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A School with a real Sense of Community

Mr Roberts' World Tour!


    1st November 2008

  His next message comes from Heathrow in his short stop betwen flying from Jordan to Hong Kong.  He tells how the meeting with the Minister for Education went really well, the same night he also met one of the Royal Family who he was surprised to find was a Manchester United fan! The Minister for Education and the Minister of Environment have asked Mr Roberts to start working with the British council for Jordan with Science teachers, which is really good. They have also expressed interest in starting up links with Saltash.net, a good start to International links for the school with Jordan!

  He gives a quick paragraph on one of his most memorable moments in the last days of being in Jordan,

"Petra was amazing! I can't really describe it but the best moment in the last day or so was sleeping on my own, on a sand dune, in Wadi Rum looking at the Milky Way and hundreds of shooting stars with the only company of snakes, scorpions and a giant gerbil that I woke up was sleeping at the end of my sleeping bag! I woke up at sun rise to the dunes and massive canyon - simply spiritual!"

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  We're hoping to hear from Mr Roberts soon as to how his time in Hong Kong is, and wishing him all the best! 

 

   27th October 2008

  It's the 27th of October and Mr Roberts isn't in school, rather he's in Jordan (between Israel and Iraq). He's found the time though to send us a message and keep us all updated as to his well being.

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  He arrived in Amman at around 2am and met all sorts of interesting people ever since! The hotel he was staying at was near 3 Mosques, one of which started up at 4am, needless to say he didn't get much sleep that first night!

  The next day he headed up into the Jordanian desert, Badia, a region larger than Ireland that takes up four-fifths of Jordan's total area. There were some superb sights there which were very impressive, and he got the chance to get right up close to them.

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  He then moved on to staying at a field station (an old air base near the Iraqi border) where he has been working with Jordanian teachers and people. He has also sampled the local cuisine and wildlife too,

"It is a really strange place! Good food though but the scorpions in your bunk are a bit annoying!"

  The water in such a climate isn't as readily available as over here either,

"No hot water and it is on a meter so enough to fill about 3 kettles a day which between 3 of you isnt very much I feel I am starting to whiff a bit!"

  But of it sounds like he's really enjoyed his time in Jordan and had a lot of experiences most of us will never have to chance to.

"When we went into the desert for most of the day, we had to drive into it for a couple of hours near the Saudi Border. There wasn't any other life around for miles - very remote and very beautiful. I couldn't stop saying WOW truly amazing experience."

  He has talked to some of the local people that are trying to make Jordan a better place too, which sounds really interesting,

"I spent time with a remarkable woman who fled from Iraq during the war with her kids and husband and came to this remote village where we are staying and started up a womens group to empower women in Jordan. She campaigned against much opposition and since 2002 has really started to make a difference with setting up an ICT centre so that women can gain skills and get jobs and actually freedom. This has evolved to a whole community group where she is acquiring land and building a small school for young children while their mums are trying to better themselves. I was really touched by the people and they really need help financially to develop some more projects like getting teenagers away from drugs and things like that she was simply amazing and I really wanted to help."

  A really encouraging story as I'm sure you'll agree. Mr Roberts and Saltash.net will be keeping in touch with this inspirational woman, and helping out with her endeavours.

  Towards the end of his stay in Jordan, he had dinner with the Minister for Education in Jordan before his big trip back to the UK then on to Hong Kong for the Microsoft summit.

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