Opening Ceremony 1

As we're nearing the end of the expedition, we've had a bit of a run of press events. Started off on Thursday with a press dinner at the brand new Meridien hotel courtesy of Nestle, who are our main expedition sponsors. A few of us at Fieldbase were invited along and so we got dressed up (very strange to put smart clothes on after 3 months of boardshorts and bikinis) and headed out.

It was really interesting to go to a corporate event outside of the UK. We were outside by the pool, overlooking Kota Kinabalu harbour. Had the most amazing buffet dinner and wine (my first glass of wine since first week of January!).

It all felt a little bit like we were being brainwashed by Nestle, especially when they came round at the end of dinner and said 'Nescafe?' rather than 'Coffee?'

The next day I ran a stand at a recruitment fair trying to get some more Malaysians to sign up to Raleigh expeditions. Had quite a lot of press attending and Rory and I were whisked off to do an interview in the Hyatt hotel. They seemed to be more interested in internal communications at the BBC than in anything to do with Raleigh. Anyway, there's a half page interview with me printed in today's Daily Express (Borneo's biggest-selling English daily) with the most dreadful photo. The headline is 'Communicate to motivate action, says Rebecca'.

The next day we set off for the official opening of a kindergarten that we've built and that's sponsored by, you've guessed it, Nestle. The kindergarten is about an 8 hour drive (the last three are off-road) from KK. We went in a convoy of 4x4s - the Nestle representatives were at the front in very plush vehicles, then the press in slightly less plush vehicles and then me and Rory in the Raleigh landrover covered in mud.

Nestle's head of corporate affairs cut the ribbon. She is incredibly glamourous and is a Malaysian princess. At dinner we got onto the conversation of driving lessons and she said 'I learnt to drive in the Palace grounds so there wasn't much traffic'. She thought it was highly amusing when I told her how my 2 sisters failed their tests so many times. She does internal comms as well so we had a really interesting chat about BBC / Nestle.

Another representative from Nestle was a guy called Jason. Jason is to Nestle what Tom P is to Procter and Gamble - always wearing a company-branded t-shirt, always being a brand ambassador, and normally eating the products.

The opening ceremony went really well and it was really moving to see all the village kids so excited as they stepped into their new kindergarten for the first time. It was amazing for me to see the finished product as I was helping to dig the foundations only 5 weeks ago. All the kids sang 'if you're happy and you know it....' in their best english, followed by lots of Malays songs and dances. There was a rather alarming moment when one of the floorboards broke and a little nipper almost fell through.

There were a couple of TV cameras there, and lots of other press. Rory was introduced by the MC as 'Mr Rory Hell' instead of 'Hall' which caused much amusement amongst the English speakers and much confusion amongst the Malays.

The village head said that it was the 'most historical and memorable day that the village had ever had.'

Everyone in the village was given a goody bag laden with Nestle chocolate, coffee and fizzy drinks, and were treated to lunch. Nestle is so massive in Borneo it's almost obscene - everywhere you look there's a Nestle banner, a Nestle van, or somebody wearing a Nestle t-shirt. And apparently the expansion of Nestle here has tied in closely with the rise in diabetes so it raises a few ethical questions.

Have had one day back in the office today and I'm off to another opening ceremony tomorrow - of a gravity water feed that we've built that's been sponsored by Coca-Cola (another interesting ethical one....).

I was of course on high alert for April fools yesterday, but was disappointed... everyone here has been marvelling at the stories I've been telling about April fools tricks that my family have played over the last few years... last year being the most notable (Dom!).