Phase Three: Join the the dance

On Tuesday the venturers arrived back at field base eager to catch up with their friends from Phase One, to share big hugs and swap tales. It was great to see them all reunited and see all the new friendships that had formed throughout Phase Two.

Changeover was a hive of actvity but had a lovely chilled vibe. On skit night the bar had most definetly been raised with some funny, some musical and some darn right surreal! The Charlie Two girls all looked gorgeous in their new saris but it was Echo Three who scooped the prize with an awesome The Good, the Bad & the Ugly take off.

Wednesday was handed over to the Graduates to run the show, as they took the reigns of the schedule, activities, food and entertainment. A trip to local village Jayapura in the morning was a lot of fun. The group were split into teams and given a scavenger hunt to complete. The children in the village were particularly excited to have us invade!

A delicous bbq feast was prepared by them for lunch. We then bid a fond farewell to Irena and Shaun ...

The afternoons was chill out time with optional henna painting

and then an Indian Ball in the evening, complete with an Indian drumming band.

It was also a double celebration as it was Anu's birthday.

Onto Friday and at last, Phase three allocations. It's all change again as the groups get mixed up for the final time. Alan Watts, the American Writer, once said: "The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance." So to announce allocations this time, the PMs each started their own conga line picking up their venturers as they danced across the floor. With hillarious results ...

The groups are as folllows:

Charlie One
Off to finish the five tribal houses in Uluvadu are:

PMs
Eira Evans
Liam Gallacher
Caroline Millar

Venturers
Sean Edlin
Kirsten Elliot
Arthur Fane
Laura Hulley
Michiel Kruize
Samuel Mason
Jennifer Rimmer
Denise Stoelzel
Justine Stuart
Ajee

Charlie Two
Heading to Hagarahalli to build twelve more eco-sanatation units for the scheduled caste community are:

PMs
Rachel Allan
Charlotte Parbery-Clark
Susan Pollock

Venturers
Coen de Mol van Otterloo
Lucy Flint
Iain Hood
James Mcintosh
Jessica Norgrove
Jack Phillips
Katharine Studley
Sarah Ward
Isabelle Wijsmuller
Jonny Womack

Echo Three
Trench digging bound, to live in a homemade campsite outside the village of Basava Pura are:

PMs
Phil Dart
Bethan Jones
Hannah Lobban & Hannah White (job share)

Venturers
Anniek Akerboom
Owen Duffin
Robert Dwyer
Olivia Ferrari
Kane Grennan
Katie Macnaughton
Kat Ulichnowska
Elisabeth van der Zee
Aimee Welch
Erdinch Yigitce
Raghu

Tango Five
The Missapulimala trek is going to be tackled by the following:

PMs
Christina Ambrose
Laura Burnet
Sterling Grey

Venturers
David Frattinger
Amy Gannon
Ryan Heeley
Simon Majtlis
Tessa Nooteboom
James Rowantree
Kavita Shah
Anupama Varghese
Basil

Tango Six
The Demon Mountain trek is going to be taken on by:

PMs
Oliver Whittle
Lynne Cooper
Luke Jones

Venturers
Fiona Marchbank
Natalie Gordon
Shanelle Ward
Kimberley Delamare
Hubertus Kramer
George Miller
Philip Smith
Rosie Ward
Narthan

Field base medic this phase will be the lovely Dr Josse Emanuel and Hannah & Hannah, who not only share the same name, will also be sharing the Mointoring & Evaluation role at field base and also PMing at Echo Three.

 And then suddnelly Changeover was all over and Phase Three had begun as off they went bright and early on Friday, when we also said goodbye to Ros and Raja.

The Loop is planning to visit Charlie Two on Tuesday so get your messages on the blog by Monday evening for us to pass on.

N.B. Don't forget to tell us who the message is for including their full name and project group. Then select name/URL from the dropdown menu to tell us who it's from (URL can be left blank). Please be aware that we might not be able to publish all personal messages but we will make sure they are all distributed.

All text by Polly Carpenter and photos by Polly Baldwin http://www.dynamicpictures.co.uk/ (unless stated otherwise).

Phase Two: Over and out

So here we are again, on the eve of Changeover two eagerly awaiting the return of the venturers back at Field base. This time we have them here for two days before packing them off for the final phase of their Raleigh India 10K expedition.

As always, Field base has been working hard in anticipation and preparation of the Venturers return: Myself and Polly B have been pulling together the expedition magazine, a long hard slog but hopefully well worth it for a great memento of everyone's time out here. Doug over in logistics has been his usual calmly organised self, everything raring to go with enough tins of tuna, porridge and noodles ready to fuel the venturers in Phase Three. Christina has done a brilliant job organising the loop shop (always a welcome sight for the sugar and e-number starved venturers) and creating the Raleigh India 10K t-shirt. Phil's been the reassuring voice on the end of the phone for all medical queries and entertained himself by writing, directing and editing our 'comedy' skit video ready for the venturers return. Whilst Anna has been masterminding the operation and Del has been a hive of organisation both ensuring that everything runs smoothly.

Out on phase they've been telling us what an amazing time they've been having. The projects are really taking shape and each group are able to tangibly see the difference they are making out here, both on site and to themselves.
 
Charlie One have now completed all brick work on the five houses, two roofs are up and they've finished plastering on one. Tonight is a closing ceremony with the village, no doubt a joyous but emotional affair.

Charlie Two completed all 12 eco-sanitation toilets. Today they had a sports day with the community and a leaving celebration tonight.

Echo Three have worked tiresly on the trench and made fantastic progress. They had a leaving ceremony yesterday where they enjoyed a big feast.

Echo Four have had a a slightly challenging phase due to weather conditions but have been resourceful finding other ways they can support the community and certainly made the most of their time out there.

Tango Five are jubilant after completing the trek yesterday! They're now making their weary way back to Field base on the day and a half journey up from Kerala.

We can't wait for them all to descend and tell us all their stories ...

Holi Moly!

It’s been Changeover craziness here at Field base as all the groups arrived back yesterday looking disheveled and dirty but with beaming smiles as they relayed their experiences from Phase One.

The Alpha groups arrived from 8.30am and Field base was whipped into a floury of activity as they were whisked through a process of debriefing, checking their equipment back in, submitting their best photos for the slideshow and having a much desired hot shower. Then it was into Mysore for an afternoon of pizza and stocking up on essentials.

The evening’s activity centered around the skits each group had been working hard to prepare. Charlie One's story telling style gave a great overview of their phase complete with Macarena dancing and Anu’s snoring; Echo Three opted for a TV news report and belted out some cleverly rewritten pop songs to tell their tale; Echo Four produced an amazing musical medley with theatrics of Broadway standard; Tango Five were the winners of the evening with a skit that had it all - flair, comedy, musicality and entertainment with a particularly memorable dancing elephant impression by Lynne; Tango Six’s skit focused on one particular ‘incident’ during their phase which they worked out through the medium of Jeremy Kyle – to very much humorous effects!

The night’s activities were not over though, as we sent them all down to their dorm to create fancy dress outfits out of bin bags. Little did they know that whilst this was happening we’d hidden to ambush them with Holi paint!

It was an explosion of colour and frenzy as the venturers were initially stunned but then found their paints and retaliated aginst the PMs. It wasn’t long until we were all the colours of the rainbow.

It was then up to the roof to party into the night …

This morning the group visited a local temple to pose for the expedition photograph and film the last scene for the music video each group has been shooting scenes for during Phase One.

Then, when they were least expecting it we announced Phase Two allocations by giving each venturer and PM a bracelet and asking them to find everyone else who had the same one!

The expedition was given a good stir as the alpha groups have all been mixed up to form Phase Two groups:


Charlie One

PMs:
Liam Gallacher
Eira Evans
Caroline Millar

Venturers:
Kimberley Delamare
Amy Gannon
Robert Dwyer
Natalie Gordon
Katie MacNaughton
Kavita Shah
David Frattinger
Shaun Green
Hubertus Kramer
Basil
Anniek Akerboom

Charlie Two
PMs:
Josse Emanuel
Rachel Allan
Susan Pollock

Venturers:
Olivia Ferrari
Kane Grennan
Fiona Marchbank
Rosalind Page
Simon Majtlis
Justine Stuart
George Miller
Katarzyna Ulichnowska
Shanelle Ward
Erdinch Yigitce
Raghu

Echo Three

PMs:
Laura Burnet
Bethan Jones
Oliver Whittle

Venturers:
Coenraad de Mol van Otterloo
Arthur Fane
Iain Hood
Samuel Mason
Lucy Marie Flint
Tessa Nooteboom
James Rowantree
Katharine Studley
Anupama Varghese
Narthan

Echo Four

PMs:
Stirling Grey
Hannah Lobben
Luke Jones

Venturers:
Isabelle Wijsmuller
Sean Edlin
Ryan Heeley
Michiel Kruize
Philip Smith
Jennifer Rimmer
Denise Stoelzel
Rosie Ward
Sarah Ward
Nga Yee (Irene) Yiu
Raja

Tango Five

PMs:
Charlotte Parbery-Clark
Hannah White
Lynne Cooper

Venturers:
Owen Duffin
James Mcintosh
Jack Phillips
Kirsten Elliot
Laura Hulley
Jessica Norgrove
Jonny Womack
Elisabeth van der Zee
Aimee Welch
Ajeesh

Whlist PMs Phil Dart and Christina Ambrose join the Field base family.

If you’d like to send a message to anyone whilst they're out on phase just add a comment to the bottom of any blog entry by clicking the link. Don't forget to tell us who the message is for including their full name and project group. Then select name/URL from the dropdown menu to tell us who it's from (URL can be left blank). Please be aware that we might not be able to publish all personal messages but we will make sure they are distributed via 'The Loop' but do note this may happen only once during the phase.

It's only a quick Changeover, as everyone deploys out tomorrow for Phase Two. From Fieldbase, Polly B will be heading out with Tango 5 for a week's trekking, whilst Polly C is off to Echo Four, keen to experience the self titled 'glampsite' and Del is Echo Three bound to get his dig on.
 
The lovely Christina will be taking over the blogging reigns until my return ...

All text by Polly Carpenter and photos by Polly Baldwin http://www.dynamicpictures.co.uk/ (unless stated otherwise).