Photo Round Up Phase 2 - 14/11/09

Here is a quick round up of photos from the last phase!

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Changeover 2 and deployment to final phases - 25/11/09

The whole of expedition 09K has hit Kota Kinabalu after a fantastic second phase out on project. The two day changeover period encompassed all the essentials - logs issuing out crackers, noodles and other delicious tinned food goods in abundance, alpha groups and projects managers debriefing on the highs and lows of their phase and everyone waiting with bated breath, to find out where they would be spending their final phase - and who with. 

 

However this changeover was just a little bit special because it was somebody's birthday and we decided to throw a party with 500 guests to celebrate! Of course to warrant such a grand affair, it must have been somebody pretty specials 'bon anniversaire.' We were actually celebrating the silver anniversary of Raleigh as we turned 25 years old this weekend! It is 25 years since Operation Raleigh launched its expeditions on sailing ships, on a long and amazing journey involving 30,000 volunteers around the globe, it has flourished into what it is today.

 

 

 

 

  

Long time supporters of Raleigh Borneo, Sabah's Ministry of Youth and Sport threw the birthday bash at Sutera Harbour and the function was attended by the entire expedition and all those who have been involved with Raleigh Borneo throughout the years, including project partners, alumni and Raleigh support groups  - many of which were attending the Raleigh Conference this weekend, from as far as Hong Kong and Australia. Our special guest of the evening was Raleigh CEO Stacey Adams who is visiting from the UK.The glittering event included a Malay meal, cultural dances, live music, a fantastic slideshow featuring 25 years of expedition images put together by Maria and guest speakers. The 09K venturers took it up a notch by swarming the stage and throwing some shapes at the end of the evening.

 

 

 

The next day kicked off with allocations with all the venturers regrouping and prepping for their final expedition projects.

 Alpha 1 who are all off the Minosuh to finish the build on the kindergarten will be having fun painting murals and finishing off the job on this community phase.

Alpha 3 are about to embark on their journey to Imbak Canyon to continue work on the bridge on this environmental phase.

Alpha 4 are the second environmental project and are heading back to Sepilok to work on the sunbear sanctuary infrastructure.

 

Alpha 5 and Alpha 6 are going to complete an adventurous phase trekking and diving in Long Pasia and beautiful Mamutik

Alpha 7 seen here are off to Kampung Nibang to work on the reconstruction of the community hall for their community project. 


And now on to Borneo's very own 'Edinburgh Fringe Festival'  - skit night. The skits that evening were of a high calibre once again with one or two project managers getting a little competitive about their groups performances. We saw how easy it is to rescue kidnapped sunbears from terrorists with the use of crackers at alpha 4, we found out what really goes through a teams mind during the solitude of a long days trekking and Imbak Canyon featured on MTV's cribs at Alpha 3. The handsdown winner though was alpha 7 with a medley of scenes to make any thespian shake in their RADA dance shoes. 

Groups this time also received prizes for their efforts entertaining the loop and we even squeezed in a quick tug o' war session before early morning deployment today.
 

 

 

 

 

Everyone was grateful as ever to recieve letters, call home and pick up comments from the blog. At changeover the blog is printed and displayed along the wall and there is always a crowd around it looking out for their messages and reading them out to their friends so please take the time to drop them a note! 


We have one special guest to mention today and that is Mr Cat the new fieldbase moggy who has joined the team this changeover and is causing a nauseating amount of cooing from the staff throughout the day. We are now launching an alpha group competition to come up with a new name for her.Here she is asleep in the filing cabinet.

A picture for "the current Mrs Booth"

A whirlwind visit around Sabah...

The loop is back from a whirlwind visit to all the project sites and has exciting stories to tell.

The loop was split into two parts, the first part went to Alpha 1 and 2 and was undertaken by Mac and Alex. The second part went to Alpha 3, 4 and 7 and was undertaken by Mac, Anna and Phil. Meet the team...
                                          

Phil, Anna & Mac

Alex

Alpha 1 continue to make great progress on the Kindergarten, even finding time to take on another job that of painting the community hall. They have taken part in an inter village sports day and continue in their spare time to teach and play sports in the community.

 The loop was treated to a great lunch of pancakes by Alpha 1’s Thjis and Tim. James also decided to treat the loop to the dubious pleasure of Durian fruit Ice Cream. Not something Mac or Alex would recommend.

Alpha 2 on the Gravity Water Feed at Tampasak have ‘smashed it.’ They have done an outstanding job and are currently feeling very proud of themselves after completion of the work. It’s been a great effort from both the Alpha teams who have been there to make this project a success. It has been a physically and technically demanding project. The loop was made to feel very welcome, as always. We were treated to a great pasta dinner and then a fun Poker night (not for money - just fun). Jack proved to be great a bluffing his hand and Nick was a great teacher to Mick and Alex.

Early the next morning we left to carry on with our visits of the projects. Since Alpha 2 was already up, seeing that they rise at 05:45 every morning, they clapped the Bravo off.

Next was the visit to the stunning Imbak Canyon, one of my favourite places on earth. The whole Alpha group made the effort to trek out to meet us at ranger camp. The heavens opened as we trekked back in, but the group had already put in place some fruit punch and flapjacks for our arrival, made by the birthday girl Nicky.

No, we're only 'slighly damp'...

Although the rain didn’t really stop, it didn’t dampen the spirits of Alpha 3 as they laid on a great night of entertainment at Chez Imbak. James and Matt were both maître d’ for the night, looking good in their ties made from AWAS tape. They served everybody with an amazing three course meal of French Canadian onion soup, Spaghetti Bolognaise and a fruit crumble for dessert.

After dinner America took on Canada in a titanic struggle of chess. Phil Logs and Julian battled it out with Canada coming out on top. A welcome dance was then performed by Sharon, Nicky, Laura and Katie. The fun didn’t end there, though. Flop and Josh then showed us the Dutch game of “Nails into Bottles.” Early the next morning we bid them fairwell and began the journey to Alpha 4 and Sepilok.

We arrived late afternoon to Alpha 4, just in time to see the first post being placed into concrete. This will form part of a broadwalk into the sunbear enclosure. Again, this is and has been a very demanding project, physically and technically. We have been lucky with the technical abilities of PM Leon, Drew, Adam and Joel, as well as the muscle of the rest of the team, especially Danny who is dubbed the Alpha 4 strongman.

Again the loop was treated to a fantastic three course meal. Finger food for starters, then Lloyd the chef with his assistants Catherine and Celine made pizza’s to order. I went for the ‘works’ and wasn’t disappointed. Then we finished on homemade chocolate truffles whilst three teams consisting of The Loop, The V’s and the PM’s played “Never Mind The Borneo Buzzcocks” hosted by Joel and Drew. I can see a future in TV for the both of them. The V’s eventually won with the help of Catherine storming the last lyric round. The night was rounded off by wishing birthday boy Drew all the best as he enters mid twenties. Sabine and Nicky PM presented the cake and a non-alcoholic fizzy grape drink, whilst Jessie PM and Tom led everyone in Happy Birthday.

Again we bid a sad farewell to Alpha 4 and made the long journey across country to Kg Nibang and the Community Hall rebuild project at Alpha 7.

We were welcomed at the impressive bridge at Nibang by Sophia, Ruthie and the team and they immediately made us feel at home. Angus, Ali, Andrew, Courtney and Ro help getting some resupplies back across the bridge. Becky made brews and showed me around the work site. Again they have smashed it, but in this case really carefully. The plan was to take down the existing community hall which has fell into bad disrepair and to rebuild it whilst recycling as much as possible of the materials to build a new community hall.

When I left the community hall was completely down. Aman and Tom have made impressive plans and numbered all bits of wood from the old community hall, so it looks like a giant jigsaw puzzle. The team with Zara PM taking the lead have also been doing some improvements to the gravity water feed system that was recently installed by the Junior Lawyers Division’s Raleigh project.

The team again prepared a great meal made by Becky and James, including garlic bread and a cheese cake. It was then another quiz night hosted by Angus. It was very funny with the questions being mostly about Scottish rugby and “What do you know about Angus” which was my favourite round. It ended in a draw.

So that was the loop! We had a fantastic time and in my year in-country as CPM I have to say it was my favourite. I would like to thank everyone in all the Alpha groups for making the loop a great one for Phil, Anna and me. It just goes to show what you can do with Raleigh Rations!

Keep the comments and letters coming because everyone out on project really loves to receive messages. As I go around it always amazes me what positive effect your letters or blog comments can have. To get something from home while they are in these remote beautiful places means a lot.

Birthday wishes!!

On behalf of Laura Peck we would like to wish her sister a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Raleigh's Host Country Programme

As you can see from all the wonderful stories and achievements from expedition, Raleigh benefits young people enormously.As a charity we also provide young people from Malaysia the opportunity to join an expedition– something that would normally be out of their reach - through our bursary programme.

If you would like to support young people from Malaysia to make a better future for themselves, their families and their communities click here