I know, I know, it has been a month since I satisfied your appetite for my musings, but there has been a good reason for that, I promise! The last time I blogged I was writing about my fundraising for my Volunteering in Guatemala and for those of you that have been following my efforts, you will be pleased to hear that I made my target of £1500. When I found out I had a month to raise more money than I currently have to my name, I was pretty daunted, but thanks to so many of you who have donated, I managed to collect £1350 in only two weeks and raise the rest a couple of days after my deadline! It was slightly depressing to donate my first wages in months to the cause, but I was happy to do so for such a worthy cause. So first off, thank you all for your help in that, whether you followed my updates during my week without electricity or came to the Quiz night, or were served by me in suit and bow tie (proper, non-clip-on might I add) a week ago. Now the adventure begins…
I fly off on Monday for a full 10 weeks in Guatemala and I now know much more about where I’m going and so I can give you all some info. I plan to update you on this blog when I can get an internet connection, but before I go, here’s what I know so far:
- I will be based in the beautiful small town/village of San Cristobal Verapaz about 6 hours north of Guatemala City.
- They speak an ancient Mayan language there called _____ but hopefully my (limited) Spanish will help there.
- I will be taking part in a project called ‘Change the Game’ (Cambiando el Juego for our Spanish friends) that has been running for 5 years.
- It is jointly funded by the British government and Comic Relief and aims to reverse the increasing cycle of violence in Guatemala by giving young people an alternative to becoming involved in gangs and violence.
- I will be living with a local host family, so yes, I could well be without running water, electricity and proper toilets… looks like that challenge was useful after all!
As soon as I can get an internet connection in Guatemala I will update you all on my progress and hopefully I can get into a regular pattern of updating this blog while I am out there. On a side note, this site has recently passed the 4000 hits mark, so thank you to everyone that has clicked here. Special thanks goes to some guy in the US who has looked at exactly 9 different pages every day for the last couple of months, no idea if you’re human, or something more sinister, but thanks for the traffic!
Oh and I know it is half an hour long and I can be a little obsessive about the under-discussed topic of internet surveillance, but John Oliver is always brilliant and is especially great here. If you didn’t know whether the government can see your naked pictures or not, this will tell you (all US and UK data is shared, so the answers are generally true for the UK too):
Jamin' Ben's Blog 