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Portugal Work Experience

The week was organised by Mrs. Jean Williams and as the school had sent other pupils to other countries for work experience all the contacts were there.

It was a long struggle to get to go and we were told as a group that we would have to raise the money to go out there for the week, so the whole GNVQ group (both business and health and social care) got busy organising events to raise the money needed, as there were about 13 of us all together we needed a fair amount of money so it was decided that we would hold a disco at the school (for the first four years) and arranged to sell drinks and sweets. It was easy to get the support of the teachers and Neville was going to arrange the music and the group would be responsible for the evening (famous last words).

It turned into a complete disaster as a few of the girls somehow managed to sneak in some alcohol (so a few of them were throwing up in the toilets) and when pupils from other schools turned up and were not allowed in they started to cause problems about the school and had even managed to get on to the roof. Even with all this we did manage to get a fair amount of money and the next problem was how we would get to the airport to get to the plane and how we would get back. Mrs. Williams wanted us to make our own way up there but as not many people in the group had cars at home we decided to hire a mini bus and through Neville we managed to get someone to take us there and come and collect us. As it got closer a few people decided not to go to Portugal for various reasons when the time to leave finally arrived there were only six of us going, they were: Dawne, Kate, Claire, Carl, Neville and myself; the teacher who had ‘volunteered’ to come with us was Mr. Duncan Thomas who was a science teacher and also a teacher on the health and social care GNVQ course.

We flew out from Cardiff airport on Sunday 18th June 1995. I remember this as this was the first time I had been on a plane and did not know what to expect. The flight itself was pretty uneventful and we soon arrived at Faro airport in the Algarve region of Portugal and I did notice as soon as we stepped outside the airport terminal how hot it was and this was early morning as well. We picked up our mini bus, which had been hired for the week and set off for our accommodation; we were staying at a small complex run by some people that Mrs. Williams knew. It was a great place with its own swimming pool and the accommodation was great except for one thing - it was miles away from civilization. Originally we were going to be staying at a hotel in Prada da Rocha that was a very touristy area. Because of this we needed transport to get anywhere; the closest shop was a twenty minute drive away and on that first day once we had been show around our apartments, the girls were in one and the rest of us and Mr. Thomas were in an another.

That night after we had been into the local town for supplies – which consisted of a lot of liquid we all just chilled out by the pool and of course everyone started to drink. By the end of that first night we thought Carl was going to die as he had not come prepared he is fair haired and had a sun factor cream which was so low it was criminal (I would not use it and I tan pretty well) so with the drink and the sun he was in a very bad way and we had to wake the teacher up as we thought he was going to choke on his own sick (yuck).

On the Monday the long journey to take everyone to there various work experience placements began. The first stop was the English school which was where Claire was to spend her week then came the ‘Big One’ which was a water park where both Neville and Kate would spend their time. The next stop was Prada da Rocha where both Carl and Dawne were on various placements, Dawne was going to be working with some holiday reps at one of the hotels (the one we should have been in) and Carl was going to be working at ‘Oliver’s’ an English bar over there. Lastly I was dropped at the ‘Zoo Marine’ where I met the boss and was given a groovy t-shirt (lol). Mrs. Williams had spoken to the headmaster at the English school and he had agreed to let a few students in the same year also go on work experience. I don’t know much about the students with the others but at the Zoo marine with me was a girl (Fleur) and I did get to talk to her a little and she was telling me that many of the parents were not happy that the head master was sending them out on work experience as they were paying for their children to attend school and not work (I had always thought that if the work experience is planned it can be a great thing).

I was told to take a walk around the park and watch the shows which was good as I had never seen dolphins up close and personal and the park was very clean and tidy. I reported back and was told to work with the women at the main gate, basically they were there to check peoples bags for items which were not allowed into the park such as glass bottles and I was told to stand just outside and handout information to ‘English speaking people’ (unfortuanly the visitors did not carry placards saying where they were from). As you can imagine there were a few incidents of me with my hard to understand Welsh accent talking to someone who did not have the faintest idea what I was saying and I was left out there for hours on end in the sun and told by the boss to remove my hat – so you can imagine what I was like when the mini bus came to collect me.

Eating was a problem at the Zoo marine, I did not have to pay but I was sent to a place where no one could speak English and had to point to food that I wanted and what I did not want (they served me fish one day with heads still attached (I don’t eat fish at the best of times) so pointed instead to the soup (to this day I don’t know what was in it, visions of eyes bobbing to the surface). I don’t know what they got Fleur to do when she was there as she was at another part of the park but I was able to talk to the women that worked at the entrance and it was pretty interesting really, they tried to teach me Portuguese and I taught them a few words of Welsh. While we were there the business group were supposed to be collection information to be used to carry out a unit of the course and my time talking to the women at the Zoo marine helped me gather a lot of information, which I used for this.

I spent the week doing pretty much the same thing – chatting to the women and girls and it was always good to find a visitor who was from an English speaking country and have a chat with them as well. Towards the end of the week the headmaster from the English school turned up and asked how I was getting on which I thought was good of him and he had come to speak to the boss as Fleur had told her parents what she had been doing and they were not happy so as a result I was moved and got to see other areas of the park and even attend a training session but soon went back to the front, basically because I enjoyed it there are it was interesting.

As you can imagine it was not all work and at night we normally went out to eat and see the sights, I think Dawne got the best deal as she ended up working only a few hours a day then it was off to the beach until she was picked up (she did pay for this as she was badly sunburned) and by the end of the week all sorts of things had happened that would make this sound like a ‘Carry On’ movie.

On the Saturday no one had to work and we all went to the local town and took a look around the castle and in the afternoon went to the ‘Big One’ water park as we had been given free access and that was good. It was soon time to go back to Faro, we had said our good byes to the people we had met while on work experience on the Friday when we got back to the airport we decided to go into the town before our plane arrived (this was a Sunday so very little was open) and by this time no one except me had any money left and some of the girls were making it very obvious that as I had money I should share it around the group!!!

Some of the people reading this will know that I am not mean but I will not get taken for a ride so they got no money out of me. It just so happened that it was Kate who had been talking to Dawne and I have never got on with Kate (I think we were very similar types of people who wanted to be the best and this competition was to go on for a lot longer).

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