Carola is a PhD candidate in Australia who hails from Chile by way of New Zealand with a lot of travelling to other places in between. With that string of countries attached to her history, you can see why she fits in beautifully here on Femina Intrepida. Plus, I’ve known her for quite a while and we’ve been in the teaching trenches together so, I knew she’d be an interesting person to interview. After completing her Masters in Development Studies Carola set off to work with AusAID and UNICEF in Bangladesh and has some great insights for us about working in development and what it was like for her out in the field.

Can you tell us what kind of work you were doing in Bangladesh?

I worked as an ELTT, English language teacher trainer at the Sylhet Primary Teaching Institute in Sylhet, Bangladesh. This project was part of the PEDP II (Primary Education Development Programme, phase 2), a sectoral programme funded by the government of Bangladesh and a consortium of bilateral and multilateral donor agencies. It was implemented by the Directorate of Primary Education of Bangladesh in partnership with Unicef Bangladesh so I technically reported to Unicef. The part of the programme I was part of was funded by AusAID.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background and what led your interests towards working in Bangladesh?

I started off as an English teacher, having done a BA Honors in English Linguistics and Literature in Chile, and a CELTA certificate in New Zealand. Through my experience working in various educational sectors, both public and private, my interest for cultural diversity and international development became a passion. This took me to do a MA in Development Studies at the University of Auckland. I choose to write my thesis on international labour migration in Bangladesh – a policy study – as I wanted to explore an area other than education to expand my knowledge and experience a different field. This research led to other projects in other areas such as the garment industry, civil society in migration policy, female migration, remittance policy and refugee (Urdu-Speaking / Bihari community) policy, all in Bangladesh. I was actually in Bangladesh three times before I took up this assignment, the first time under an Auckland University research fellowship, the second time gathering data for my own MA research, and the third time as a SAMReN (South Asia Migration Research Network) research fellow under the sponsorship of the DRC-RMMRU project (Sussex University Development Research Centre and a research unit, part of the University of Dhaka) in Bangladesh. So when it came to applying for the position, I felt I made a strong candidate.

How did you find the job and what sort of hoops did you have to jump through to secure the position?

I found the position on a website called ‘Australian Council for International Development’ . I cannot remember details of all I needed to prepare as this is a while ago but I remember having to prepare a lengthy essay-like document addressing questions specific to the assignment. I had 2 telephone interviews, one with the programme coordinator and another one with a psychologist. I also needed to have a pre-departure medical check-up, get all the relevant immunizations and attend a pre-departure briefing.

What can you tell us about the place you were in?

I was in Sylhet for a year. Sylhet is a big city in the Northeast part of Bangladesh. I chose this place deliberately because it is much less densely populated than Dhaka, and I also knew it was much greener and quieter than many places in Bangladesh, which I found to be true. There was not much in the way of amenities though, as I had anticipated; a few shopping malls but that was about it. There were a few restaurants and tea houses. But to be fair, I did not really explore all that is available in Sylhet as I was busy with my work and doings with the people I met. I had a lot of fun spending time with my colleagues, trainee teachers and the children. The main reason for me to choose Bangladesh was its proximity to tea gardens and forests, also to the border with the NE Indian state of Meghalaya, a place I really wanted to see. I knew I could travel there by land, which made Sylhet a strategic point. It was like working in one country and going to another almost every 2 weeks.

It’d would be interesting to know what your days were like. Can you give us some details?

Every day was different, and I was lucky I could choose to have my days this way as I was totally free to follow Unicef guidelines or adapt and do what you thought would work better, what was more feasible. I was not the only one – there were another 11 teacher trainers spread out in the country, but I was alone in Sylhet. Ideally, they were looking at placing 1 teacher trainer in each city, but it did not work out that way. So I did have contact with other colleagues and we would catch up from time to time. To get back to your question, an example of a typical day was teaching /training of trainee teachers in the mornings. There were around 350 of them so I divided them in batches and we had a time-table with fixed slots allocated to each batch. Then it was meeting my counter-part to talk about our schedule, updates, changes or cancellations of our activities. I would back home to my hotel for lunch as I cooked my own food. I would return in the afternoon to observe teacher trainers at different local primary schools and spend some time observing their realities, which I found to be quite different, according to location and also the background of principals and teachers, as in, some were mixed, some had a Muslim majority, some had a Hindu majority. There was also the experimental school, which was part of the PTI. Here the children seemed much better off than any of the other schools I visited, for some reason. Sometimes I would travel back to the PTI with the teachers I had observed or if that was not possible, we would meet the next day for a feed-back meeting. I always prepared a printed feedback report, which they really appreciated because it made it a more formal evaluation of their work. Once at home I would work on more planning and would design activities and materials. I would speak with my counterpart at lot. He was simply wonderful, he was my guide to stepping into the heavily politicized world of a public educational institution in Bangladesh. He was also very open to learning and implementing whatever I could pass on in his lectures.

You often hear people talking about how  sometimes it’s nice to be able to let off steam with others from a similar culture to your own when living abroad for a long time. Were there many other non-Bangladeshis in your area that you communicated or collaborated with and, if not, was there ever any sense of isolation? If so, how did you deal with this?

I actually never saw any other foreigner in Sylhet, except once, when I spotted a Korean-looking couple travelling on a rickshaw in the opposite direction. I got so excited and wanted to jump off my rickshaw to speak with them, but it was really crowded and I lost sight of them. The other times when I interacted with other foreigners, were my colleagues and friends who came to visit, and my boss who came for a programme evaluation once. I did feel isolated but I occupied myself with my work, I also spoke to a few close friends on the phone and on Skype. I have a few close friends in India too, who were a big support because they kept an eye on me and invited me to join them in different activities often, especially in Shillong.  I also should not complain about isolation because people around me were so incredibly caring and generous to me. My counterpart, colleagues and trainer teachers were always excited about me joining them for meals, tea, coffee and events. I did visit some of them in their homes. People in Bangladesh are extremely hospitable, that is something everybody should know about. But I am sure those of you who have lived overseas, in a culture that is very different to what you are used to, and where you try to interact in a language that you barely master, understand that no matter how caring the people around you are, eventually you need an escape to a comfort zone, and that was India for me, that was Shillong. I would look forward to being back each time because it was always such a liberating experience in every way; culture, environment, language, even changing dress code felt so great, leaving the salwaar kameez and putting a pair of jeans and T-shirt on felt like an absolute luxury. But I think this need for a dress code change was symbolic and came from living in the environment I was in; Sylhet is the most orthodox place in Bangladesh, so I always felt quite conscious about what I wore, how I behaved and what I said. I needed to be mindful and careful and could not afford to make mistakes. There are a lot of political, cultural complexities, which you need to negotiate day to day and walk the path very cautiously. I could write on and on about this but I guess that is for another time.

Oh, yes! Please come back and tell us more. In the meantime, what were some of the highlights and low points of the experience?

Low points: isolation, loneliness, not being able to speak Bangla, weather (it is very hot and humid in summer), how much attention you draw whatever you do. I started off exploring and walking into tea houses just for the experience, but over time I felt this behavior was far too unusual for locals to understand so I started to keep a much lower profile. Also the absence of public spaces where women can act freely, the access of parks or areas where you could walk or exercise, the politics of the country and the place I worked in, which did not affect me but did many people I cared about; the frustration of not being able to do more to help.

Highlights: hard to quantify them because there were so many, the sheer learning, the witnessing of so many instances in people’s lives, the children, the teachers, their hard work, their spirit, their dreams, the progress you see, the changes you may help to bring about, the celebrations, the laughter, the friends I made, the wonderful opportunity I had to interact in an environment where you learn so much, my colleagues, their stories and inspiring lives, the feeling of accomplishing something, however little, is still something. This is something that took me a while to come to terms with because when I finished my assignment, I left with the feeling I had not done enough, or how differently I could have done things, but time brings a better perspective to see things from. I also keep in touch with my counterpart and some trainee teachers; some are overseas some still in Bangladesh, but all of them have moved up in their careers, which makes me very happy.

Any final words for us?

Whatever I was able to do it was because of the wonderful support I had from my counterpart, colleagues and trainee teachers, who were keen to make the most of the opportunity for learning my presence brought. Working within sectorial programmes is complex, because you are working to achieve quantitative outcomes in a fixed period of time, which is an extremely difficult thing to do leading to sometimes unintended consequences, especially in education.

Many thanks for giving us some insider’s knowledge on your experience, Carola. Good luck with your PhD!

 
If you have any questions for Carola, please ask away in the comments below and if you’ve had a similar experience and would be willing to talk to us, please get in touch as we are always looking for new stories about the lives of Femina Intrepida.

If you are looking to begin (or further) a career in foreign aid and development, your own government may be the place to start looking for employment. Some countries offer a long list of opportunities while others rarely have jobs available but the field is competitive no matter what the current situation is. If you can do it, volunteer work within the agency can help you to get on the ladder but you will still need skills behind you if you want to be a good candidate for any work, be it volunteer or paid. Check out the job listings to get an idea of the kinds of work your country’s agency is involved in and what skills sets are in demand, then weigh those up with the areas you have an interest in. Always bear in mind that projects change over time, but if you are a new graduate or thinking of studying for the field you should be able to glean some useful information through looking at trends in job postings and also by observing how the agency is set out and what departments they have.

This list is not all encompassing so if your country is not here and you can add your local agency in the comments to help others, please do. Also, don’t forget that there are other governmental bodies who may be potential employers, particularly for aid work, such as the police and military if that kind of organisation suits you.

Quick links to governmental aid and development agencies

Australia

AusAID

Job pages

Volunteering

Canada

CIDA

Job pages (a general Public Service Commission website)

Volunteering (includes youth volunteerism)

New Zealand

NZAID

Job pages (a general Ministry of Foreign Affairs and trade website)

Where NZAID works

South Africa

The NDA (National Development Agency) and, more usually, the South African governmental departments at national, provincial and local level, are the best places to begin a search. Job pages here

The National Development Plan for important background reading

Disaster management: NDMC and DMISA

Note: The government does not currently have a large engagement in international development work (outside of S.A.) but there are ways to get involved either through security forces or NGOs.*

United Kingdom

Department for International Development

Job pages (Civil Service website)

Other ways to get involved (includes volunteering)

United States

USAID

Job pages

Types of jobs at USAID

LinkedIn Group for recruitment

Other ways to get involved (includes volunteering)

Follow this link to an interview with Carola, who has worked with AusAID in Bangladesh. If you have worked for your government’s aid and development agency we would love to hear your story. Please get in touch in the comments or on the Facebook page.

*A big thanks to Claire Hawkridge who generously filled in my lack of knowledge on the South African situation for this list.

I was going to call these “Intrepid Noodles”, but I thought I was pushing it a bit. North American college students call them “ramen”, here in New Zealand we usually say “2 minute noodles” and in Asia it’s “easy noodles” or “Mama” in Thailand. Don’t pretend you don’t know what I am talking about. We’ve all resorted to eating them when too tired to cook or just in need of a bit of warm, soupy junk food after taste testing too much local beer. But, did you know it is very easy and cheap to make your own? You can even, and I know this sort of defeats the purpose, add vegetables to make them nutritious.

These are really great for the first day of a trek, or even later in the trek if you use dried veggies. They are also good for long train rides where you haven’t got a cooker but may have access to a samovar and can stop at a market before boarding. I used to make these in the computer lab at my university when I was there for hours on end working on my dissertation. Really, you could make this in most corners of the world as long as you can access the rice  noodles (noodles, such as wheat noodles, that require boiling will not work). What follows is a dry noodles version, but you could make wet, or soupy, ones if you are using the stock cube.

DIY Instant Noodles You Can Make Anywhere

Here’s what you need:

A bowl with a lid, or some foil, or a plate, or a takeaway box, or a mug you can cover or just something you can rig up to let the water out without losing your noodles. Hmmm, perhaps you could even do this in a metal water bottle ! Perhaps not.

Dry rice noodles such as Thai rice sticks- Be sure to get thin ones as the spaghetti-like thick ones will not soften enough without boiling. Enough to fill your container whilst dry should cook down to be just the right amount.

Seasoning-I make a mix of soy sauce, kecap manis (sweet soy) and chili sauce up ahead of time and put it in a little plastic bag that I can clip the corner off of. It’s also nice to have something you can just roll up when empty, but obviously it would be more green of you to bring it in a reusable container. You need about a tablespoon or less depending on personal preference. Another option would be to simply use a bit of a stock cube or Vegeta.

Veggies-Bean shoots (bean sprouts) are great as are chopped pieces of Chinese cabbage (won bok) and slices of spring onions. You can also just use dried veggies such as peas, carrots and onions.

Toppings-Herbs such as coriander/cilantro, mint or other pungent items will fancy up your dish in no time. Also great are sesame seeds, fried shallots or garlic such as you can get in Asian grocers, and any other seasoning mixes you can find in the area of the world you are in such as Japanese furikake .

Access to boiling water

How to make your instant noodles:

Pour boiling water over the noodles and veggies and cover for two-three minutes.

Test the noodles for doneness and drain.

Add the seasonings, put the lid back on and shake gently to distribute.

Remove lid and add your toppings. Ta da!

What’s your go-to, easy cook thing when you can’t or don’t want to cook?

It’s great to see multi-cultural families in the press in a positive light and it seems to be happening more and more but there is still a need for education. Because of this I always take note when I hear of  new documentaries that highlight what it is like to be a third culture child or a person of mixed-race heritage. Hafu is a film about the experiences of mixed race people in Japan. The title , ハーフ (Hafu or ‘Half’), comes from the word most often used to describe a bi-racial Japanese person. Although there have always been foreigners in Japan, it is only in recent times that non-ethnic Japanese people have made up much of the population of Japan, but this is changing in a big way. One in forty-nine babies born in Japan today are said to have one non-Japanese parent. This video explains in more detail.

日本は多様化している Japan is changing from Hafu Film on Vimeo.

The film, Hafu, sets out the stories of five people and explores the experiences of each. Some live in Japan, some do not, and some are coming to Japan to find their roots. It will be fascinating to those of us in multicultural families, third culture kids and also anyone with a connection to Japan. The first screenings have been happening in California to wide acclaim and, hopefully the screenings will spread. In fact, they would really like to find organisers for further screenings and, if you are keen, check the webpage or get in touch via the film’s Facebook Page.

If you describe yourself as a hafu or are a third culture kid who would be willing to tell your story, please get in touch via the comments or our Facebook Page.

Image belongs to Annabel Boyer via ABC

ABC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, has some interesting podcasts which cover things in the international sphere that you don’t often hear about. I recently listened to India School  which contained reflections by a number of young adults who had attended the International Sahaja Public School in a remote part of India. The nearest town to the school is Dharamsala, but when talking about the original journey out to the school the students mentioned that the road ended… and then they started walking. For a 9 year old, this must’ve been quite exciting if  also a bit daunting. But one man mentioned how he’d told his parents how he really wanted to go to the school, yet didn’t really cotton on to the fact that his parents would not be there with him until the day he started school and they headed back to Australia. I thought this indicitive of a 9 year old’s thinking and was intrigued to listen on through the podcast to see if this scenario presented any trauma to any of the students. It did not appear so.

By all accounts the students worked hard in academic and spiritual endeavours, but also had a lot of what they kept referring to as “wild times” exploring the forests and mountains and even trying to catch a bear. Despite being away from family in such a remote place one thing that was apparent, and this will resonate with many Femina Intrepida readers, was that re-entry to Australia after leaving the Himalayan school was the hardest thing for the students. Again, the TCK theme of feeling like you are in an alien world arises.

There are also some intriguing moments when the producer and host, Annabel Boyer, asks her mother how she felt about sending her daughter off to the school. I’ll leave you to listen to her sincere words about that topic. The podcast is put together really nicely with beautiful music and a nice flow to the issues, stories and points the students reveal. You can listen via the link below.

India School audio download on ABC Radio National 360 Documentaries

Have you attended boarding school or enrolled your child in one? If you can relate to some of the issues covered in this podcast, please get in touch via comments or our Facebook page as we’d love to hear your voice on Femina Intrepida.

Photo credit: globalite on Flickr

I’ve come across quite a few interesting resources on Tibet lately that I thought I’d share with you. So, whether you are looking for information on food, travel to the region, Tibetan language learning or just some nice images, there might be something of interest in these links.

Current travel and cultural discussion information

YoWangdu is a great first stop for Tibetan cultural information written by a Tibetan-American couple. They cover customs, Buddhism, travel and food in detail and have a great newsletter you can subscribe to. I’ve recently tested out some delicious recipes from their e-cookbook that I talk about on my food blog.

For up to date travel and permit information, I’ve always found the generous community on Lonely Planet’s Thorntree Forum to be some of the best people at which to sling your questions. There are some long termers as well as newbies who are currently passing through Tibet for the first time who can give you tips or tell you about any obstacles (weather, transport, permits, etc.) they may be facing. The downside of the forum is that the future is uncertain. They have shut down, reopened and revamped but who knows what’s in store for the future.

Tibetan Tsampa is a simple site but has the basics on how to use tsampa

Simply Tibetan is a comprehensive food blog with lots of recipes

Photography

Phil Borges has an interest in endangered cultures that he illustrates through photography and documentaries. His book from 2011 called Tibet: Culture on the edge contains some striking images, some of which you can view here.

A Flickr Group by Tibetan Photographers

The Tibet Album is a library of British photography in Central Tibet from 1920-1950

Tibetan images on Pinterest

Academics

Here is a post on The Best Places to Study Tibetan in India by the Sugatagarbha Translation Group who provide free translations of Tibetan Buddhism and literature texts on their website. One of the translators, Erick Tsiknopoulos, also teaches one-on-one Tibetan language lessons through Skype.

Tibet Archaeology is a scholarly blog by John Vincent Bellezza that covers archaeology and cultural history of Upper Tibet.

The Tibetan and Himalayan Library is an extensive information portal for all things Tibetan and Himalayan.

News and government

Phayul is an English language Tibetan news outlet

The Tibet Post has English, Tibetan, and Chinese articles and is based in Dharamsala, India.

Central Tibetan Administration

Campaign groups

Free Tibet Organisation

International Campaign for Tibet

Photo credit: Archer 10 on Flickr

If you have come across any other useful sites, kindly list them in the comments.

If you have travelled or worked in Tibet or with Tibetans in some capacity or are, yourself, a Tibetan woman and have an interest in talking to us on this site, please get in touch. We’d love to hear your story!

Directed by Icíar Bollaín

I was perusing my local DVD shop for something to watch at the weekend when the sight of mountains caught my eye. I am a sucker for anything to do with the Himalayas. I have to admit that the English name of the film put me off as it seemed a bit cheesy. Judging-the-DVD-by-the-cover score, -2. But I am glad I took it home with me.

It turns out that this film from 2011 (released outside of Spain in 2012) was originally a book, one that I will now seek out in order to get the full details of the story. The basics are that Laia (played by Verónica Echegui) went to Nepal for a bit of a teaching adventure at a local school and ended up going it alone to build her own school for disadvantaged children. The interpretation of the story does have a few predictable and, yes slightly cheesy, elements to it such as the character being surprised by the poverty and bureaucracy she encounters, idealistic teaching scenes and a bit of romance but I still enjoyed it if only to escape into the scenes of Nepal for a couple of hours. There is a segment where she hikes for a few days to a remote part of the country which provides a nice dose of eye candy for mountain people. If you are one of those people, you might enjoy this film for that reason alone and, if you are a teacher the film might just remind you why you engage in such a job.

Have you seen this film? What did you think?

#5 Foot Massager

Have a seat. Put the bottle on the floor and roll. Ahhh!

#4 Emergency toilet

You’ll need a funnelling device for this one. Sorry, no photos.

#3 Burglar Alarm

Attach the empty bottle to the door in a cheap hostel or guesthouse so it will rattle if someone enters when you are sleeping. You could drop a couple of small stones or other items inside to increase the rattle, just don’t forget to remove them before you fill the bottle with drinking water. I take no responsibility. And, if you think quickly, you could also grab the bottle and hit an intruder over the head with it. Again, I take no responsibility.

#2 Yoghurt maker

All you need is one spoonful of live yoghurt from your last batch, some gently heated milk (stop before boiling point, and then cool down to body temperature before adding the yoghurt), and a bit of a shake. Place the bottle in a warm water bath that goes about 1/3 to 1/2 way up the outside of the bottle (ie. the water does not go in to the bottle) depending on what the room temperature is, and a towel or other cloth to cover the whole thing overnight to keep it warm. Leave the top off of the bottle and be sure to keep the whole contraption warm. In the morning you will have a nice, soft yoghurt that you can pour out and drink or add fruit to. It’s also advisable to have a bottle brush handy for afterward unless you have a freakishly long tongue.

And my all time favourite…

#1 Hot water bottle

I have to note that the manufacturers do not recommend this although there are many a traveller who do not heed the warnings. In the very least, be sure you have a bottle that is not lined with something that will melt. Place a sock on the bottle and prop it up securely. Fill with hot water (not boiling), close tightly and pop into your sleeping bag or bed. If you stir a few times in the night, it would be a good idea to open the bottle briefly to allow for the change in pressure that occurs whilst the bottle water is cooling. Otherwise your bottle may become indented and could even leak. Or, you may just prefer to use the bottle as a bedwarmer by letting it sit in the sleeping bag for a few minutes and then leaving it out, uncovered, until morning. If you’ve boiled the water for over three minutes, and you haven’t used a bottle lined with a BPA leaching substance, you end up with a bottle full of potable water in the morning which makes this a double win!

Do you have any other uses for your water bottle? Leave us a comment or a Tweet. And, if you do any of these, we’d love to feature your photo.

You’ve just published a book on your experience in running the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage. Can you give us a brief idea of what that is and why you decided to run it?

I had always wanted to do the Shikoku Pilgrimage ever since I heard about it when I first came to Japan in 1994. There are, of course, many ways to do the journey. If you do it on foot, it takes 5-6 weeks to complete. By bicycle, you’ll need about 10 days. You can also visit the temples by bus or car. To cover all 88 temples, it will take at least a week, even by car. Most foreigners are interested in walking it. It’s a great physical challenge as well as an opportunity to feel the countryside and Japan’s ancient culture. You’ll miss a lot of that if you do the pilgrimage by car. Nonetheless, for expats living in Japan, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to get such a long time off work to walk it. This is also why Japanese people tend to drive it and do it parts of the pilgrimage over many weekends. It can take them years to complete the pilgrimage just once via this method, but the important thing is that you complete it, no matter how long it takes you. Indeed, it can be a life-long endeavor for those living further away from Shikoku in Tokyo or further north. Why did I run it? At first, I only considered walking it but as I really wanted to push my limits and do something no one else had ever done before, running it seemed far more interesting.

Were you a runner before you decided to do this?

I’ve always run. I had never run such long distances before, and had never run in a marathon before, but I was a recreational runner.

Did you go alone?

I couldn’t find anyone to go with me and certainly no one who would have appreciated running it. But I’ve always travelled alone, mainly because I could never [find] others who wanted to do the same things I did.

How long did it take?

It took me 5 weeks, running 5 days a week, almost a marathon a day (and sometimes much further than a marathon). My distance was mostly dictated by the condition of my feet and other parts of my body. I was forced to take off two days a week for body recovery. The thing is, on the pilgrimage, you have no control over where (flat vs. mountainous) or what surface (trails vs. pavement) that you’ll be running each day, so you have to take what comes and adjust accordingly.

Did you wear the traditional white clothing and sedge hat of the 88 Temple Pilgrims?

I did wear white, but only on top. I had to run in jogging pants because of chafing. In place of the sedge hat, I wore a baseball cap. I also carried the traditional Buddhist bag over one shoulder and sutra books and prayer beads. I was quite a sight!

Did anything funny happen along the way?

I found myself making udon noodle deliveries one morning. That was pretty unexpected, but the guy who offered me accommodation in his house the night before owned an udon factory. So he invited me to help him make deliveries in the morning. How could I refuse?!

Is there anything you learned about yourself from the experience?

I learned that an experience like this can change your life. I know this is a cliché but it’s impossible to explain in a sentence or two. The book is about how this transformation happens and how it can happen for anyone. Enlightenment brings on change. Even the term enlightenment has many meanings, depending on a person’s goals. But it is attainable. And you don’t have to be Buddhist to attain enlightenment. I’ve read a lot of books that explain enlightenment through lightness, auras or glowing. But I think this is a bit of a cop-out. Yes, enlightenment is hard to explain, but it doesn’t have to be so esoteric. You don’t have to dress up like a hippie, buy crystals, succumb to feng shui. You don’t even have to look cool to find enlightenment. The goal of my book is to explain the path to enlightenment in concrete terms.

Can you tell us what we’d need or need to do in order to do the 88 Temples either walking or running?

The main barrier to doing the pilgrimage is cost. If you’re walking it, you’re looking at anywhere from 4,000 yen per night (lodging, no meals) to 7,000 yen per night (with dinner and breakfast) to stay in accommodation along the way. At 40 nights, that’s 160,000 to 280,000 yen. Accommodation is plentiful, but most people who walk it will spend at least a few nights sleeping outside to help cut costs. There are a few pilgrims’ lodges along that operate on donations, but there aren’t many. Some people take tents, and there are campgrounds along the way, but they can be far off the pilgrimage path, adding unnecessary distance to a route that is already long enough at over 1,000 kilometers.

These days, there are roadside huts and even modern bus stops that are acceptable places for pilgrims to sleep for the night. Sometimes there’ll even be a bedroll underneath the bench just for pilgrims. Other recent improvements include handrails and concrete steps on some of the steeper parts of the trails to make it more accessible to the elderly and um, less fit.

You can buy everything you need for the pilgrimage regarding prayer beads, sutra books, and pilgrimage outfits at Temple No. 1. How to use these are covered in my book. You’ll also need a good walking map. You can get that at Temple No. 1 too.

Femina Intrepida is aiming to be a place where women who have learned something or gained or used a skill can share it with others. Is there anything you can pass on to us from your experience?

I firmly believe that by pushing your limits, you learn. We can either stay in our comfortable warm and fuzzy worlds, or we can venture into the unknown. The unknown is where things happen. This is where we can make a difference in other peoples’ lives. Perhaps the biggest misconception in the Western world is that life is all about you. It’s not. It’s about everyone else.

Thanks so much for your time, Amy!

Amy’s book “Running the Shikoku Pilgrimage” is published by Volcano Press and you can buy it on their website or at Amazon, electronically and paper-ly.

Truth be told, I’m a bit of a hoarder of tins. I’m not talking about tinned food, but those cool little tins you get things like travel sweets or mints in. Over in North America, there is one particular brand of mints that seems to have a cult following because of their tins and lots of people are altering them in creative ways. In the spirit of reusing, repurposing and just plain making do as many of us who live on the hoof have occasion to do, here are a few of the interesting things I’ve found people doing with these little beauties.

An Ipod dock by Autumn Bliss on flickr

An amplifier by sharonrosen on Flickr

A Geocache by psd on Flickr

Art by peregrine blue on Flickr

Or something to sell your art in by sarabbit on Flickr

Or just as something decorative to keep your little things in. Here’s a nice one by pumpkincat210 on Flickr

I always seem to have some kind of little tin with me when I travel that is full of tiny necessities. I’ve used them as sewing kits, urban survival kits (safety pin, plaster/Band-aid, aspirin, emergency bus fare, etc), a first aid kit, small chocolate treats container, a notes holder, a holder for hair clips or jewellery and also for mini-business cards. I’ve even made a travel candle out of one once. What about you?

What have you reused small tins for?

P.S. Neither Altoids, Lush, Faber Castell nor Trader Joes paid me to write this, it just happens that they have nice tins.