Finally!
After a day of endless queueing (for everything that you can possibly queue for), I made it to Red Square and the Kremlin...
The stunning buildings all around, along with Lenin's tomb, make for a fantastic scenery...
Ended up having food fronm Kazakstan too!
It is time to recuperate my energy and board the train on the very day of my birthday (July 26) :]
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Saturday, 26 July 2008
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Form group 10JC joins The Double March!
After gatecrashing 10JC's end-of-year barbeque earlier on today, I am pleased to announce their generous contribution of 1p per mile covered on this journey!
Furthermore, they offered their unconditional help with the organisation of future events - you guys rock :)
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Furthermore, they offered their unconditional help with the organisation of future events - you guys rock :)
Read more!
Thursday, 17 July 2008
The Fundación Niños de los Andes
Many of you have said that you would like to know more about the Fundación Niños de los Andes and how to support their work.
This is a summary of the organisation's origins and activities.
The Fundación Niños de los Andes (Foundation Children of the Andes) is a non-profit organisation, conceived as a formula of protection and rehabilitation for an increasing population of children of the street, in conditions of great vulnerability to the violation of their fundamental rights.
By means of suitable programs and services, they offer real solutions to improve the quality of life of the children and to reach their physical, mental, spiritual and social development; The programme is sustained by the contributions of individuals and of companies with sensitivity and social responsibility, who support the work, campaigns and events that the administration promotes, along with international organisations who finance specific projects.
The Fundación Niños de los Andes policies comply with the requirements of the Colombian State, with Legal Function and Position of Agent granted by the Colombian Institute of Family Well-being (ICBF), according to Resolution no. 00539 of the 24th June 1988. The Foundation is located in six operational centers in Bogotá, the municipality of the Rosal, Cundinamarca and Manizales Calda.
The birth of the Foundation is marked by an individual social commitment that Doctor Jaime Jaramillo assumed, who decided to fight with all means on the side of the abandoned children, offering medical attention, food, affection and a place to live.
These children, the men and women of tomorrow, could today be useful to a society affected by poverty, unemployment and war, which destroy lives and homes, devastate regions and make people forget that love, understanding and solidarity are the unique means to obtain Peace.
Read more!
This is a summary of the organisation's origins and activities.
The Fundación Niños de los Andes (Foundation Children of the Andes) is a non-profit organisation, conceived as a formula of protection and rehabilitation for an increasing population of children of the street, in conditions of great vulnerability to the violation of their fundamental rights.
By means of suitable programs and services, they offer real solutions to improve the quality of life of the children and to reach their physical, mental, spiritual and social development; The programme is sustained by the contributions of individuals and of companies with sensitivity and social responsibility, who support the work, campaigns and events that the administration promotes, along with international organisations who finance specific projects.
The Fundación Niños de los Andes policies comply with the requirements of the Colombian State, with Legal Function and Position of Agent granted by the Colombian Institute of Family Well-being (ICBF), according to Resolution no. 00539 of the 24th June 1988. The Foundation is located in six operational centers in Bogotá, the municipality of the Rosal, Cundinamarca and Manizales Calda.
The birth of the Foundation is marked by an individual social commitment that Doctor Jaime Jaramillo assumed, who decided to fight with all means on the side of the abandoned children, offering medical attention, food, affection and a place to live.
These children, the men and women of tomorrow, could today be useful to a society affected by poverty, unemployment and war, which destroy lives and homes, devastate regions and make people forget that love, understanding and solidarity are the unique means to obtain Peace.
Read more!
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
So what's the food gonna be like?
Should I eat more and store extra layers of fat during the build up for this travel, just to see me through the ex-Soviet states and Mongolia?
Or should I pack up lots of provisions (instant noodles and cup-a-soup, whoop whoop!! feels great to eat like a student again!) in order to avoid disgust at first and dysentery later from the local specialities?
Well, I’ve been through so many vaccines…
All these chemicals running around my body... [switch off the light and I’ll glow in the dark!]
What can be worse?
I’ll go local. When in Rome, do as the Romans. And I’ll be posting here every single thing I eat and drink…
To make it more of a challenge, I ask for your contribution.
I’ve posted a map of the route I will be following.
Please do some research and send me ideas about the local delicacies (make it fried beetles or duck feet skewers) to be found at my next stop.
I’ll trace it down and eat it for you [guts rumbling already].
Photographic evidence will be posted too!
What more do you need to support me and the Fundación?
Read more!
Or should I pack up lots of provisions (instant noodles and cup-a-soup, whoop whoop!! feels great to eat like a student again!) in order to avoid disgust at first and dysentery later from the local specialities?
Well, I’ve been through so many vaccines…
All these chemicals running around my body... [switch off the light and I’ll glow in the dark!]
What can be worse?
I’ll go local. When in Rome, do as the Romans. And I’ll be posting here every single thing I eat and drink…
To make it more of a challenge, I ask for your contribution.
I’ve posted a map of the route I will be following.
Please do some research and send me ideas about the local delicacies (make it fried beetles or duck feet skewers) to be found at my next stop.
I’ll trace it down and eat it for you [guts rumbling already].
Photographic evidence will be posted too!
What more do you need to support me and the Fundación?
Read more!
Sunday, 6 July 2008
What's this all about?
You might think "yet another travelling blog?"...
It could as well be...
The purpose of this blog though is not solely to entertain...
A few years ago I was living and working in South America...
Having already seen poverty in many forms, physical and spiritual, I was gob smacked by the sight of a 6 year old boy hugging a can of glue on a roadside of Medellín, Colombia…
I was told that this can was his most valuable possession…
A ticket to a different world, with no cold, no hunger, no death squads after him…
He had no other way out…
I stared at his eyes only to see the vacuum left by the toxic fumes he was inhaling…
I had a ticket out myself and used it to come back to the western world…
But I’ve not forgotten the sight of that boy since…
Neither have I forgotten the work of a man that has been salvaging similar children deep from the sewers of Bogotá…
Single handed at the beginning and through the Fundación Niños de los Andes later, Jaime Jaramillo has been offering hope where there’s only been fear…
Now, ready to depart on a new march, across Siberia and Mongolia, on my way to China, my thoughts are with that boy…
Tickets in hand, I want to share the experiences from my inner and outer march and to help raise funds for the Fundación…
But, most importantly, raise awareness of what is out there, a few steps from our comfortable lives…
With no ticket out…
Sit back... let the double march begin...
Read more!
It could as well be...
The purpose of this blog though is not solely to entertain...
A few years ago I was living and working in South America...
Having already seen poverty in many forms, physical and spiritual, I was gob smacked by the sight of a 6 year old boy hugging a can of glue on a roadside of Medellín, Colombia…
I was told that this can was his most valuable possession…
A ticket to a different world, with no cold, no hunger, no death squads after him…
He had no other way out…
I stared at his eyes only to see the vacuum left by the toxic fumes he was inhaling…
I had a ticket out myself and used it to come back to the western world…
But I’ve not forgotten the sight of that boy since…
Neither have I forgotten the work of a man that has been salvaging similar children deep from the sewers of Bogotá…
Single handed at the beginning and through the Fundación Niños de los Andes later, Jaime Jaramillo has been offering hope where there’s only been fear…
Now, ready to depart on a new march, across Siberia and Mongolia, on my way to China, my thoughts are with that boy…
Tickets in hand, I want to share the experiences from my inner and outer march and to help raise funds for the Fundación…
But, most importantly, raise awareness of what is out there, a few steps from our comfortable lives…
With no ticket out…
Sit back... let the double march begin...
Read more!
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