For me, being a short-timer makes any wee twinges of homesickness relatively painless. It also makes me look around Uganda more closely and think about what I’ll miss.
What I will miss in Uganda:
~Many people on the BSPTC campus
~A few locals and the former principal
~Some fellow volunteers
~The Ugandan people in general as they are so very friendly and helpful
~The climate!!!!!!!!
~The pineapples and avocados
~The matoke and posho and kabaragara
~Fried goat (and chips) washed down with a cold Club
~The delighted reactions of Ugandans when I speak to them in Runyankole
~The beaming faces of the young kids shouting and waving at us as we drive/walk past
~The national parks and going on safari
~The cute geckos
~Our 4WD car that can get through ANYTHING
~Lush green scenery, lovely landscape, miles and miles of banana trees
What I won’t miss:~Agonizingly slow internet
~The mosquitoes!!!
~All the spiders!
~The useless task of sweeping dirt off the floors only to be dirty soon after
~Unreliable electricity and water
~Cold showers – not having hot running water
~The inconvenience of having to use a mozzie net on beds
~Hand washing the laundry
~SG (don’t ask!)
~The potholed roads and bad drivers
~The lack of variety of food in the grocery stores
~All the electrical and other stuff that doesn’t work!!
~Having to use boiled/bottled water
What I’m looking forward to at home in Scotland:
~Seeing friends and Danny’s family
~Our house, the location and the view!!!!
~Having breakfast in bed in our lovely blue bedroom with the view over the loch
~Wholegrain sunflower bread from our breadmaker
~My washer and drier!
~Big screen tv and Sky satellite
~Bacon rolls, scones, haddock and chips
~Proper fresh biscuits—Hob Nobs!
~Being able to drive
~Tesco!
~High speed internet!!
~Rubbish pickup
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11 comments:
I've also got six months left in Cameroon and my mind is also turning to what next.
Though if I had your view I may never have left in the first place.
Good luck.
Do you plan to volunteer again? My hub wants to but I don't want to be away from our home that long again. I do miss that view very much!! I feel very landlocked in Uganda.
Enjoying Cameroon?
How annoying - I just left a comment and lost it. Will try again...
No - not volunteering again - or at least not for a long time.
This is actually my second VSO posting - I did 27 months in Hanoi - and in between times six months independently in Nicaragua - so I think I've done my bit.
Hanoi was wonderful - it's a very different experienc, volunteering in a big Asian capital city. If you do decide to volunteer again I can reccommend it. I had a wonderful time. My Hanoi blog is at www.ourmaninhanoi.com.
Having said I won't volunteer again - and feeling like I want to settle a bit - I don't want to go back to the UK. I'd actually really like to go back to live in Hanoi semi permanently.
Been looking around for a job doing social media for an NGO. Ideally I'd love to do it teleworking from overseas. I'd gladly take a third less pay and still have a better quality of life than living back in the UK.
Just got asked about it here:
http://www.journalism.co.uk/12/articles/533738.php
Good luck with whatever you decide.
Almost forgot - you asked if I am enjoying Cameroon.
Not entirely is probably the most positive I can be. Sorry - nothing worse than a whinging volunteer but...
I find it a strange place - it's basically been run into the ground by the president who has been in power for 26 years - fixing various elections along the way.
It feels like the people here have given up and are just waiting for him to die. Everyone seems to be trying to leave the country - which is very sad.
On the other hand, the people have been very friendly here and really looked after me - from what I have seen of the country it is beautiful - but the roads are so bad and the transport means so congested and slow it does deter you a little from wanting to explore.
I really doubt I'll want to volunteer again. I wouldn't mind a 6 month stint somewhere and just leaving our house empty. But hub says he wouldn't want to do all the prep and set up a household for such a short time.
Uganda is really an ideal placement - perfect weather and great people (outside of Kampala). There is corruption but not as bad as other African countries. The roads are unbelievable!!!
I liked the idea of going to Cambodia for this placement, mostly because it's Buddhist. But you have to become fluent in the language, plus hub was set on Africa.
Will take a look at your links.
Hi Annie
I read your blog with great interest. Actually, I read it for a 3 hours and it made me smile.
Thanks for taking the time to post and congratulation to you both for completing the placement.
I have applied and need to complete some specific items on the application to finally get the interview.
Anyway, keep posting as I've saved your blob in my favourites :-)
Speak soon, Hardip
Let's see: It's not a Gibson solid guitar, or Singapore, or the element Seaborgium, or the Suicide Girls, or a brand of cargo shipping container, or the SG Show, a cute blog and podcast by nine-year-old Sam and his dad Steve, or a $1.3 million 1967 Mustang, or Sanjay Gupta withdrawing his name as Surgeon General, or chromosome Buchnera aphidicola Sg. --- 30 Google pages and still not a clue.
Thanks travel and trips and Hardip.
Hardip, I hope you get accepted and get a good placement. Keep me posted..
Carey & Chris, haha got you stumped, eh? I would guess most people thought that SG was a typo. Au contraire. It's the initials of a #@*&##*&!! person we have to deal with constantly.
Hi Annie
Thanks for the response. The VSO peeps have lost of online application. So I'll be starting again - it shouldn't take too long.
Speak soon, Hardip
Well, it's all still here waiting for you!
Not so cracking a view just yet, but will be soon enough.
Not to worry, there'll be the basics - loo roll, Flora, bread tea, beer and bubbly - at the ready!
Oh, we had a power outage last week.
A whole two hours. Even Dunoon was affected!
Ohhh, that would all be lovely Leigh! Too bad the weather won't be suitable for a BBQ, but we can still do a proper piss up together! Maybe have the neighbours on each side of us?!
:-)
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