Farewells, fetes and flippin' frogs!

Hello good readers, hope life is grand. We've all just enjoyed a mega changeover here in India as we got to spend almost three whole days together, which is great as it was the last changeover of expedition, sob sob.

So once everyone had got back to field base from their phase two camps, unpacked and had a bloomin’ good wash, it was time to muster up some fancy dress outfits from nowhere and head off to the 80s disco for a night of prancing and dancing to A-ha and Cyndi Lauper.

L-R Sarah, Ameze, Clare, Caz, Elliott

Back row L-R - Sean, Chloe, Sian, Rachel, Emily
Middle row L-R Ed, Ros (PM), Naomi (PM)
Front row - Anne-Romee, Scott, Lauren and Wieger

Back row L-R - Jonny, Alex, Rob (almost!) Phil, Anna, Binika, Thatte, Sarah
Front row L-R - Georgia, Clare, Sophie

Back row L-R - Georgi, Ellie, Laura, Martyn, Guy
Front row L-R - Danielle, Emily

It was a bitter sweet night as some of our venturers were leaving us the next morning as they were only with us for the first two phases. Lauren, Daphne and Karla headed back to Bangalore along with Polly our Logistics Manager. We’re very sad to see them all go and wish them all the best for their next adventures which will hopefully be as fun as the last few weeks, but we doubt it!

The next day saw field base transformed into an English village fate as the graduate venturers planned and hosted a great day for everyone.

Martyn lets out his artistic side doing henna tattoos of his now famous designs.

Sian, Anna and Emily tempt us with some cakes

Felix, Ross and Katy with prizes to be won

Sunil slaving away cooking chicken for over a hundred hungry people. We salute you Sir.

Kate, Naomi, Jen and Becca are the baked potato crew.

Serious concentration taking place during the pub quiz hosted by Jonny Williams and Phil Kay. 

After all the fun of the fete, day three of changeover meant it was time to find out where everyone was heading off to for their third and final phase of expedition. So without further ado, let me announce the teams for the last phase of expedition...


Charlie 1 - off to build bio-gas units and a tribal village house in Vellary

Back row L-R - Thatte, Jess, Emily, Felix, Wieger
Front row - L-R - Dave (PM), Sean, Laura, Genevieve, Sheena, Louisa, Holly, Kate (PM), Anne-Romee, Richard, James.

Charlie 2 - off to build 15 eco-sanitation units in BD Munti

L-R - Sophie, Guy, Binika, Sian, Alex, Katy (behind ukulele!) Becky, Phil, Chris, Ross, Celine (PM), Book and Cat (PM).

Echo 3 - off to dig elephant trenches and put up solar-powered fencing in Huskurhaddi

Back row L-R - Chloe, Rachel, Sam, Georgi, Simone, Sophie, Rob, Nic, Laura, Hugh, Kannan
Front row - L-R Alice, Scott, Stu (PM), Ros (PM)

Echo 4 - off to dig elephant trenches and put up solar-powered fencing in Basava Pura

Back row L-R - Jonny, Andy, Sunil, David, Sarah, Ameze, Emily
Front row L-R - Maddy, Martyn, Ed, Ellie, Dan (PM), Clare, Mona (PM) Florine is also in this team but was already on the bus.

Tango 5 - off to trek through the wilds of Kerala

L-R - Lisa, Anna, Ellie, George, Kieran, Sachin, Fieke, Elliott, Philip K, Lauren, Bryony, Stu (PM), Susan (PM)
 Daan Hoekstra, Clare Evans and George Hudson are also in this group but can't been seen in the photo sorry.

Tango 6 - also off to trek through the wilds of Kerala

Back row L-R - Gerogia, Louis, Andy, Ben, Georgia, Philip W
Middle row L-R - Karen, Eleri (PM), Danielle, Caz, Lucy, Lottie, Eeva (PM), Becca (PM), Alex
Front row - L-R - James, Rachel

I spoke to all the teams this morning and they’re all settling in well and making the most of the places they’re in and people they’re with. The trekkers have already got a few kilometres under their belts, the diggers in the echo teams started work on the trenches today after setting up their camps, and the community guys also started work on the toilets today after meeting the people in the villages yesterday.

We’ll be heading out to see them on the loops starting tomorrow because we miss them already! We’ll bring you all he gossip from them as we can, along with photographic evidence of how dirty and smelly they are of course.

So that we don’t miss everyone too much here at field base, we’ve been distracting ourselves by digging away at the local school to help them build a new water drainage system. Whilst being watched by monkeys, we managed to dig up a whole family of frogs hidden in the dirt, those frogs follow us EVERYWHERE!

Kat (Photographer) and Mark (Country Director) digging away 

  

Naomi, Kat and I.
Look at those muscles! No, I can't see them either.

Oh and last, but definitely not least, we all want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone that has sponsored us for the 10k run we’ll be doing at the end of expedition. So far you've donated a whopping £505 towards building a house for a tribal village family currently living in a tarpaulin shelter.

It’s an amazing response so we’re all very grateful and I’m keeping the teams posted on whose friends and families are donating. Thanks again, it’s amazing to know that we’re almost half way towards being able to fund the costs of the house.

To see the donations so far or to sponsor us just go here

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/raleighindia11a

I have a lot of blog messages from the folks here and will get them posted on here as soon as possible...


Kathryn has a lot more photos from changeover that will soon be uploaded into her albums, the link is at the top of the page on the right.


Bye for now, back soon...