Placement

Finally got my placement through from Project Trust!

If all goes well I should be going to a small rural village called "Na Kae" in the North of Thailand (almost in Laos actually!). It's between Nahkon Phanom and Sakon Nakhon, in a region called Isan.

I'll be employed by the local council to work in 2 or 3 schools instead of just 1, and I'll also be able to teach extracurricular activities and to become involved with English camps. I'll be helping fellow teachers with their English too, and to teach in extra conversational classes for adults.

My accommodation will be a wooden house which was once a Thai family home which I'll share with my partner.

All of this sounds fantastic, but there is a chance I won't be going to Thailand at all if the situation there doesn't improve (which it doesn't seem to be doing), and so my placement could be changed to Malaysia, China or Indonesia.

Fantastic News!!

The Charity Shop ended on Saturday, and it was brilliant! People were so supportive and the shop was kept busy over the whole week, which was great. We raised a total of £765, including the money raised from a raffle that week, and that means that I have now raised all the money I need!!

I'm so happy that I've actually made it to the £4,850 - I remember right at the start thinking that I wouldn't be able to manage even £1,000!

I'll be getting my placement letter within the next couple of weeks hopefully, which will tell me exactly where I'll be staying and what my project is, and I can't wait for that. I'll also be attending my Training Course on the Isle of Coll at the end of July which should be brilliant. I loved being on Coll last October, so now that it's summer it should be even better!! I'll keep this updated with information about my placement and training.

Chariy Shop!

Well the Charity Shop is open, and so far it's been great!! The site I have at 3 Little Roods is fantastic as loads of people pass it and have a look, and it's been pretty busy. Still got the rest of the week to go, so lets hope it stays like this!

On Friday I was also selling raffle tickets at the co-op, and they are on sale in the charity shop too, which was also successful!

A huge thank you to everyone who has donated items for the charity shop!

Also had a small article in the Courier today with a photo of me covered in soft toys from the shop which was actually quite fun!

Good and Bad News

Well the bad news is that the Can't Cook, Won't Cook fundraiser had to be cancelled because not enough people bought tickets, which is a shame because I think it could have been a really fun event.

The good news is that after putting leaflets in literally hundreds of newspapers at 5.45am about the charity shop I'm running at the end of April I've already had some donations of jewellery, clothes and books, and a few people have said that they are clearing out cupboards at the moment and will get back to me so that's great! I've also had another donation of £100 from a trust and a phone call from another trust saying that they would like to donate and are discussing it, so everything is looking up!

More good news!!

I've had an amazing donation of £1,200 from another charitable trust, so a HUGE thank you to them!! It's a fantastic boost and has made a huge difference.

I think that most things are sorted for my Can't Cook, Won't Cook - I've got the teams down, booking confirmed for Northmuir Hall, so just to sell tickets now! I'll be really advertising next week, going to try and get in some publications at the school to get people interested. Time goes by so fast when there's things to do...

Thank you!!

The interview in the Herald was really good, I was happy with it and the photo wasn't too bad!

I'd like to say a huge thanks to everyone who has donated after reading the article - it really means so much to me to have people's support!

I'm right this minute creating (or trying to) the posters for my Can't Cook, Won't Cook fundraiser, so should have those done pretty soon if the computer will play nicely!

Donation and Interview!

Got another £100 from a Charitable Trust, thank you! Very grateful. Also, the article for the Kirrie Herald will be in Inspire (the Herald supplement) on Wednesday! It won't just be in the Kirrie Herald, but it'll be in the Forfar Dispatch too along with other newspapers all over the place, so that's great! I'll get a lot of coverage from it. Unfortunately, I haven't seen the photo that they're using, so if it's awful then it's everywhere and there's no hiding from it!! Lets hope it's good!