It has been an interesting week… and I haven’t even left yet.  On Thursday I received an urgent message from VSO telling me I needed to contact immediately and for a moment I thought that I wasn’t going to be heading out after all.

When I finally managed to get in contact with my advisor I was told…”don’t panic, but there is a problem with your placement.”  However, I was also told, “you are still going out to Ethiopia on Saturday, but you might not be going to Bule Hora.”

This is the second change of location I have had since first hearing I was going to Ethiopia and each change has brought me to a slightly more obscure location!  The latest place has a brief commentary on wikipedia and mention is made of a nearby gold mine.  I shall probably only find out where I am going for certain at some point during the next week while we are training in Addis Ababa.  I say probably because there are no certainties, but that is of course part of the adventure.

The bags are packed and I am ready to go. I don’t know how I managed to fit in all the stuff I have – anti-malarialls, first aid kits, clothes, solar showers.  Probably won’t even end up using most of it and certainly intend to come back lighter than I leave.  The uncertainty has meant packing for as many eventualities as possible.  Thankfully the generous baggage allowance of the Ethiopian National Carrier has allowed for this, although I may come to regret it at the other end when I have to carry everything myself.

I realised, I think, when I wrote my first entry that it was going to be a long goodbye, and it certainly feels that way.  I am glad to have been able to catch up with so many friends the last few weeks and if I haven’t managed to see you, then I regret that it has not been possible.  You’ll just have to come out to visit me!

The next time I write here I will be in Ethiopia and this already adventurous journey will have begun for real.

7 hours to the plane, 15 till I land…

This time in 4 weeks I will be in Ethiopia…

Vaccinations done, passport is on its way to the Ethiopian Embassy to get the visa, the final bits of paperwork have been sent off to VSO, so I am more or less ready to go- once I finally get the actual dates of the flight…

…and have done the actual packing, making sure that I have everything I need (or think I will need)

My arrival date has changed to the 15th September from the 12th September, which makes much more sense, given that all the other volunteers I have met heading out have flights on the 14th September.  I had been wondering about that.

The last few weeks have been quite hectic, making preparations and saying a lot of farewells, which is turning into quite a long good bye.  It began at the end of July with working coming to its conclusion and there were so many reasons to be sad about leaving.  I have been fortunate in having the most amazing group of students in my form and the pleasure of working with some truly fantastic colleagues.  And continued with a tour of the UK to catch up with people before I leaver and there are still more I hope to see before I go.

I am still not quite sure what to expect, which is part of the adventure I suppose.  Getting in contact and meeting with other volunteers has been really helpful in giving some insight, but each email seems to invite even more questions and I don’t think that I will really fully comprehend until I am actually out there.  I get the impression that there are a lot of things that are going to take some considerable getting used to and no matter how much preparation I make, I will never be fully prepared for what will great me when I am in placement.  Nevertheless I feel ready to go, or at least that I will be when the time comes.

4 more weeks…

I have already travelled a long way on the journey, and I’ve not even left yet!  VSO are certainly keen to send you out as prepared as possible for what may lie ahead, with the proviso to expect the unexpected.  The training sessions have been informative, not least in the people that you meet, people with whom you have so much in common, partly because you are driven by similar desires, partly because many are from a similar background and I suspect partly down to the people that VSO select for volunteering.

Even though I have done it before, packing up a life is never easy and I seem to have quite a collection of items, some of which I am not sure what to do with (I am not sure my parent’s have realised quite how much I have put in their loft- until now anyway). Deciding what to take with me will certainly be a challenge a life doesn’t fit into a luggage allowance after all.  That having been said this is a chance for a new life and a new perspective and I wonder how many of those things that now seem so necessary I will learn to live without?

There are a number of hoops still to jump through before I can get on that plane to Addis Ababa (preferably one that doesn’t catch fire) – not least the acquisition of visas, work permits, and flight details.  For the most part these factors depend very much on when VSO want me to go and until they give me these I can wait patiently for the next stage in the Ethiopian Adventure.