Registered Charity Number: 291660
Administrator:
A.H. Beadles -
Chaff Barn, Downyard, Compton Pauncefoot, Yeovil, Somerset, BA22 7EL United Kingdom
Tel/Fax: 01963 440461 Email:
tonybeadles@freeuk.com
Scholarships for Gap Year projects between school and
university for boys and girls in H.M.C. (The Headmasters' and Headmistresses'
Conference) schools.
Reports from
previous scholarship winners: some
stories of remarkable experiences
Some short extracts from
reports
In
January 2002 I travelled to Belize to be a
volunteer teacher in the village school of Louisville, a small village about ten
miles from the border with Mexico in the north of Belize.
Teaching was the most rewarding experience imaginable, and when I shared
stories with friends who had simply gone back-packing in Australia or the like,
I realised how much I was able to gain by living with a native family and not
passing by as a tourist. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the
Trustees of the Bulkeley-Evans HMC
Scholarship for their help in making my trip possible. Encouraging gap
year students to travel and get the most out of their year of freedom is
wonderful, and I can't underestimate how valuable your help was. I hope I have
managed to convey accurately some of the excitement, pleasure and satisfaction I
gained out of my year out, and how it has planted in me new ambitions and plans
for the future. It does scare me somewhat that some people dismiss gap years due
for financial reasons and hence miss out on these experiences. I do hope you
continue to make these experiences possible for some of these people for years
to come.
Whilst in Vallioor I was
living with an Indian family which was amazing.
I felt I was living
a ‘true Indian lifestyle’. They took me to
the tailor and helped me buy saris and chudidah, taught me how to put on the saris properly and made sure I was well
dressed every day. I helped with the cooking, washing and really became
integrated into their family, everything they did I did too, from fetching the
water in the mornings to attending family weddings. I felt so privileged to
experience this side of India which many tourists may never truly see.
In Surandai I was
sharing a room with the staff nurse, Janaki and so
when she was woken up in
the middle of the night to attend theatre, I went too. We became very close
and spent a lot of time together on her days off as well visiting her family
and friends in surrounding villages and towns. I had one incredible memory
from Ponra hospital when Janaki and I were the only two people left in the
delivery room with two soon-to-be mothers. Between us we delivered both of the
babies, who were born within five minutes of each other. It was such an
incredible moment hearing the first scream from both babies and seeing them
first enter the world.
One of the junior houses
at Oakham School had raised over £500 to
help the Thai people recover their businesses
and help them rebuilt housing and support their families. I was lucky enough
to be asked to use this money ‘however would best help the Thai people I was
working with’. All
the people were so grateful for whatever they had been given, however big or
small the gift may have been. We attended an
amazing memorial service on February 26th. 1,000 monks gathered at
the front of a huge grassy area, and there were 40,000 people attending, a
mixture of foreigners and Thais. The service was led by various leaders from
different countries, and was translated into every imaginable language. The
service started at dusk and by the end we had each lit a lantern in front of
us in a glass bowl and to end with 10,000
paper lanterns were lit and sent up into the night sky. It was the most
incredible sight and such a fantastic way
of remembering those people who had lost their lives and their families.
Leaving the area was
horrible. The younger children couldn’t understand that we weren’t coming back
and the adults and older children were very emotional.
It was very hard to leave them having come into their lives and
built up such trust and close friendships and now to go and travel back to the
other side of the world again, back to a place where people grumble when the
washing machine doesn’t work or there’s a power cut. My time with these
people has really made me value things
that I may have before taken for granted, especially family.
We had queues
of 5,000 people snaking around the stadium and down the main roads of Cotonou.
Some had come from as far afield as Togo, and others had queued for 3 days.
All full of hope. My first job was
to accompany Anne Giles, a
nurse, and a translator
walking the lines, searching for those with maxillo-facial abnormalities who we knew we could
operate on and could withdraw from the line immediately- saving them a
day-long wait in the heat- the temperature peaking at 49 degrees in the midday
sun. We had to somehow be discreet, escorting only one or two at a time, the
long way round to a back entrance into the stadium. Obvious line jumping would
have caused a riot. This was such an exciting experience. It sounds really
impersonal and not compassionate. But you really need to be focused and aware
when dealing with such huge numbers of people, and the adrenaline starts to
flow. We had a job to do. Those in the
line assumed I was a doctor and i was mobbed on occasion, as many showed me
their problems- keloids, goiters, tumours and cataracts. And luckily my French
saved me as I had to explain that eyes were not to do with me and everyone
must wait in line.
"Mais...je ne suis pas
docteur...je ne peux pas t'aide" was a very useful phrase.
It’s hard telling those who have
waited so long in the heat and dust already that all they can do is wait
longer in the line.
SEE THE
FULL REPORTS BY CLICKING ON REPORTS ABOVE
|
.jpg)