Join the SitRep

Keeping up with our venturers and Project Managers is not always easy, with us being here at Fieldbase and them being “out there”. However, we are trying our best to stay in touch via:

• The Loop is THE official tour of the Raleigh project sites. The logs team and some of the Field Base team drive the Bravos (cars) on a loop round to each of the accessible project sites (during this expedition it’s Charlie 1, Charlie 2, and Echo 4) once per phase. They deliver kit, supplies, site visitors, YOUR messages from the blog, and of course the all-important post! 
• Ad-hoc visits are made whenever special assistance is required. Picking up site visitors (like the Photographer) or delivering urgent vaccines are some of the examples. 
• SitReps or Situation Reports are special messages sent from the project sites back to Fieldbase every evening. It follows a certain format and includes all sort of handy information like where they are, what they have been up to, what they need (which is mainly football and rugby results), and what they’re planning to do next. The short version of a SitRep is a Comms Check and is conducted every morning.

I will be on the loop this week to get some insider information from Charlie 1, Charlie 2, and Echo 4 and to hand out your messages. To keep you entertained in the meantime, I deciphered the many different handwritings in our SitRep-book to give you a short overview of what our Alpha-groups have been up to in their first project week.

• Charlie 1: Our friends in Gandenahalli laid foundations and completed the walls of four different project sites. They also attended the Maha Shivratri celebrations in the local village on 20 February. Charlie one even rose to local newspaper fame by having an article about them published in Vijaya Karnataka.

Yellow box: “Raleigh India provides opportunities for volunteers interested in learning our culture and tradition. This group of young people from Raleigh India helps our communities to build Eco-Sanitation facilities, which helps fertilise crops by utilising human wastage. These volunteers do not come to India solely for travel and entertainment; their work is very much appreciated.” (Translation by Theja)

• Charlie 2: The other Charlies have already finished digging two toilet cesspits. They used their spare time to dress up the dining and meeting area, apparently with a very cushty result.
• Echo 3: Communication with this group is not always easy, as network reception in their area is rather tricky. However, I think they just don’t want to leave their on-beach sunrise/sunset lounge (built on day one, they know how to prioritise!) or move away from watching adorable baby turtles hatch every night.
• Echo 4: Completed two cowshed foundations and 1 and1/2 biogas holes. After drinking fresh cow milk and one or two venturers falling into cow dung, they consider themselves experts in the cattle-métier.
• Tango 5: After walking through vast tea plantations and Cardamom fields, they surely deserved their day off. But no rest day for the wicked: Tango 5 decided to switch to another gear and went rafting instead. That’s the spirit!
• Tango 6: As you may have already read in venturer Katherine’s guest blog, the group climbed an “incredibly high mountain”, walked through a cloud, completed their survival day with honours, went rafting and received a surprise visit by Sam, Reggie, and Big Manju.