WaterAid update so far

JANUARY: Briefing Day in London

On 10th January 2013 I got an opportunity to travel to London and meet the other successful candidates and team members as well as the WaterAid Staff. We had a jolly great day where we covered all the issues and requirements for the adventure ahead. Its real! Its happening! Since then I have received the itinerary and examined it in every little detail...... which only heightens the personal excitement for the venture ahead and the experience and education I will gain. Thank you WaterAid for choosing me!

This is the crew off to India for WaterAid!

On the 9th January I traveled to London - a different world to the one I usually inhabit. I left from Port Talbot and had a direct line to London Paddington. Have you realised how heightened your senses become when you travel, especially if you are on your own. I stepped out of the house (after giving each of my little ones a kiss on their sleepy little heads) into the farmyard which was engulfed by a thick mountain mist which cloaked the hills. I felt the cool damp air on my cheeks and i was ready to do this.................................

I opened the gate at the end of our track and on each of the metal bars the dew had frozen and these little beads glistened as I shut the gate. Penygarreg Dam is still overflowing with a wall of white water energetically heading off towards the City of Birmingham.

I stopped in Rhayader at the bank, people were already up and moving in the streets. It is a wonderful town, the faces are always familiar and you always know everyone on the street - "hello, goodbye, how are you?" are the local songs that melodiously dance along the pavements. Leaving that familiarity I got back into my car and started on my journey to South Wales. The drive through the Brecon Beacons was glorious; the mist clung in little pockets beneath the hills and the morning winter sun rose behind the mountains. The voyage on train after my drive was easy and I read up on my WaterAid information mostly. Out of Paddington station I went and I got a taxi to the Victoria Inn which was very a very pleasant place to stay. i thought an inn sounded appropriate for someone travelling! Time was taken in my room for a well deserved cup of coffee. I contemplated on this coffee as I drank - my coffee made from London water. I get my water from a well which collects the water as it runs off the Welsh hills. Granted it may have been through a few ovines first.......... but how many people has this coffee water been through? Then I went and explored a bit of the Thames and stood for a while on the Vauxhall Bridge admiring the sunset.  

NOVEMBER : WaterAid Supporters Trip Confirmation
Jubilation and great excitement as I receive the news I was successful in having a place on the WaterAid supporters trip to India in 2013. I was undergoing my chainsaw training at the time and it was so surreal receiving this news and then going out of the office in a state of euphoria to fell a tree in the middle of the forestry in the lovely Elan Valley. (no employees were harmed due to this state of elation whilst wielding a chainsaw :-))