We made it! We covered a total of 657 miles: 82 miles or 130km a day. All in all it was a great experience and an interesting send off. We saw a varied selection of places along the way- from Doncaster and Darlington to Portsmouth and Paris. Accommodation also varied, from the begged dining room floor of a elderly B&B owner to the much more comfortable house of Grandpa and Angela in Emsworth. Thank you very much for sponsoring me.
I've now been in Bolivia for 2 weeks and am settling in fine. The accommodation we have is spacious and clean, the only problem being its location in the middle of a girls' orphanage and the lack of curtains! The German volunteers are all very friendly and speak good English and I'm just getting over the altitude sickness. La Paz is a bizarre but beautiful city with plenty to do and see.
I am currently still at the stage of visiting and finding out about the projects although have a feeling I want to work in the 'unidades productivos'. These productive units (a bakery, carpenters, handicraft makers and cafe) that are owned by Arco Iris provide employment and a chance to acquire a trade or skill to the ex-beneficiaries of the homes the charity runs. They are currently undergoing a huge structural change to become financially self-sustainable, overseen by an experienced new manager called Pablo who moved here from USAID. This change is essential to ensure the future of these enterprises. Because of the social nature of the projects, any cuts etc. are very difficult to make and have to be done so very delicately. I hope to work in this new team to try and help turn around these businesses. What exactly I will be doing I do not know but as it becomes clearer I will post the information at http://rogerpoolman.blogspot.com/.
Thank you very much to all of you who have donated so far, you have been extremely generous. For those who have not yet helped, you will notice that my total is not quite there and anything you can give will still be very much appreciated.
Many thanks,
Roger
