Julie Arrives!!

Six days after I landed in Costa Rica I am joined by Julie.  She is a volunteer manager and will be supervising groups of 14 or so volunteers aged between 17-24 as they go through the three phases of Natural Resource Mgt, Community Resilience Mgt and Trek.  Unfortunately she will be in a bunk room with the other 8 VMs but she is fine with that!

Reunited!

Fresh from a cold shower

The Bunk Room

The management team is now complete!  This consist of the Fieldbase roles - Mgt, Deputy Operations Controllers (DOCS) and Logistic Mgrs (LOGS) - and the VMs.   

I tend to wake up around 6am every morning as the sun pierces through the window and walk from our sleeping quarters (Casablanca) to the main office for breakfast.  

The focus is now on the VMs induction so that they will be ready to supervise the volunteers and pass on the knowledge of the projects, safety, cultural awareness, social media, comms, first aid, etc.  Lessons start around 8am and end at 6pm.  Long days and lots of material to take onboard.  My job (Logs officer) is a little easier - just making sure all phases of the projects have the right food, comms, tents, etc.  Most days are pretty relaxing except a day or so before a project starts. 

The VMs will be doing Pre Project Visits (PPVs) over the next few days.Raleigh has a rule of three so I will be joining two VMs as they experience part of the Trek.  We will be dropped off some distance from fieldbase and will then navigate our way back, following part of the "Pura Vida" trek route.  We start off on Tuesday Feb 7th at 6:30am and are expected to be back around midday on Thursday.   I believe we are treking 15km on day 1, 19km on day 2 and 12km on day 3.  Should be okay as long as it does not get too hot or too wet!!