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Since my GX adventure started last Thursday it feels like I have withdrawn myself from normal society and entered a little bubble of GX - only now are we being properly let loose on Essex and Hertfordshire!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 :)