A few of you have mentioned that you'd be interested in prayer points and I stupidly forgot to put them on my last post as the library was about to shut! But here they are - thanks so much, I really appreciate your support. :)
Beth x
Praise points:
- For a wonderful team of both English and Kazakhstanis. We all seem to be getting on so well.
- For a welcoming host home. Efua and Kofi are also Christians and I am going to church with them tomorrow. It has also been great to learn more about Ghanaian culture too!
- For this whole opportunity. Although we haven't started our placements yet I am very excited about the work which we will get involved with and for how much I have learnt already through our cross-cultural exchange.
Prayer points:
- That I will be an effective help in my volunteer placement at the Realife Trust.
- That team relations will continue to be good and that the friendships which have been started will continue to grow ever stronger.
Thanks! More soon...
Saturday, 28 March 2009
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Essex girl greetings
Hello to everyone!
Since my GX adventure started last Thursday it feels like I have withdrawn myself from normal society and entered a little bubble of GX - only now are we being properly let loose on Essex and Hertfordshire! It's my first time on the internet in a week but finally we have managed to get registered at the local library and are able to make use of their uber-slow computers...
Anyway, I'll give you a quick rundown of the last week. So so so much has happened that I doubt I'll be able to mention all the highlights! Everything kicked off last Thursday when I travelled to Stratford-upon-Avon and met up with the rest of the British contingent of the team. I hadn't met everyone before but I can safely say that we have an excellent group of people from all sorts of backgrounds and locations. The Kazakhstanis joined us on Friday when we gave them a British welcome consisting of our own introductions, some Cadbury's chocolate and Kendal mint cake, a brief history of England by Rory, and some English country dancing (not very elegant on our part though!). Meeting the Kazakhstanis for the first time was a little daunting and I think we all behaved rather awkwardly as we tried to suss out what was culturally acceptable behaviour. However, over the last 6 days we have become firm friends. They also gave us a welcome on the Saturday which was also a celebration of "Nauris" - traditionally New Year as it is a national holiday in Kazakhstan. It was so much more impressive than our welcome but perhaps that's because Kazakhstan has traditions which are far better defined than any British ones. They sung us the national anthem, showed us traditional dress and symbols, and did a traditional dance. We also tried "kurt" (a bit like our word "curd" I think) which is dried, salted balls of goat's cheese. Sarah ate hers all in one go by accident and ended up drinking about a litre of water straight after! I can't say many of the team were particularly taken with these but I managed to finish mine which is more than some of the others did! I can also report that Kazakhstani chocolate isn't quite up to Cadbury's in my reckoning but it's certainly nicer than I was expecting. Just so you know, our team consists of me, Kate, Catherine, Sarah, Anne-Marie, Grace, Christian, Rory and Ben (all from the UK), and Dinara, Dina, Nina, Gulnara, Olga, Aigera, Baurzhan, Kassym and Misha (all from Kazakhstan). I haven't got much time now to tell you about them all but they are all truly awesome and we are having a lot of fun and laughter together (as well as hundreds of photos!).
We had a couple of days training in Stratford-upon-Avon at the Youth Hostel before hitting the road and arriving in Herts & Essex where we are now living in twos (or in a four in my case) in host homes. We have been made to feel so welcome, it really is lovely. The host hosts are also very diverse in background and location. Some people are living in Bishop's Stortford and some in Harlow - they are about 20 mins away from each other and also a county border separates them (BS is in Herts, Harlow is in Essex). Along with Grace, Dinara and Aigera, I am living with a Ghanaian couple in their 50s called Efua and Kofi who are very friendly. Efua teaches African dancing and drumming and I think we are going along to one of her lessons tomorrow evening so more on that next time! I'm sharing a room with Dinara which is great as we get on really well and are fairly similar, especially as we both say "sorry" a lot. And I mean a lot! Our room is quite small and we have a rickety metal bunk bed but everything is comfortable.
Oh gosh, I'm running out of time now so I can't give many more details. Since we arrived we have had a lot of training which consists of discussion sessions, role playing, and other similar activities to do with the practicalities of being on GX as well as starting to think about global issues. Already we are gaining new perspectives by listening to ideas from both the UK and Kazakhstan. I have also found out a little about my volunteer placement but that won't start until next Monday when I will know a lot more. It's working with the Realife Trust in Bishop's Stortford. I'll be there along with Kassym and we'll be involved in organising a 2 day music festival for the first May bank holiday. Exciting stuff.
A quick note, if anyone does ever want to write (I love post!), my address until 11th June will be 11 Lower Meadow, Harlow, Essex. You'll have to find out the postcode yourself as I don't know it yet, sorry!
Big apologies (I said I say sorry a lot!) for cutting this entry off quickly but the library's about to close. But big love to all. Let me know your news too - I don't want it to be all about me!
Da sveedanya (good evening),
Beth xxx :)
Since my GX adventure started last Thursday it feels like I have withdrawn myself from normal society and entered a little bubble of GX - only now are we being properly let loose on Essex and Hertfordshire! It's my first time on the internet in a week but finally we have managed to get registered at the local library and are able to make use of their uber-slow computers...
Anyway, I'll give you a quick rundown of the last week. So so so much has happened that I doubt I'll be able to mention all the highlights! Everything kicked off last Thursday when I travelled to Stratford-upon-Avon and met up with the rest of the British contingent of the team. I hadn't met everyone before but I can safely say that we have an excellent group of people from all sorts of backgrounds and locations. The Kazakhstanis joined us on Friday when we gave them a British welcome consisting of our own introductions, some Cadbury's chocolate and Kendal mint cake, a brief history of England by Rory, and some English country dancing (not very elegant on our part though!). Meeting the Kazakhstanis for the first time was a little daunting and I think we all behaved rather awkwardly as we tried to suss out what was culturally acceptable behaviour. However, over the last 6 days we have become firm friends. They also gave us a welcome on the Saturday which was also a celebration of "Nauris" - traditionally New Year as it is a national holiday in Kazakhstan. It was so much more impressive than our welcome but perhaps that's because Kazakhstan has traditions which are far better defined than any British ones. They sung us the national anthem, showed us traditional dress and symbols, and did a traditional dance. We also tried "kurt" (a bit like our word "curd" I think) which is dried, salted balls of goat's cheese. Sarah ate hers all in one go by accident and ended up drinking about a litre of water straight after! I can't say many of the team were particularly taken with these but I managed to finish mine which is more than some of the others did! I can also report that Kazakhstani chocolate isn't quite up to Cadbury's in my reckoning but it's certainly nicer than I was expecting. Just so you know, our team consists of me, Kate, Catherine, Sarah, Anne-Marie, Grace, Christian, Rory and Ben (all from the UK), and Dinara, Dina, Nina, Gulnara, Olga, Aigera, Baurzhan, Kassym and Misha (all from Kazakhstan). I haven't got much time now to tell you about them all but they are all truly awesome and we are having a lot of fun and laughter together (as well as hundreds of photos!).
We had a couple of days training in Stratford-upon-Avon at the Youth Hostel before hitting the road and arriving in Herts & Essex where we are now living in twos (or in a four in my case) in host homes. We have been made to feel so welcome, it really is lovely. The host hosts are also very diverse in background and location. Some people are living in Bishop's Stortford and some in Harlow - they are about 20 mins away from each other and also a county border separates them (BS is in Herts, Harlow is in Essex). Along with Grace, Dinara and Aigera, I am living with a Ghanaian couple in their 50s called Efua and Kofi who are very friendly. Efua teaches African dancing and drumming and I think we are going along to one of her lessons tomorrow evening so more on that next time! I'm sharing a room with Dinara which is great as we get on really well and are fairly similar, especially as we both say "sorry" a lot. And I mean a lot! Our room is quite small and we have a rickety metal bunk bed but everything is comfortable.
Oh gosh, I'm running out of time now so I can't give many more details. Since we arrived we have had a lot of training which consists of discussion sessions, role playing, and other similar activities to do with the practicalities of being on GX as well as starting to think about global issues. Already we are gaining new perspectives by listening to ideas from both the UK and Kazakhstan. I have also found out a little about my volunteer placement but that won't start until next Monday when I will know a lot more. It's working with the Realife Trust in Bishop's Stortford. I'll be there along with Kassym and we'll be involved in organising a 2 day music festival for the first May bank holiday. Exciting stuff.
A quick note, if anyone does ever want to write (I love post!), my address until 11th June will be 11 Lower Meadow, Harlow, Essex. You'll have to find out the postcode yourself as I don't know it yet, sorry!
Big apologies (I said I say sorry a lot!) for cutting this entry off quickly but the library's about to close. But big love to all. Let me know your news too - I don't want it to be all about me!
Da sveedanya (good evening),
Beth xxx :)
Friday, 6 March 2009
Beginnings
I never thought I'd ever be the type to keep a blog (mind you, this being just one post doesn't exactly count as "keeping a blog" yet). Although I respect others who are able to divulge a portion of their personal thoughts and feelings on the limitless world wide web, and I enjoy reading their contributions, I've never felt able to, partly as I keep things to myself most of the time, or at least, just amongst my closest friends.
Nevertheless, with an exciting new era dawning, and the prospect of a 6 month volunteering exchange programme which will take me to places as diverse as the Stansted area (Harlow and Bishop's Stortford) in the UK, and Shymkent in southern Kazakhstan, I feel this is the best way to do things and keep people in the know with how things are going. Last time I went abroad for an extended period of time I would send stupidly long emails round to everyone. Now I know from personal experience that that's not what people want cluttering up their inboxes so this here blog is the solution! I'll try to update it from time to time, with a few details about what I'm up to, how I'm feeling, and thoughts and "musings" on what I'm experiencing. I'm certainly not the world's best writer but I'll try my best!
For info, I'm leaving Norwich on Thursday 19th March, first heading to Stratford-Upon-Avon where I will meet my team (there are 18 of us, half from the UK and half from Kazakhstan) for a few days preparatory training. Then we're travelling across to Harlow and Bishop's Stortford where we'll live with local families and volunteer with local charities. Then in mid-June sometime we'll make the trip over to Kazakhstan, to do the same kind of things (albeit the Kazakh way, and in charities appropriate to the local issues) in Shymkent. I believe our return is scheduled for 4th September but it's all a bit vague at the moment.
Many of you know that I have to contribute £600 to this programme (the rest being subsidised by the British Council who jointly run it with VSO). I am almost there - about £80 short at the moment so I will use this space for a cheeky plug for my fundraising page - http://www.justgiving.com/bethwilliams_gx_march2009. Please do take a look and contribute if you can - I appreciate all contributions, big and small as every little helps (thanks Tesco)! Just Giving accepts donations from as little as £2 - the mere price of a drink. I'll be on the volunteering programme when my birthday comes around so perhaps you might consider donating instead of buying me a birthday drink?! A big thanks to all those who have donated already. :)
OK, money plug over. There's loads more general information about Global Xchange available about http://www.globalxchange.org.uk/ - well worth a look. The first time I checked it out I knew immediately that I wanted to get involved. Who knows, maybe the same will happen to you?!
Nevertheless, with an exciting new era dawning, and the prospect of a 6 month volunteering exchange programme which will take me to places as diverse as the Stansted area (Harlow and Bishop's Stortford) in the UK, and Shymkent in southern Kazakhstan, I feel this is the best way to do things and keep people in the know with how things are going. Last time I went abroad for an extended period of time I would send stupidly long emails round to everyone. Now I know from personal experience that that's not what people want cluttering up their inboxes so this here blog is the solution! I'll try to update it from time to time, with a few details about what I'm up to, how I'm feeling, and thoughts and "musings" on what I'm experiencing. I'm certainly not the world's best writer but I'll try my best!
For info, I'm leaving Norwich on Thursday 19th March, first heading to Stratford-Upon-Avon where I will meet my team (there are 18 of us, half from the UK and half from Kazakhstan) for a few days preparatory training. Then we're travelling across to Harlow and Bishop's Stortford where we'll live with local families and volunteer with local charities. Then in mid-June sometime we'll make the trip over to Kazakhstan, to do the same kind of things (albeit the Kazakh way, and in charities appropriate to the local issues) in Shymkent. I believe our return is scheduled for 4th September but it's all a bit vague at the moment.
Many of you know that I have to contribute £600 to this programme (the rest being subsidised by the British Council who jointly run it with VSO). I am almost there - about £80 short at the moment so I will use this space for a cheeky plug for my fundraising page - http://www.justgiving.com/bethwilliams_gx_march2009. Please do take a look and contribute if you can - I appreciate all contributions, big and small as every little helps (thanks Tesco)! Just Giving accepts donations from as little as £2 - the mere price of a drink. I'll be on the volunteering programme when my birthday comes around so perhaps you might consider donating instead of buying me a birthday drink?! A big thanks to all those who have donated already. :)
OK, money plug over. There's loads more general information about Global Xchange available about http://www.globalxchange.org.uk/ - well worth a look. The first time I checked it out I knew immediately that I wanted to get involved. Who knows, maybe the same will happen to you?!
Also, I appeared in a recent article in the local newspaper so if you want to take a look and laugh at my self-conscious-looking mugshot then go here: http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/LocalLife/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=LocalLife&tBrand=enonline&tCategory=locallife&itemid=NOED03%20Mar%202009%2016%3A05%3A28%3A580
Please do watch this space if you wish to keep updated and to learn some fascinating stuff about Stansted and Kazakhstan (did you know that apples originate from Kazakhstan?)! I've also a facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?ref=sb#/group.php?gid=72064335866) if you're interested and I'll try to respond to personal emails/phone calls/letters as well as I'd love to hear how you are getting on too (it's not all about me!). But this has been a very long start to this new blogging chapter in my life. I'm incredibly excited about the next 6 months, but there's a little time to go before things start kicking off good and proper, so for now, I shall bid you farewell, and until next time,
Beth x
Please do watch this space if you wish to keep updated and to learn some fascinating stuff about Stansted and Kazakhstan (did you know that apples originate from Kazakhstan?)! I've also a facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?ref=sb#/group.php?gid=72064335866) if you're interested and I'll try to respond to personal emails/phone calls/letters as well as I'd love to hear how you are getting on too (it's not all about me!). But this has been a very long start to this new blogging chapter in my life. I'm incredibly excited about the next 6 months, but there's a little time to go before things start kicking off good and proper, so for now, I shall bid you farewell, and until next time,
Beth x
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