Six weeks to go and I’ve started packing up my life!

Rob has confirmed he will take on my flat for two years. What a relief!

Very first thing in bag is the Union Jack, a spontaneous £2 purchase yesterday.

“You never know when you might need it!” Ana said. (Don’t you just love it that our national flag is Made in China?)

Next thing to pack is Body Shop gift set from work colleague Julie – no need to forego luxury completely just because I’m a volunteer 😉

It was hard to relax at home last week. Everywhere I looked there were decisions to be made: keep it? bin it? recycle it? pack it? It took me ages to get to sleep.

Getting my head round the task in hand now, which will be a lot easier now I’ve roped The Lovely Michele into helping me pack! God I love that woman! She suggested I start by emptying the massive walk-in wardrobe in hallway (the old boiler cupboard). This is where I plan to store my personal effects while I’m away. Success! Have packed or recycled nearly half the clothes in there (three rails of the stuff).

Don’t think I’ll be needing all these winter clothes in Uganda!

My brain started going into a spin trying to work out what I was going to do with everything. Good to get the size 16 trousers out of the house, won’t be needing them again, that’s a promise! Had fun trying on some old clothes, including a suit I bought five years ago that I only wore once cos it was just a bit on the small side. I slipped it on as David Bowie’s “Fashion” came on the IPOD and I danced up and down the hallway in it. Feel happy to pass the suit on now I know it’s too big. Joy!

My tenant is a gardener! I’m leaving all my pots and plants on the walkway outside my front door and I’m hoping he’ll take an interest in the hanging baskets and flowerbeds too. I received a small grant from John Laing last year for a ‘community gardening project’ and there’s £200 left to spend on plants. It would be great, particularly for Michele, if Rob wants to get involved.

I really hope he does garden. I don’t want our hard work to go to waste.

Handed in my notice at work! GULP!

But my boss was really cool about it. As planned, we had the end of year appraisal and when she asked “is there anything else you’d like to discuss?” I said I was giving in my notice as I’m off to Uganda next month to work for a conservation charity… she hadn’t heard of Voluntary Service Overseas though (she’s Danish) so that kind of threw me but she was quite impressed at what I’m doing, which is great. We’ve agreed not to broadcast the news to everyone so we have time to plan the handover and so I can get some work done over next few weeks … everyone naturally has so many questions, I have to be ready for them, and I want to enjoy answering them and telling everyone about VSO and Uganda Conservation Foundation.

God there’s so much to do!

Have also now told two ‘work friends’ on the understanding it’s not public knowledge (although less important it’s kept a secret now of course). Monika looked a bit sad – but I said “we’re both leaving!” I know she’s only being relocated (to New York with John Laing) but life’s going to be very different for her even so. She’s coming to visit me too!

I’m going to miss the girls and I feel sad for Clare and Julie as it means with Mon and I moving on, half the ‘Roads girls’ are leaving Allington House in the next month. I wanted to tell Julie this week too but she has other things on her mind. I must tell her tomorrow, I don’t want her to hear the news secondhand, I think she’ll be upset.

These last two weeks have been great ‘the calm before the storm’ I reckon!

Christmas was very relaxing, ‘traditionally English’ (church bells, lots of cosy log fires, snow the day I left the Cotswolds to come back to London) … Xmas 2009 is bound to be so much more different than this scene!

I spent the time catching up with family and friends, planning who to see when before I go and getting some very useful contacts. Everyone’s been very supportive in so many ways, I’m really touched and very grateful as I’m sure this will help Mum, Dad and Sarah, knowing that everyone else is interested in my adventure. I see it as an adventure for all of us though, as family – and quite a few friends – are planning to visit me in Kampala. And who knows how what I’ll encounter will affect everyone back home?

I’ve been planning VSO for ages now so feel happy that I’ve been able to spend as much time as possible with my ‘nearest and dearest’. VSO encourage you to ‘make your peace’ with everyone as part of the get process for preparing to go away. Well I hope I’ve been doing that – so when I lie awake at night sweating under my mosquito net I’ll have to find other things to worry about!

I indulged in some post-diet bingeing (2 helpings of main course + 3 of pudding on Xmas Day!!) I’ve been boasting about this statistic for a week but will feel very embarrassed tomorrow morning (at 7am for God’s sake) when I see Mariam in the gym and she reveals I’ve put on more than the 2 kilos I was ‘allowed’ to put on … Oh well. I’ve been keeping up with the exercise (a 3 mile run and two trips to the gym, where the local male totty was sadly all 20 years older than me!) and Davina’s coming with me to Kampala. She’s a girl 😉

Since New Year I’ve slowly started planning the next few weeks. CORRECTION: I now have to grab bull firmly by the horns and say SEVEN WEEKS, no longer can I vaguely say I’m going in ‘in a few months’ nor even ‘in a few weeks’ but in seven weeks.

In short I will be:

– Arranging to sub-let my flat (negotiating with tenant, agreeing contract/terms, spot of DIY, massive clear-out, boxing up of stuff for storage, cancelling bills etc)
– Giving 1 month’s notice at work (been worrying about this)
– Fundraising for VSO
– Saying lots of goodbyes
– Inviting colleagues for big party to empty drinks cupboard and freezer!
– Having sh**loads of needles stuck in me

Why Kampala? My VSO volunteer journey continues to the Pearl of Africa

Well I couldn’t say exactly when I started on this journey …. several lifetimes ago it seems … but I applied to VSO Voluntary Services Overseas a year ago, had my assessment day 3 months later and was offered my third placement offer this November 2008.

It came down to a choice between working with farmers in Ghana (my agricultural experience extends to weeding a few flowerbeds so I could have been ever so slightly out of my depth here) … campaigning to prevent HIV/AIDS in Cameroon (working in French for an organisation with a strong Catholic guiding philosophy, ooo la la, that was a close shave) … or working in Uganda with bloody great elephants and hippotumusssssesss [must learn how to spell that one in the next two years], while living in a four bed apartment in Kampala, complete with a house girl!

My neighbour and great friend Michele and I looked after the flowerbeds on our estate in London. One year we even won an award in the ‘Hackney in Bloom’ gardening competition. I didn’t feel that qualified me to be an agricultural advisor though!

A tough decision indeed, so in February 2009 I’ll be joining British charity UCF – Uganda Conservation Foundation – as their new Marketing Development Manager – Christ, now what do I do?!