N.B.: Having never had a blog before, I'm likely to write poorly-structured drivel until I pretend I've got the hang of things. (I'm also highly likely to overuse the ol' parentheses, but that's not specific to this blog.)
In lieu of heading straight to uni, I decided to opt for a gap year. I didn't want a round-the-world ticket and a year spent getting pissed on beaches, however (not that that doesn't sound wonderful), so I applied to spend the year working, via the educational charity Project Trust. I've gone on about it so much to everybody likely to read this that I'll avoid talking about PT entirely for now, but there is a 'Project Trust' page in the sidebar with more in-depth information, for those interested. The information contained therein is still fairly scant (for I am fairly lazy), but I'll add a link to their website or something.
The first stage of the Project Trust process began more than a year before any potential departure, with the week-long Selection course. This course was supposedly intended to serve us similar challenges to those we might encounter on our years away, so we could be assessed on how we responded to them.
A group of ~30 prospective volunteers was spread across the hebridean Isle of Coll, between different residents' homes, who then fed back to Project Trust on how we dealt with a variety of tasks. Some of my tasks weren't very tasking, to be honest. One rainy evening was spent with author Mairi Hedderwick in her gorgeous house, cutting up courgettes to make chutney while an elderly ginger cat dozed in my lap. I think I did some stellar dealing-with for that one.
My accommodation for the week was a small caravan in the corner of someone's sheep paddock, and I spent much of my time wearing three pairs of socks and a woolly hat I found stashed in a drawer, attempting to stave off the November chill. The remaining time was spent at Project Trust's headquarters, teaching lessons, giving presentations, and attending ceilidhs.
One week and many packets of crisps after returning home, I received a letter informing me that my skills and interests had been matched to a project in Guyana, so this is where I'd be spending the year :D We'd also had a certain amount of say-so in our destination (Project Trust runs projects in 23 countries) and Guyana had been my first choice anyway, so I was very pleased with the outcome.
So, before I head off to the 'Land of Many Waters', I thought I'd entertain myself - and most likely alienate everybody else - by documenting my fundraising progress (I need to raise £4,950 and am currently on £270, so it's not looking too good at the minute, folks).
If I have internet access once I'm actually in Guyana (which I probably will, sporadically), I'll use this blog.. thing... to update anyone interested (Mum, Dad, Jess... potentially Will and almost certainly not Alex) with how I'm getting on.
How do you end a blog post?
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