Wick YFC

Below are two of our members personal diaries who have undertaken YFC travel programmes this year.

​

Katie's trip to Canada

​

In 2016 I decided to apply for a YFC exchange trip to Canada, with over 33 people  applying I thought I wouldn’t stand a chance, but to my surprise I was chosen to represent Wales YFC in Canada! I travelled to Toronto in November 2017 and met my amazing host family from Waterloo, Ontario whom I stayed with for the first week of my trip. In the first week I visited various farms including a water buffalo dairy farm, a chicken farm with over 20,000 chickens and a sheep farm with 1,500  ewes. I also had the chance to see the amazing Niagara Falls, the super impressive CN tower and visit the Royal Winer Agricultural Fair in Toronto. For my second week I moved to a different host family living in Ayr, Ontario. My host Celie took me ice skating on a Canadian ice hockey rink, I went to see a real ice hockey match and visited the university of Guelph where I had the chance to go to an ‘Aggie pub night’. Celie also took me to a cowboy themed night club and I bought myself cowboy boots. When staying with Celie, I had the amazing opportunity to compete for Guelph  Junior Farmers in the Junior Farmers of Ontario Competition Day.  I competed in the line dancing, variety show, singing and two-step. The two weeks came to an end very quickly but before leaving I had the chance to speak at the ‘Young Farmers of Ontario Conference about the amazing opportunities Wales YFC have to offer! The exchange was 100% the best thing I’ve ever done, it was an incredible experience where I made lots of new friends across the pond and drank lots of BudLight! I would encourage all members to apply for YFC trips, you won’t regret it! 

 

Katie Evans

​

​

​

Evan's trip to Argentina

​

In August 2017 myself and 10 other members of NFYFC visited Argentina for a 2 week volunteering programme.  10 of us met at Gatwick Airport on 6th August, ready for our 3 flights of 21 hours flying and waiting in airports. When we landed in Cordoba Airport, we were greeted by Pablo, who was to become our translator/guide. Pablo took us to our respective homes where we met the 11th member of our group.  The 8 girls were split into 4 pairs and stayed together; us 3 lads all stayed with host families in Cordoba, with only a half hour walk between us. We briefly met the families before heading off on a walk to the Volunteer Abroad Office. Pablo took us into Cordoba city centre for an open top bus tour and to exchange some Argentinian pesso's, this turned out to be a bit disastrous.  We walked for miles in several directions which resulted in us missing the last tour.  When we went to get our pesso's, the banks were closed so we wandered around the city, seeing some amazing sites and even  a feminist activist march. 

 

We spent Tuesday to Friday in Cordoba volunteering in a local primary school, ESCUELA MUNICIPAL DR HORACIO GARCIA. Each morning we turned a bare patch of soil into a vegetable garden for the children to enjoy, we dug, spread compost, planted seeds and watered the plots. On the Friday we made hanging baskets with the kids out of plastic bottles. After we finished our chores each day, we had dinner with the children, after which we joined them in class and tried teaching some English before advancing to football and skipping where we hoped to demonstrate whose skills were truly  better!  One evening in Cordoba we were taught how to make empanada's, the Argentinian version of a Cornish pasty.

 

On the Saturday we left Cordoba city and went to Alta Gracia, where in the morning we visited the JESUIT ESTANCIA, a self sufficient farm/castle with its own water mill, blacksmith and church. It was built by missionaries for the indigenous people in the 17th century. 

 

In the afternoon we visited the house of Che Guevara who I apparently resemble, a famous Argentine marxist revolutionary.  In each room of his house there was a different section of his history for us to read. We then headed back to Cordoba for the night.

 

On Sunday we went for a drive into  the mountains north  of Cordoba to a ranch where we experienced a true asado (BBQ for us brits). We  saw our first Argentinian cows as we toured the area. We then had lessons at lassoing and watched three Gauchos (cowboys) on their highly trained horses doing fast manoeuvres in a tight space before enjoying our asado and heading back to Cordoba for the night.

 

Early on Monday of our 2nd week (my birthday) we met our new tour guide Luis and headed south on a 3 hour mini bus drive to our next home, an organic nature reserve in Villa Rumipal called Puma Kawa.  They kept llamas, peacocks, monkeys and quite a few puma's.  It became quite cosy as the 11 of us squeezed into 2 small rooms with no room to put our bags by our beds.  The bathroom was at one end with a small hot water tank and no wifi!  How were we going to cope?! Things didn’t improve; there was an alcohol ban on site but after a quiet chat with the owners they soon came round to the YFC way of thinking! We then headed down to town, which was a very small village about half an hour walk where we spent most of the day and watched the sunset over the mountains.  It soon turned bitterly cold, there were huge variations in temperature, we wore shorts and T shirt through the day and hoodies, coats and long-johns when the sun went down. We spent the week helping do chores on the reserve, planting trees for the council in the village, but mostly sunbathing in the day and in the evenings playing games with spoons and  wine.  I couldn't get to grips with the spoons game, but understood the wine part brilliantly! 

 

When we were in the village, one thing that struck us was the number of stray dogs on the street. They were really friendly and would become part of our gang when we were in town, but when we headed home they would stop following us, apart from one evening when two followed us all the way. On Wednesday we said our first goodbyes to head home.

 

As Friday dawned we were picked up in the mini bus and headed back to Cordoba to spend our final night with our host family who treated us to an evening meal, the food was incredible and so much of it.  Eight of us headed home on Saturday leaving behind two of our group who elected to stay another week.

 

My advice to someone wishing to visit Argentina is to try their white wine, it will not disappoint. In the cities and on the public transport keep your wits about you, pick pocketing is very common.  However the Argentinians are very nice people, we did not meet a 'bad' Argentine. Oh, and the Falklands, the youngsters brought up that subject!

 

A good time was had by all!

 

Evan Thomas