So this years annual camp, on Deverell Barracks, Ripon. I arrived a few days late so everyone was already used to the site before i arrived. Hence why i was left exploring the whole of Ripon before having to ask the 21 Engineers Guard room where i needed to be. Being a sergeant this soon got quite embarrassing asking cadets for directions. Got settled straight in after CAMJAM and went straight onto Weapons Handling...teaching all the cadets who had previously failed their tests. That is more or less my first day.
The First morning set me on the ground running, i'm well known in the ACF for being one of the very few First Aid boffs' therefore i ended up doing some form of first aid everyday.
I had the honour on this Annual camp to be given the role of county banner bearer for the final parade. This involved standing in the sweltering hot wearing what can only be described as the parade uniform from hell holding onto a banner that wanted to go everywhere but where i was holding it, due to the wind. But I couldn't be more proud :).
So that's Annual camp done and dusted for another year, only one more to go before i leave. Hopefully next year my company can win with a clean sheet rather than winning 2/3rds of the prizes, haha
Showing posts with label Africa south lesotho basotho army cadet cadets force. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Africa south lesotho basotho army cadet cadets force. Show all posts
Friday, 12 August 2011
Thursday, 11 August 2011
Africa!!
So then, first blog here we go.
This year i was lucky enough to be given the chance to go out and help some of Africa's unfortunate children in Pulane in the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. I spent about 2 and a half weeks out there.
The first was a lot of driving around, looking at the sights of South Africa. We had days on the beach snorkeling, days driving around huge game reserves and a day looking at the battlefields of Rouke's Drift and surrounding battlefields.
The next week i spent at an AIDS orphanage. It was full of kids who had lost all of their near family to AIDS and a few of whom were a carrier of HIV themselves. They lived in a corrupt and desolate area at over 2000m above sea level. The first thing i can remember thinking when we were arrived was the shear fact of how run down this orphanage was. They were living in buildings that seemed to have been thrown together by some village elder who just wanted to save as much money as he physically could.
The kids had obviously tried to brighten up the place, all the walls had drawings and writing covering them. One of the main walls was covered in colourful hand prints with a rainbow in the middle. But along with all this was the stone work which was crumbling, scorch marks from the candles they used as their only source of light, brown stains. A lot of the windows had been smashed a few weeks previous due to political unrest in the area.
We arrived on the Saturday and as soon as we saw how destroyed this camp was we asked to start work early the next day. They were not happy about this being a very religious area but after many discussions of the limited time we had we were permitted to start work.
We painted the walls in the boys block and also painted every bed in the camp. it took us most of the week but when it was done, we were all extremely happy with what we had done.
I mentioned earlier how religious this area was. We were lucky enough to be there on the one Sunday in the month where all the local churches in the area came together to worship. The service lasted around 2 hours and was a huge eye opener. Their services are made up more or less on the spot. If there was a silence for more than a few seconds one of the women would begin to sing, followed by the rest of the congregation. It made the hairs on the back of our necks stand on end. They also still use religion to aid the healing of the sick. This is again one of the main things i can remember most vividly and will probably live with me for the rest of my life.
We also went to their prayer meetings they held every morning other than on Saturdays. In these they discussed what they were going to pray for, it was during these that it hit us just how deprived these Basotho people are. They lose relatives but they can't afford to see their families so they work on through the pain and, if they're lucky enough to be able to afford to, they may attend the funeral.
The day we left was probably the hardest day of the whole trip for all of us. Not because of the thinner air depriving us of oxygen, not because of the exhaustion, not due any physical pain, but because of the emotional bonds we had formed with all of the children there. Two of the team ended up in tears and you could see the rest of us with a lump in the back of our throats. The fact they had so little but still managed to enjoy themselves and always seemed to have a smile on their faces made us all a lot more grateful for what ever we have.
We gave them all presents before we left. One young boy was after one of our group members watches all week. At the end of the week he handed it over. We thought and expected that, like any British child would, that he'd put it straight on and keep it for himself. We were all shocked when he went and shared it with every child that surrounded us.
The route back from Pulane was as long and rough as the route in. For 1 or 2 hours of it we traveled over ground that only specialist 4x4 vehicles could travel across. Even with the gucci wheels, it was a very uncomfortable couple of hours.
We returned to the group who stayed to work in the Capital, Maseru. We were greeted by them laid down on the floor enjoying the afternoon sun. We told them how extremely cold it was over in Pulane with highs of a sweltering 0 degrees centigrade in the morning then proper African weather in the afternoon when the sun rolled over the valley.
We were told that life in Maseru was a lot different. Apparently people here were lazy. None of them wanted to work for their lives, they all tried their best to get out of any work possible. The Pulane group were shocked that people in the same country, of the same culture could be so different!
The last night was spent in 'luxury tents'. They appeared to be a regular large military style tent from the outside but as we walked in we were confronted by an en-suite, fridge and food preparation area. The area we used to socialise had a bar and cooking area and just over the fence was our own heated swimming pool.
The last day saw us visit a Lion Park where we went on a safari drive and we got to stroke and handle Lion cubs that had been hand reared by the keepers.
It was a brilliant way to end the best few weeks of my life.
I am adamant that I will go back to the Children's Centre in Pulane to help out in the future. They deserve so much more than they actually have. I also want to explore as much of Africa as i can, helping out as much as possible along the way.
It was a huge eye opener, the Oxfam adverts that you see on TV do nothing to explain how hard it is out there. If you really want to know what it is like, get yourself out there...do not judge the whole continent on what you see and hear on the news and on the grape vine, a lot of the continent are trying their best to live independently, don't let stereotyping change your view on all of them.
Thank you everyone that went away with me, and thank you even more to the Army Cadet Force that gave me the opportunity to take part in this trip of a lifetime.
This year i was lucky enough to be given the chance to go out and help some of Africa's unfortunate children in Pulane in the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. I spent about 2 and a half weeks out there.
The first was a lot of driving around, looking at the sights of South Africa. We had days on the beach snorkeling, days driving around huge game reserves and a day looking at the battlefields of Rouke's Drift and surrounding battlefields.
The next week i spent at an AIDS orphanage. It was full of kids who had lost all of their near family to AIDS and a few of whom were a carrier of HIV themselves. They lived in a corrupt and desolate area at over 2000m above sea level. The first thing i can remember thinking when we were arrived was the shear fact of how run down this orphanage was. They were living in buildings that seemed to have been thrown together by some village elder who just wanted to save as much money as he physically could.
The kids had obviously tried to brighten up the place, all the walls had drawings and writing covering them. One of the main walls was covered in colourful hand prints with a rainbow in the middle. But along with all this was the stone work which was crumbling, scorch marks from the candles they used as their only source of light, brown stains. A lot of the windows had been smashed a few weeks previous due to political unrest in the area.
We arrived on the Saturday and as soon as we saw how destroyed this camp was we asked to start work early the next day. They were not happy about this being a very religious area but after many discussions of the limited time we had we were permitted to start work.
We painted the walls in the boys block and also painted every bed in the camp. it took us most of the week but when it was done, we were all extremely happy with what we had done.
I mentioned earlier how religious this area was. We were lucky enough to be there on the one Sunday in the month where all the local churches in the area came together to worship. The service lasted around 2 hours and was a huge eye opener. Their services are made up more or less on the spot. If there was a silence for more than a few seconds one of the women would begin to sing, followed by the rest of the congregation. It made the hairs on the back of our necks stand on end. They also still use religion to aid the healing of the sick. This is again one of the main things i can remember most vividly and will probably live with me for the rest of my life.
We also went to their prayer meetings they held every morning other than on Saturdays. In these they discussed what they were going to pray for, it was during these that it hit us just how deprived these Basotho people are. They lose relatives but they can't afford to see their families so they work on through the pain and, if they're lucky enough to be able to afford to, they may attend the funeral.
The day we left was probably the hardest day of the whole trip for all of us. Not because of the thinner air depriving us of oxygen, not because of the exhaustion, not due any physical pain, but because of the emotional bonds we had formed with all of the children there. Two of the team ended up in tears and you could see the rest of us with a lump in the back of our throats. The fact they had so little but still managed to enjoy themselves and always seemed to have a smile on their faces made us all a lot more grateful for what ever we have.
We gave them all presents before we left. One young boy was after one of our group members watches all week. At the end of the week he handed it over. We thought and expected that, like any British child would, that he'd put it straight on and keep it for himself. We were all shocked when he went and shared it with every child that surrounded us.
The route back from Pulane was as long and rough as the route in. For 1 or 2 hours of it we traveled over ground that only specialist 4x4 vehicles could travel across. Even with the gucci wheels, it was a very uncomfortable couple of hours.
We returned to the group who stayed to work in the Capital, Maseru. We were greeted by them laid down on the floor enjoying the afternoon sun. We told them how extremely cold it was over in Pulane with highs of a sweltering 0 degrees centigrade in the morning then proper African weather in the afternoon when the sun rolled over the valley.
We were told that life in Maseru was a lot different. Apparently people here were lazy. None of them wanted to work for their lives, they all tried their best to get out of any work possible. The Pulane group were shocked that people in the same country, of the same culture could be so different!
The last night was spent in 'luxury tents'. They appeared to be a regular large military style tent from the outside but as we walked in we were confronted by an en-suite, fridge and food preparation area. The area we used to socialise had a bar and cooking area and just over the fence was our own heated swimming pool.
The last day saw us visit a Lion Park where we went on a safari drive and we got to stroke and handle Lion cubs that had been hand reared by the keepers.
It was a brilliant way to end the best few weeks of my life.
I am adamant that I will go back to the Children's Centre in Pulane to help out in the future. They deserve so much more than they actually have. I also want to explore as much of Africa as i can, helping out as much as possible along the way.
It was a huge eye opener, the Oxfam adverts that you see on TV do nothing to explain how hard it is out there. If you really want to know what it is like, get yourself out there...do not judge the whole continent on what you see and hear on the news and on the grape vine, a lot of the continent are trying their best to live independently, don't let stereotyping change your view on all of them.
Thank you everyone that went away with me, and thank you even more to the Army Cadet Force that gave me the opportunity to take part in this trip of a lifetime.
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