Sunday 23 November 2014

My Voyage to Coll (Selection!)

My selection week on the Isle of Coll  - October 2014




So, I have officially got into Project Trust!!! But, before I post all about my fundraising activities (and eventually my year abroad!) I will just explain about my week on the Isle of Coll. It may have been a month ago but it was such a great experience...it just has to have a mention!!

After filling in a few forms on the internet to be sitting on a train to a country I barely knew It did feel a bit surreal. In truth, I had only been to Scotland once before and  never, ever, had I caught a train/ferry on my own (I had never even been on a ferry in my life!)....so having to travel from Norfolk to a remote island off the west-coast of Scotland by myself seemed more than a little bit daunting. But getting there was a very pleasant experience- I met some really nice people on the train who were also going on the Project Trust selection week and the Scottish scenery was to die for! - Coming from Norfolk I could barely believe how many hills and mountains I saw!

Once we got there we were introduced to all the staff at Project Trust. After a brief settling in session we went to meet our host families on the Island. I was staying with two other girls on the course, and we all go on really well with each other. None of us could quite believe how different the surroundings were- it was so nice to wake up in the morning and see the beach just outside our window!

We were given several activities to do through the week. One of the first in fact was suddenly jumping out the car one morning and herding some sheep away from the road and into a gateway. Running up and down a road wasn't ideal for an early morning activity but coming from a farming back ground where escapee sheep are quite the norm made me feel very at home! 

We were also given the challenge to set up our own own 10 minute lesson which we had to teach to a group of 5 people. As I am currently studying Spanish for A Level, and I wanted to volunteer in a Latin American country, I decided to teach a Spanish lesson. Racking my brains about what to base my lesson on, and bearing in mind the fact that none of my group could speak Spanish, I chose to do my lesson on "Los Animales" (Animals) as I always remember that topic as being a fun topic to study. Considering we were being assessed on this lesson it was rather nerve racking, however the lesson went very well and I was able to name most of the house-hold animals people kept as pets. All except from Guinea Pig, which I looked up afterwards and found out it was "Cobayo" or "Conejillo de Indias" (little rabbit of the Indies). Looking up this fact I also learnt that some people eat this in Latin America- so if I see this on a menu I'll know what to watch out for!

One of my favorite parts of the course was the hill walk we did across one of the bigger hills of the island. Contrary to the views we saw on our train journey up to Oban, most of the scenery was very flat and had lots of big rocks scattered across it- rather like a moonscape. As a result, when we got up to the top we could see for miles and we could even see some of the other islands surrounding Coll. The view was amazing- I took so many pictures that my camera ran out of memory on the second day!

 Another thing I found amazing was the Scottish customs and traditions in general. We spent a lot of our week practicing and preparing for the "Ceilidh" we were going to do on our last night. Coming from England I had no idea what a "Ceilidh" was- a type of music, food, festival?? What is was in fact was a type of social gathering where you do lots of dancing (the dance moves are very confusing to learn!) whilst there is live music played in the background. It's often done at weddings and is incredibly popular in Scotland-I don't think that the Scottish people on the course could quite believe that no one knew what it was! But after the Ceilidh night everyone was converted to the newly learnt tradition. Our hard work learning all the dance moves payed off and we all had such a great time- despite being shattered the next morning!