brave enough are to inhabit the interior. The rivers are home to hundreds of species of fish, perhaps including the largest freshwater fish in the world, as well as less friendly creatures such as stingrays and electric eels.

Over three times as much rain falls each year on Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, as does on the Scottish town of Perth. Water is everywhere in Guyana, it fills the air, resides in the swamps and feeds the rainforest, creating the prime conditions for a miraculous ecosystem in which many undiscovered species still roam. Water rots buildings and spreads disease, it constantly threatens the inhabitants of Georgetown, who live precariously below sea level, with only a man-made wall holding back the Ocean, which is said to be the colour of plaster due to Peruvian sediments, washed across the continent.

However, Guiana is by no means the only name ever used to describe this watery world. Early French and English maps label the region as 'Equinoctiale' or 'Caribana, Land of Twenty-one Tribes'. For a while to the Dutch it was the original New Zealand, before they came up with an enchanting name that captured the sense of danger and remoteness, the possibility of success, the curiosity associated with an unknown world. They called it de Wilde Kust, 'The Wild Coast'. There are no natural harbours along the entire coastline of Guiana, although it is on this 10 mile wide muddy stretch of land by the sea that 90% of the population live.

The naming of the place which lies between the Orinoco and Amazon rivers is ultimately a trivial thing, for the simple reason that it has never truly been owned by humans. Throughout its turbulent history of bloody wars between French, British and Dutch settlers, current day Guyana changed hands 9 times, Suriname 6 times and French Guyana 7 times. These squabbles over sugar plantations and coastal towns never changed the fact the vast majority of Guiana is untamed, unexplored jungle, they never made any part of the country an easy place for humans to thrive or gave the population any real sense of national identity.

Even today the population of Guyana is a mere 750,000, and not a single road leads to the outside world. Without an aeroplane, it takes four weeks to travel to the interior of the country. Most of its inhabitants are insects, trees, snakes or jaguars. It is a comforting, solid reminder that the world has in no way been conquered by human development, that nature still rules in some little forgotten corners.

February Newsletter

A Guide to Busking

Over the Christmas Season, I managed to raise almost £500 from busking. 

For fellow/future fundraisers: I think the most important thing I learnt from this is that it pays to focus on what you are good at. Of course not everybody is a musician! But everybody does have particular skills and talents, and when it comes to fundraising, it's worth personalising the way you do it, focussing on your strengths will earn you more than trying to do too many things or events that don't suit you.

If you are a musician and are thinking of giving busking a shot, read on...

Playing music out in the streets seemed like quite a scary prospect at first, would I be good enough? Will anybody think to give me money or will they be more likely to throw rotten fruit at me? Will I get arrested?

The first note is certainly the hardest, my saxophone felt terribly loud and piercing when it first cut into the peaceful hubbub of Perth City centre on a Saturday afternoon. But it was not long at all before I settled into my music and began to enjoy the sound of my instrument reverberating along the street and became part of the atmosphere, rather than an intruder.

Patience is important.

The first note comes a long time before the first penny in my experience. If you take a look around at the people on the street at the moment that you begin playing, you can be pretty sure that none of them will give you money. You need to wait until your sound has fully blended in to the mood of the street, until you have truly become a part of the scene rather than just the person who's suddenly started playing an instrument. People who have walked in from a distance and gradually noticed your music getting louder and louder will be the first to give money. So don't panic that you've played two songs and not earned anything yet- stick at it as consistently as you can.

Pick your spot carefully.

It can be tempting to go straight for the busiest place in town. However, I found that there isn't a direct correlation between how busy a street is and how much money you make there, and there are lots of other factors to consider:

1. Busier streets can be noisier- and you need your sound to project far enough for people to notice you from a distance.

2. You certainly don't want to compete with traffic noise, so aim for pedestrian areas well away from main roads.

3. Before you start, survey the area and note where any other buskers are located. You need to keep a good distance away in order to find new business.

4. Be aware of the shops and businesses around where you play. These will affect your audience, and bear in mind that your ideal audience tends to be young children with their parents and older people.

5. Without getting in the way of anybody, you need to be visually prominent and easily reachable so people notice you and can give you money without going out of their way.

6. If you are busking in a city, do a little research to check if there are any regulations or permits required.

People pay to be entertained, not for musical ability.

Another mistake would be to believe that the amount you make is dependant on how good you are and how technically accurately you play your music. It is far more important that you create a pleasant mood, impress people, or play tunes that they recognise. Choose easy music that you know well so you can communicate with your audience whilst you play.

My biggest successes were close to Christmas time, when I played carols and well known seasonal songs, but improvised variations on them to make the melodies more interesting. The combination here of recognisable tunes, a cheery atmosphere and a bit of showing off seemed to work very well.

The visual show you put on is also important.

Dress smartly or unusually, and let people know why you are doing what you're doing. Wherever I went busking I took with my some cardboard signs that said Project Trust, and Thank You! on them, as well as a few of my fundraising leaflets, to catch people's eyes and let them know that I was raising money for charity and for a specific purpose. When I was busking on a beautiful white grand piano by a fountain in a cafe in England, I proudly wore my formal kilt outfit. I regret not getting a picture of this!

A few busking experiences...

On my first day I was told to move on by an angry man: "My baby is trying to sleep!"

One afternoon getting a series of comments along the line of "You're trying your best" and "You've made the effort"... should I take those as compliments?

Earning myself 10 Australian Cents, some Indonesian money and we think Croatian money.

Being interrupted by a man who wished to tell me that his father is called Harry Potter, and request the Skye Boat Song which I had to figure out the notes for on the spot.

Meeting a lovely guy from Norway and a German girl who bought me a Coffee.

Playing for 20 seconds until I was informed that I wasn't allowed to on the shopping centre's patch of pavement... Dragging everything across to the other side of the street, to play there for 20 seconds before a group of people dressed in medieval clothes piped up their crumhorns 10 yards up the road!

Agreeing with the apologetic security guard of Marks and Spencer that it was okay for me to busk outside the store as long as I didn't touch their marble.

I hope this was helpful for musically minded fundraisers or interesting to read anyway, let me know if you have any further questions.

Fundraising Target Has Been Met!

Just for the record...

I would never have dreamt three months ago, that I would have made it to the target of £5400 in January. In fact I'm still finding it a little difficult to believe that I'm there already! Yes, there was some hard work involved, but I really can't take all the credit...

The generosity that I have seen has been absolutely amazing, not only from charitable trusts but also from a huge number of individuals- friends, family and complete strangers- and it is really to them that I will owe my year away with Project Trust to.

So thank you!