Goodbye Australia!

Hello!

Firstly, I'll update you on some of the other things I've done in Melbourne. Since I last posted, I visited the National Gallery of Victoria and saw some beautiful artwork. My personal favourite were the oriental ornaments collection, featuring work from China, Japan and Korea. I also visited the National Sports Museum, which involved checking out the famous MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground): Home to Australian cricket and AFL. We were also treated to a day out with my Auntie Dorothy, who I was very surprised to see. She took us for lunch and showed us around a few of the coastal spots by St Kilda. Other than that, I've eaten some good food, watched a bit of the Commonwealth Games and enjoyed catching up with my cousin on the last 10-years.

It is now my last night in Australia. Tomorrow morning I will be flying to the Philippines, via Singapore to undertake 8-weeks of voluntary work in Tacloban City.

My time in Australia has been really enjoyable and I feel Andy and I definitely made a good choice visiting the country the way we did. When Andy and I were looking at our travel plans, many months ago, we decided that we wanted to visit both New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand was easy enough to see in its entirety over a 4-week period but with Australia being so vast, we knew we would barely be able to touch the surface. We therefore had the choice of doing a whistle stop tour of the East coast or picking a couple of major spots and experiencing them in full. We went for the latter option and have truly taken advantage of our time in both Sydney and Melbourne.

As I depart Melbourne I am not only leaving Australia, but a few other things as well. Firstly I'm leaving Andy. Andy is flying to Borneo tomorrow to spend 10-weeks living in a jungle as part of a charitable project which will see him working with the local communities and participating in a number of environmental projects. I couldn't have asked for a better travel partner. Having lived together for 2-years at university, I knew this would work out well and I've really enjoyed being able to experience the States, New Zealand and Australia with Mr Dykey!

Secondly, I'm leaving a lifestyle of certainty! It sounds a bit abstract I know, but up to now I've had a pretty good idea of what all my travel segments would entail. Camp, I've obviously experienced many times, I've also travelled around the States a number of times, I knew what to expect from New Zealand and our time in Australia was relatively predetermined. However, I know very little about what to expect in the Philippines - both in terms of the work I will be doing, the people I will meet, the agency who are supporting me, the living set-up and the cultural differences that I will encounter. In short - lots of uncertainty ahead of me!

Finally, I'm leaving a world of civilisation. It dawned on me a few days ago, that this will be the first time I will experience a consistent level of poverty across a region. I have of course visited many places where homelessness exists and people live in poverty but this has never been a general occurence throughout a specific area. There has always been plenty of affluence and people living comfortably to counterbalance the individuals living in poverty. This can be seen in any big city and I've experienced this in New York, South Africa, Israel, Europe and even where I live in London. The Philippines is by no means one of the poorest nations on the globe but it is a developing country and part of the third world. It certainly has it's wealthy areas but Tacloban City, which is where I'll be located, is not one of those areas. Tacloban City is home to a community where across the board the civilians are uneducated, underfed and in many cases homeless. Crime levels are relatively high and drug taking (most notably glue sniffing - an appetite suppressive) is pretty common. Now although this draws a very sad and negative picture of life in Tacloban City, it does provide the opportunity for doing something good in this community. I will be spending 8-weeks working alongside the Social Services in Tacloban City. The aim is to get the local youths off the streets and give them something more productive to do with their time. Offering activities such as sport, art, computing, English Language training will not only redirect their focus, but also develop their skills and better their future job prospects. I expect it to be a challenging 8-weeks but my hope is that it will continue to fuel my passion for youth work and engaging young people in informal education.

Good bye Oz!

Much love!

Sam