Celebrity Encounters

Bumped into Ant and Dec on the way through Heathrow. They were on their way down from Edinburgh where they were filming Britain's Got Talent. They were kind enough to let me take their pic form my blog.

Departure Day

Departure day has arrived, it's came around so quickly.

I'm feeling a mixture of excitement and nervousness today. I attended the WaterAid Ball in Glasgow on Friday night during which our Asset Management Director and WaterAid Scotland Chairman spoke about his experiences in Mali last November. His speech really inspired me to make the most of this amazing opportunity and to use my experiences to enthuse others to support WaterAid.

My bags are all packed now and the butterflies have kicked in. Look out for updates to my blog, Facebook and Twitter over the course of the week.

The #tag on Twitter for the trip is #watrip. Please look out for updates.

Trip Itinerary

Just over 1 week now until our life changing trip begins!

Yesterday we saw a draft trip itinerary for the first time and it looks like it'll be a packed 8 days, meeting lots of interesting people. Below is a rough outline of our days in Zambia with WaterAid:

• Day 1: Arrive in Zambia and attend a briefing from WaterAid Zambia. Travel to Monze where we will be staying for the next 5 days (3 hours by road).
• Day 2: Travel to a pre intervention rural community in the Moomba ward to spend 'a day in the life of' with a number of families. We will be collecting water with the women and children of each household and helping with household activities.
• Day 3: Travel to Chipembele ward to spend some time in a post intervention community. We will see a toilet block and water point that has been constructed and will also visit a local school.
• Day 4: Travel to Batoka which is a peri urban (immediately adjoining an urban area; between the suburbs and the countryside), post intervention community. We will see the water tanks and treatment house constructed by the water utility. In the afternoon we will visit a rural community to meet the villagers and see an intervention in its early stages of development. We may also get the chance to assist with household latrine construction.
• Day 5: In the morning we will travel to an urban, post intervention community to see a water kiosk and solar water tanks and will meet with partners and users. In the afternoon we will see another pre-intervention community and meet with the community householders.
• Day 6: In the morning we will travel the 3 hours back to Lusaka. In the afternoon we will visit an urban, pre-intervention community to gain an insight into the issues faced in a high density slum.
• Day 7: We will receive a de-briefing from WaterAid Zambia and give a fundraising presentation to the WaterAid Zambia team to give them an insight into how we help raise vital funds for the amazing work WaterAid do . We will also be given the chance to catch up on our notes to ensure we have lots of case studies to help get others enthused about WaterAid on our return to the UK.
• Day 8: Return home. The end of what will most likely be a life changing trip for all of us.

2 weeks to go

Two weeks today we'll be touching down in Lusaka to begin our adventures in Zambia. I'm slightly apprehensive but also very excited. I've been speaking to others recently who have taken part in similar trips to get some advice and from what I've heard so far it sounds like it'll definitely be a life changing experience from start to finish.

I'm looking forward to meeting lots of interesting people and seeing first hand the issues faced over there. I'm also really looking forward to getting to know all of my fellow travellers better. Please follow some of my fellow travellers blogs below:

www.watersupporter.blogspot.com
www.peter-harris.blogspot.com
www.wateraidandmeinzambia.blog.com

To Do List

Another productive day getting prepared for the trip, the to do list is getting shorter.

I'm slightly concerned that my rucksack is almost the same size as me, that could be interesting!

Ouch!

Got all my immunisations today for my travels. I now have 2 very dead arms!

De-briefing Meeting for the 2012 WaterAid Trip

I've started this blog to keep you all up to date with my travels to Zambia on the 2012 WaterAid Supporters Trip.

Above is the group of representatives from the UK Water Industry travelling to Zambia on the 12th Feb. We're flying from Heathrow to the capital city of Lusaka to receive a de-briefing from the in country WaterAid programme team and then we're heading to the southern district of Monze to visit a pre-intervention community. This will be followed by visits to other WaterAid projects at different stages of development.

The purpose of the trip is to give us all a deeper understanding of WaterAid's work to help us all get others enthused about WaterAid.

I'm sure it's going to be a life changing trip for us all!