Christmas comes to Fieldbase early

All the venturers have left now, leaving a somewhat emotional and bereft-feeling staff team behind them. This afternoon they headed off in their different directions, either by coach to Bangalore airport or to travel on in India or, in the case of the host country venturers, to the train and bus stations in Mysore to head back home to their families.

Before they left we reassembled in our original Alpha groups, an emotional experience in itself as we caught up with the highs and lows of expedition. I've been with 5 members of my original group through all three phases, but it was amazing to catch up with the other 5 to find out about their adventures.

We've had a festive couple of days at fieldbase. Last night we prepared a Christmas dinner for 50 people (my role involved peeling 20kg of potatoes, a task that took a mammoth 2 hours!) and watched the nativity plays that fieldbase staff and the alpha groups had prepared. Curry and Stew, the two fieldbase goats, played a starring role in the fieldbase staff play. I was narrator in our alpha group play, which involved squinting at a scribbled piece of paper filled with asterisks and arrows and trying to figure out where to pause to allow the venturers to do their acting. We hadn't rehearsed beforehand so it was all a bit stressful!

The decorations at fieldbase have been amazing. Beautiful lights, a Christmas tree, paper decorations, huge stars hanging around the quad, leech socks decorated with tinsel hanging up for Santa! It all felt very festive, albeit incongruous given the daily temperatures which hover around the high 20s, palm trees and green parrots that flit around fieldbase.

After dinner and speeches from three venturers, the country director Gavin and the deputy programme manager Robin, we were all surprised by fireworks exploding into the sky over the roof of fieldbase and the coconut trees.

Definitely an image that will remain in my mind for a long time.