COUNTRY: Borneo & Cambodia
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Community & Conservation work
WRITTEN BY: Ewa Reda
Hi all! Here we go with our debut blog post from the increasingly excited soon-to-be TEAM BORNEO/CAMBODIA AUGUST 2012!
As of last weekend we can now tick off one more item on the extremely long list of ‘stuff we need to get done before Borneo/Cambodia’ – namely, Training Camp. Training Camp took place in the gorgeously lush, green (and on this weekend, particularly wet) Naamaroo Uniting Venues, NSW. However, there was little time to enjoy the view as our two days were jam-packed with various sessions to prepare us for our up-coming travels.
We heard about ex-gapper Ruby’s amazing experiences in 2011, learnt the basics of effectively teaching English in the local schools, got a bit anxious hearing from a travel doctor about the multitude of diseases to be caught overseas (but who also explained how to avoid them, conveniently), and also picked up some sweet magic skills to impress our families from guest speaker Julian Mather, but which will most of all help us engage and connect with the local children.
It was great to meet the members our group who could make it to the camp, and finally put faces to names. The dedication of this year’s gappers was impressive, with students coming from all over Australia (including Victoria, Brisbane and the Northern Territory), and working the craziest jobs to raise money for their trips – some working as housecleaners and others packaging tubes of horse-worming paste. And I thought being a cashier was hard work.
This weekend’s final result: We’re totally pumped to see amazing sights, trek through un-touched jungle, cuddle orang-utans, relax on topical Islands, and most of all to help some communities who are less fortunate than us, and who will ultimately allow us to better understand the world we live in.
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